Exploring Ecumenism

Non-episcopal Ecclesiology 5: Eclectic Church

There is no such thing as eclectic ecclesiology.  I use the term, following others, to speak of a range of house churches and other miscellaneous small churches.  What distinguishes them from other non-mainstream churches, such as Pentecostal churches, is their questioning of how church is done.

Non-episcopal Ecclesiology 4: Connexionalism

Globally, there are many Methodist Churches and so this type of ecclesiology is more common than might at first appear.  At first sight, Methodism seems to have a lot in common with congregationalist churches.  However, Methodism is not congregationalist.  The full church is not found in the local church but in the conference. 

Non-Episcopal Ecclesiology 3: The Reformed Tradition

The aim of the Reformed tradition is to ensure the authentic teaching of the Word takes place.  They are essentially congregational in ecclesiology but their churches take council together to decide matters of faith and order.

Non-Episcopal Ecclesiologies 2: Congregationalism

My guess is that congregationalism was conceived as a response to hierarchical episcopal churches.  In England they are sometimes known as the dissenting tradition and the dissent was towards the Church of England as much as the Catholics.  In their origins these movements were on the radical fringes of the churches.  They have a long history of being persecuted and marginalised.

Non-Episcopal Ecclesiology 1: The Quakers

There are about 350 thousand Quakers in the world and there are three types:

1. Evangelical Quakers have 300 thousand members and are found primarily in Africa.  They worship like other protestant evangelical churches and will even have a pastor.
2. Conservative Quakers are found in the United States and number about 1.5 thousand.  They are Christian and adhere to traditional ways of running meetings for worship.
3. Liberal Quakers number about 50 thousand and are found in Europe and America.  They take a more liberal approach to religion and do not insist on a Christian ethos, although Christianity is still perhaps the greatest influence.

Episcopal Ecclesiology 4: Anglican

I could have headed this post 'Protestant' but here my context gets the better of me.  This is a blog from an English perspective and so I write about what I know.  There are other episcopal Protestant Churches, such as the Lutherans and Zwinglians, which like the Anglicans claim to have inherited the apostolic succession and in addition many other small churches which have reinvented episcopal church structures but make no claim to apostolic succession.

Episcopal Ecclesiology 3: Roman Catholic

Care needs to be taken not to confuse the modern Roman Catholic Church with the church of Christendom.  All churches have to live with their history but the modern Catholic Church, following the Second Vatican Council in 1962-5, has a deep commitment to ecumenism.

Episcopal Ecclesiology 2: Orthodoxy

Orthodox churches trace there roots back to the earliest churches.  The Great Schism in 1054 meant they had to see themselves as distinct churches in their own right over and against Western Christendom.  They continued to be organised on a national basis and so the schism was between the church in Western Europe and various, mainly orthodox, churches in the east.

Episcopal Ecclesiology 1: Introduction

Following a brief historical background to ecclesiology, I intend to begin my exploration with episcopal ecclesiology.  This is far and away the most successful ecclesiology in terms of numbers.  One billion Christians are Catholics, half the Christians in the world.  And we must also add to their number Orthodox and several Protestant Churches.

Christendom

Christendom is the name we give to the hegemony of the Roman Catholic Church in Western Europe during the early and middle centuries.  After the Emperor Constantine declared the Roman Empire to be Christian, the Church in Western Europe based its structures upon the Empire's legal system.  This can be seen in the dress of priests and bishops and the architecture of the earliest churches, for example.