Exploring Ecumenism

Why take part in ecumenical conversations?

In the light of my posts last week, especially the ones about the unity of God and diversity of creation and the image of God,  I came across this from the post Father Count - still counting in another blog.   

I have problems with ecumenism on two levels.  One is knowing the Protestant point of view on the subject, that “no one church possesses all the truth, but we possess the entire truth when we come together.”  Since the Orthodox Church does possess all the truth, it makes no sense to get together with people whose idea of “worship” comes dangerously close to worshipping themselves, since they continually “create” God in their own image and likeness.  Why would any Orthodox person want to go there?!

This view and similar ones are common in blogs written by Orthodox and Catholic bloggers, particularly in the States.  (Very few people seem to blog about ecumenism in the UK and if they did I would expect a greater proportion to be Protestant bloggers.)  The perspective on ecumenism I'm finding is very different to what I'm used to and so it is interesting to discover a very different emphasis, where leadership seems to be centred within Orthodox and Catholic traditions.  (These are first impressions, I'm sure I'll learn more as I read more.)

It is this 'Protestant view' that interests me and I wonder where it has come from.  To a degree I recognise it and my first inclination was to think (a) I'm a Protestant and don't believe that, and (b) but I could see some Protestants believing it.

The idea that the traditions don't individually have all the truth and need to come together to discover it seems questionable to me.  It is as if each tradition is a piece of a jigsaw puzzle and once we fit all the pieces together we'll get the right answer.  This cannot be right.  The churches in the mainstream ecumenical instruments in the UK recognise each other as part of the one holy catholic and apostolic church.  How can we be so if each tradition alone is only part of the picture?  Each tradition must have all that is necessary for salvation or else they would not be recognised as a Christian tradition.  Individuals might dissent from this belief but it is the position of all the mainstream Christian traditions. 

So, it may be true that Orthodox Christianity possesses all the truth but so does the Methodist and all the other traditions.  So, why ecumenism?

1. When I enter into conversation with other traditions, it throws light upon my own tradition.  As I reflect I learn more of my tradition, its history, theology and culture.  I can only conclude Methodism has all that is necessary for salvation, although there is always more for me to learn.  I learn this through dialogue with other traditions as they learn of their own tradition through dialogue with me and my tradition.
2. But there is more to be learned through conversation because it will inevitably lead us to new insights, ideas that have not been had before.  The world is bigger than our own traditions and it is when we look outwards, the interactions between our distinctive traditions may help us find new ways of addressing the issues that concern us today.

I'm not sure I understand exactly what the blog means about Protestants worshipping themselves.  As a Methodist I believe our foundation tradition, through John Wesley, addresses this criticism.  I will write about sanctification in future posts and I believe this doctrine shows how Methodists address the problem of idolatry. Idolatry is a problem for all Christians and I find it hard to see how any tradition can prevent its adherents from practising it other than by good instruction and guidance.

Christian Praxis Group

I participated in the Urban Theology Unit study year in 1981-2.  Six of us, who between us were on the study years between 1979 and 1982, met for the first time during 1983 and have met 2 - 4 times a year ever since.  We have met for study and support for over 25 years and call ourselves the Christian Praxis Group.  At first we saw ourselves as a continuation of the study year but have long since stopped reporting to the UTU AGM.

I'm trying to remember why we used the word Praxis in out name.  It is a word that is used where both action and reflection are deployed in a mutually interdependent way.  To act without reflection is known as activism and to reflect without action, verbalism, is a sterile activity, and perhaps a mark of academic theology.

The word is Greek and seems to have been used by Marx and, through the reflection on Marxism which was a facet of Latin American Liberation Theology, the word seems to have found its way into general reflection about contextual theology.  However, the word is deployed in the New Testament, most prominently in the title of the 'Acts of the Holy Apostles', Praxeis ton Agion Apostolon.

Over 25 years the group has covered an immense amount of ground and regularly studies the New Testament in the original Greek as well as exploring community development and adult education.  The category 'Praxis' in this blog is linked to posts that are related to the work of the Christian Praxis Group.  So, unlike other categories, 'Praxis' will include posts which are not themselves about Praxis but relate to matters the group has discussed over the years.

Ecumenical theology has developed in the context of the growth of radical or contextual theology during the last few decades.  I wonder to what extent it has responded to this movement in theology.  Often ecumenical theological conversations seem to take place remote from the local practitioners of ecumenism.  Contextual theology implies the conversations which take place locally, where ecumenism is done, are at least of equal value to the conversations between church leaders.  The practical implications of this emphasis, were it taken seriously, are profound.  Maybe the insights of small groups of Christians seriously discussing their theology would be of value here.

Urban Theology Unit

In an earlier post I mentioned the difference between contextual and academic theology.  This was in the context of reflection upon the image of God embodied in the whole of humanity, rather than any single culture or faith. 

The Urban Theology Unit was founded around 1970 in inner city Sheffield, a few streets away from where I live.  The idea from the outset was to do theology from a specific context.  Students (for the first few decades they were known as the study year) could join in doing theology in inner city Sheffield, hear of other contextual theologies and learn to apply them in their own context.

This approach to 'doing theology' was contrasted with academic theology in the universities.  The idea is that all Christians do theology in their setting, whether or not they are aware of it or even equipped for it.  Inspirations came from Latin American Liberation Theology and by the time I did the study year in 1981-82, contexts such as Feminist, Black, Asian and of course Urban theologies.

Even by the early 80s this approach had become better known to the extent that as the 80s progressed contextual theologies were incorporated into the course work of other theological seminaries.  Soon, it appeared ministerial students were sitting examinations in topics such as the (renamed) pastoral cycle (I knew it as action-reflection or the hermeneutical circulation) and UTU moved on, itself becoming more academic in its approach.  At one time it boasted of being the only theological seminary in Europe with 2 outside lavatories; now this is seen as a bit of a liability. 

I do not in any way wish to criticise UTU for these changes; it has had to move with the times and what was a successful movement for a period in Britain, where radical approaches to theology had an impact on the churches, has moved on and Christians now look to movements like fresh expressions for alternative Christian lifestyles. 

I wonder to what extent mainstream ecumenism was influenced by radical or contextual theology and the extent to which churches together reflect theologically on their context?  If we are different and so able to view the same context from a range of theological perspectives, to what extent do the churches really capitalise on their differences in this way?  If we are seeking the will of God in a situation, it seems likely multiple perspectives would better equip the church as a whole.

Also, radical theology has influenced my life as a Christian.  My understanding of ecumenism must have been formed as a result of my approach to radical theology, formed (4 years after my conversion) by my study year at UTU. 

St Martin de Tours

If ecumenism were to have a patron saint (I'm sure someone will tell me it already has!) my vote (if voting is allowed in these mysterious matters) would be for St Martin de Tours.  If you follow the link to Wikipedia you will think he is an unlikely candidate, a saint favoured by men and the military.  Although he seems an odd saint for the military as refused to fight. 

My reason is the story of St Martin and the Beggar, and my account is influenced by Thom Gunn's poem of the same name which can be found in 'The Sense of Movement' (1957).

Imagine young Martin, the soldier riding his horse across marshland at night. The wind is blowing and the hail bounces off his sword.  He is stopped by the figure of a naked beggar and out of sympathy, he takes his sword and cuts his great cloak in half.  He hands half to the beggar and wraps the remainder around himself.  Later whilst eating a meal in a pub the beggar appears to him and turns out to be Christ.  (The Wikipedia account is different but makes the same point.)

'You recognised the human need/Included yours, because/you did not hesitate, my saint,/ to cut your cloak across;/ But never since that moment/ did you regret the loss.

My enemies would have turned away,/ my holy toadies would/have given all the cloak and frozen/ conscious that they were good./ but you, being a saint of man,/ gave only what you could.'

The story goes that small pieces of the cloak were placed in wayside shrines as relics of the saint.  The Italian word for cloak is 'capella' and in time these shrines became known as chapels.  (Wikipedia tells a similar story for the origins of the word 'chaplain'.)  The saint is known for this story and would be understood by those who experience mutuality as a way of life. 

On the Nature of Covenant

In yesterday's post I referred to covenant as a type of mutual support.  Today I want to develop this further.  What I will say also links to an earlier post where I referred, towards the end, to the mutuality implicitly in the commandment to love your neighbour as you love yourself.

The word 'covenant' is often encountered in ecumenical practice although it is perhaps the Anglican Methodist Covenant that has recently increased interest in the idea.  But it is not, despite the annual Methodist Covenant Service, the sole preserve of these two traditions.  Local Ecumenical Partnerships, in Britain, where several local churches agree to work together without becoming a single congregation are sometimes referred to as 'covenanted partnerships'.  A good introduction to covenant in the Bible and in Christian History can be found in the first chapter of the first interim report of the Anglican Methodist Covenant's Joint Implementation Commission, 'In the Spirit of the Covenant'.

The bilateral talks between the Church of England and the Methodist Church were almost over when the decision was taken to call the agreement a covenant.  The first interim report opens up the idea to a degree and I want to open it up a little further.

My first observation is that it is easy to see the covenant as a step on the way to visible unity.  Whilst this may be a helpful idea it seems to me that it has a weakness because it implies that if visible unity is not achieved, then the covenant is a failure.  A covenant is a binding agreement, it means that despite set-backs neither party to the covenant can leave it.  It is a commitment to a long term relationship which might result in visible unity but could easily result in something different.

I like to visualise the covenant as a landscape, where there are things to explore, things to try and perhaps commitments to take up jointly.  Seen this way it is hard to see why it has to be bilateral but it does mean the 2 traditions can explore the meaning of covenant together in the company of other traditions.  As all learn together maybe a wider multilateral covenant will in time be possible.

My second point is that covenant implies a mutual relationship.  Mutuality is a difficult concept for modern western people .  The motivation for mutuality is neither selfishness nor altruism, but self-interest.  It is the understanding that when I love another, not only do they benefit but so do I.  This may seem to be calculating but it is not.  It is the ethics of the poor or disadvantaged.  I can survive only where I share with others like me.  We are interdependent.  We must trust each other because without trust we cannot share.  If I have food today and share it, I trust that on the day I have no food, someone else will share theirs with me. 

This type of ethic underlies all communities, where there is genuine sharing.  And of course where there is relative wealth it becomes less important.  Furthermore where there are major differences in wealth there cannot be this type of mutual support.

Some might see this type of arrangement between churches as a sign of weakness.  Of course it is, but at the same time it is a sign of strength.  To stand alone as a tradition might be a sign of strength but could equally be a spiritual malaise showing dependence upon material success rather than upon God through the love of other people.

A Covenant Approach to Ecumenism

Towards the end of chapter 3 of 'The Dignity of Difference' Sacks writes as follows:

What would faith be like?  It would be like being secure in one's home, yet moved by the beauty of foreign places, knowing that they are someone else's home, not mine, but still part of the glory of the world that is ours.  (Page 65)

I have picked small fragments from a chapter that hangs together fully only if it is read as a whole.  This final fragment (for now) summarises the emotional power of ecumenism for me.  I am familiar with my own British Methodist tradition, as familiar with its weaknesses as I am with its strengths.  To experience this with a second tradition, or more than one, is a great privilege and opens up new perspectives.  But my perspective remains Methodist, because this is the lens through which I observe other traditions.

For me this has come through the Methodist Anglican (or more accurately Church of England) Covenant.  Working closely with others from another tradition has helped me to see the possibilities of covenant from another angle.  Before I worked on the covenant in a formal capacity my own local church voted against it from a perspective of commitment to ecumenism.  I still retain many of the doubts I had then but I see things in a different way now.

I have learned something of the genius of the Church of England.  It is itself an ecumenical triumph; as it grew through warfare in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it became an alliance of a range of theological traditions who were prepared to overcome their commitment to their particular view sufficiently to value collaboration.  This coupled with this tradition's commitment to the nation's neighbourhood's means that in the past, despite myriad faults, this tradition has been the glue that has held English society together. 

Its tragedy is the constant struggle to hold together factions which are becoming less and less tolerant, or less prepared to allow certain views a place within the tradition.  This has weakened the church's potential for leadership; not the arrogance of some early attempts of leadership through takeover, but leadership through its capacity and resources.

I suspect many Anglicans (and Methodists) would disagree with this view.  My point is, as an outsider, I see the potential of this tradition, as well as its weaknesses, and my aim in working with it is to play a small part in encouraging it to play a part that is worthy of it.  My main aim is not to be a part of this tradition but to support it as it supports my Methodist tradition.  Covenant is this type of mutual support, each tradition respected and accepted for its contribution

I suspect all our traditions need to hear from their partners encouragement to stay with their charisms and to develop them for the benefit of all traditions.  Our unity in diversity would then grow out of each tradition contributing what it can to the common life of all together.

How do we make this a reality?  That is, in my view, the ecumenical task.  These posts are my attempt to explore how ecumenism might embrace this vision.

The Image of God

So, according to Sacks biblical morality is a tension or interaction between unity and diversity.  I think I understand local morality more as custom or culture than morality although I think I can see why Sacks favours morality and certainly morality is a part of custom or culture.  Universal morality will to a large degree be free of local custom or culture although its formulation might lead back to unspoken origins.  I'm not inclined to worry too much about this so long as there is consensus over human rights. 

More to the point, unity or diversity alone will inevitably over time lead to stagnation; each perspective challenges the other and so opens up possibilities for change.  The activity which enables systems of morality or culture to be dynamic is conversation and I will return to this.

In chapter 3 of 'The Dignity of Difference' Sacks goes on to discuss the nature of God:

As an ancient Jewish teaching puts it: 'When a human being makes many coins in the same mint, they all come out the same.  God makes every person in the same image - His image - and each is different.'  The challenge to the religious imagination is to see God's image in one who is not in our image.  That is the converse of tribalism.  But it is also something other than universalism.  It takes difference seriously.  (Page 60)

No individual therefore can know the mind of God because they are a part of it.  Indeed no community and culture can know the mind of God because they are still only a part of it.  This is why conversations are so important; the spirit creates something new out of the clash of cultures.

By way of illustration, let me make two comments.  First, theologians are increasingly recognising the importance of contextual theology as opposed to academic theology.  For the former the context of the theologian is important, not because it is therefore somehow relative, but because its context needs to be understood alongside those of other theologies.  Conversations may be less effective where the contexts of those taking part are not known.  The criticism of academic theology is where it claims to be somehow more objective.  The criticism is that the academic simply does not know his or her own context.  This is why an early post described my context.

Second, Jesus' second commandment to love your neighbour as you love yourself.  At school we were taught this as a three layer ranking of love.  God first, neighbours second, self third.  This splitting of the second commandment is of course absurd.  If God has created all people in God's image then all people are equally loved.  We have to love all including ourselves (and by extension our traditions) because all are loved by God.  This is the origin of the idea of mutuality to which I will return in future.

The Dual Nature of Biblical Morality

Sacks goes on to contrast philosophical morality and biblical morality.  To summarise, philosophical morality deals in moral absolutes, focusing upon what humanity has in common.  This type of morality underlies human rights.  It is abstract and even where it speaks of individuals it does so in terms of 'the individual' rather than by reference to real people.

Biblical morality is more complex because it adds to these universals a context bound morality dependent on history and memory.  So for each family, tribe, nation or church there will be a complex web of mutual obligations.  This makes the group distinctive.

This is not the same as situation ethics which is in fact a morality of universals, arguing that ethics depends upon the situation in which actions take place.  For the group, their morality holds whatever the situation.

My interpretation of this is that local morality has a wider scope than we normally understand as morals.  It is a web of behavioural norms in which a particular society operates.  Religious congregations will develop their own norms which make them distinctive from other congregations.  Those within the same tradition will have more in common but the local church will have its distinctive culture too.

This makes ecumenism difficult if it is seen as a movement towards unity.  To negotiate unity is to some extent to demand a change in behaviour.  Sometimes this might be a minor adjustment but the smallest changes can sometimes have major implications invisible to those who plan or agree them at national or international level.

For example, disposal of the elements following communion may seem to be a trivial matter.  But for some Methodists what might seem to be reasonable restrictions on what they may do can have profound implications for their understanding of what communion is.  It implies Jesus' presence in the elements themselves whereas some Methodists understand Jesus' presence to be in the fellowship who take part in communion.  Without understanding this the resistance to quite trivial changes might seem inexplicable.  This begins to help us understand why ecumenical reception is so difficult, as even within a tradition variation in beliefs might have profound implications.

To summarise in Sacks words:

There is no road to human solidarity that does not begin with moral particularity - by coming to know what it means to be a child, a parent, a neighbour, a friend.  We learn to love humanity by loving specific human beings.  There is no short-cut.  (Page 58)

Does Sacks description of morality apply to Christianity?  I think it does.  Indeed a discipline of congregational studies has grown up around understanding the cultures of congregations.  I think John Wesley also recognised this in his sermon 'The Catholic Spirit' - I'm sure I'll turn to both of these at some stage.

The Unity of God in the Diversity of Creation

So, why does the imposition of 'artificial unity upon divinely created diversity' matter?  Sacks in chapter 3 of 'The Dignity of Difference' makes several points and I summarise a few of them here.

Biblical monotheism is not the idea that there is one God and therefore one gateway to His presence.  To the contrary, it is to the idea that the unity of God is to be found in the diversity of creation.  (Page 53, Sacks' emphases.)

What we cannot do is place ourselves outside the particularities of language to arrive at a truth, a way of understanding and responding to the world that applies to everyone at all time.  That is not the essence of humanity but an attempt to escape from humanity.  (Page 54)

God is God of all humanity, but between Babel and the end of days no single faith is the faith of all humanity.  (Page 55, Sacks' emphases.)

(Love) is what separates science (the search for universals) from poetry (the love of particulars).  It is also what distinguishes the God of the philosophers from the God of the Hebrew Bible.  (Page 56)

It was through reading Sacks that I found an articulation of something I had tried to voice long before I became involved with formal ecumenism.  I remember arguments with my father, who was a Unitarian Zen Buddhist, about the unity of God or the Universe.  I struggled with my understanding of yes, one universe, but one very diverse universe.  If it were not for diversity how could we have the argument? 

I suppose this is what the Doctrine of the Trinity is about.  There needs to be some diversity (even in the Godhead) for love to be expressed.  Christians place diversity within the Godhead and Jews do not but perhaps both seek to express the same thing.  The philosophers see God as a thing, people of faith see God as a relationship.

The problem atheists have is not their lack of belief in God but their belief that there is one story to be told about the universe.  This is a problem with all fundamentalisms; the belief that there is only one story to be told.

Many Christians will struggle with the idea that no single faith is the faith of all humanity.  Is this a liberal belief that all faiths are equal?  I would support Sacks; he has to be right.  But this is not the end of the argument.  This is the start of a new and fascinating journey for Christians; a journey abruptly curtailed for those who seek to impose their truth upon others.  I'm not sure how far I can follow this trail but I promise to return to it at a later date.

Imposing artificial unity

In the third chapter of 'The Dignity of Difference' Sacks writes 'Yet that is the case I will make: that we need nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of our commonalities and differences' (page 48).  Later on page 52, he summarises his new paradigm:

'It (Babel) is a supreme act of hubris, committed time and again in history - from the Sumerian city-states, to Plato's Republic, to empires, ancient and modern, to the Soviet Union.  It is the attempt to impose an artificial unity on divinely created diversity.  That is what is wrong with universalism.'  (Author's emphases)

'The Dignity of Difference' was published in 2002, soon after the destruction of the twin towers on 11 September 2001.  But its context is equally the Holocaust and centuries of persecution of Jews.  In future posts this context will become more important.

What interests me about Sacks' paradigm is how far it mirrors my own experience.  There is an assumption common amongst Christians and others that God is perfect and so is his creation.  Creation is messy, any biologist will be aware of the waste, the magnificent and unnecessary diversity of life left to its own devices.  Astronomers are equally aware of the mess of 100s of billions of galaxies.  In all natural systems there are regularities but in detail there is mess; sometimes because we cannot see the regularities and sometimes because it is just mess.

I'm sure the thing that shocks Christians about evolution is the idea that chance might have a part to play in it.  But this is only shocking if you already know how God creates.  A theme I will return to many times is that order emerges from chance actions, and understanding the relationship between order and chaos allows us to grasp something of God's action in the universe. 

My single point for now is that Sacks paradigm has implications beyond issues relating to unity and diversity.  The urge to impose order is a human urge, not God's.