Exploring Ecumenism

They Signalled to Their Partners to Help

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This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

Luke 5: 1 - 8

Oh dear, oh dear.  A long passage, terminating in an ecumenical non-sequitur.  Presumably the fish represent potential converts and we're supposed to summon our ecumenical partners, should we strike lucky!  

This passage is not about evangelism.  It is about economics.  These are fishermen.  If it hasn't escaped your notice, fishermen are interested in catching fish.  Why?  Because fish are valuable.

Here is a man who has the power to magic large numbers of fish from nowhere.  But this same man has something he values more than fish.  This is a story about discipleship, not evangelism.

The partners help with the catch, do they understand what is going on?  Partners join in a common enterprise, even though they might do so for radically different reasons.  This does not mean they cannot be trusted.   It does mean it is important to understand why they are involved.

This story shows the benefits of Jesus are not restricted to the followers of Jesus.  More important, it shows why the fishermen chose to follow Jesus.

Related articles

• That They All Be One (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• Let Us Love One Another (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• Love One Another (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)

More thoughts about Subversive Ecumenism

The Sheffield Jesus Seminar drew about 30 people to its meeting, on 22 May 2010, mostly over thirty and lay people with teaching or preaching roles in the church.  It took place at St Mark's, Broomhill in Sheffield and so perhaps most were Anglican, with a sprinkling of Methodists and URC, and one Catholic.

The following are some of the issues that arose from my paper, presented at the meeting.  They represent the concerns of that particular group of people, who had an opportunity to reflect upon four other papers too.  So, whilst of interest, they do not necessarily relate directly to my paper.

Called to be One 5: More about Power

This post relates to the fifth critical issue in Called to be One: What Now?, Power .

The last sentence in this part of the report is interesting.  The ecumenical task is to help the churches operate from a powerless base.  The reason it is interesting is, it is impossible.  What on earth do the authors mean?

There is no such thing as a 'powerless base'.  There is always power.  It is not equally distributed and often people do not know how to use it or the consequences of using it in their chosen way.  But it is always there.

So, how might we think about power as ecumenists?  The report touched upon power earlier and I commented earlier in this series . 

Ecumenical Reception: a Cinderella Discipline?

I wrote about ecumenical reception  about a year ago and I return to it for just one post.  This links with recent posts about the Global Christian Forum  and its implications for local ecumenism.

A helpful text about ecumenical reception is Ecumenical Reception: Its Challenge and Opportunity  by William G Rusch.  It is rather dry although persistence might reward the reader with a few interesting insights.

Participative Ecumenism

A few posts ago , I mentioned the use of participative methods as one of the distinctive features of the Global Christian Forum .  The intention has been to distance the Forum from formal talks about Faith and Order.

I have noticed a few other straws in the wind:

Reframing Ecumenical Theology in Local Churches

I was asked in a comment to my last post : how might we reframe our theology of ecumenism in real life terms for the average person in the pew?  This is of course in the context of the Global Christian Forum  and the increasing sense of Christianity as a global movement of people.

In my last post, I suggested local ecumenism in Britain might have more in common with global than national ecumenism.  This means local churches are perhaps less interested in the faith and order approach to ecumenism than they are in the practicalities of joint mission. 

Local and Global Ecumenism

Reading about the Global Christian Forum  has helped me think about local and national ecumenism in Britain.  It appears local ecumenism has more in common with global ecumenism than the national  ecumenical work of the denominations.

It seems local and national ecumenism have had less in common in recent years.  Think back to the English Covenant in the early eighties and then the 'Not Strangers but Pilgrims'  process in the late eighties.  The latter involved many local churches in meeting over Lent 1986 to discuss the future of ecumenism in Britain.  This process led to the Swanwick Agreement  and the new ecumenical instruments.

Distinctive Features of the Global Christian Forum

So, what is distinctive about the Global Christian Forum ?  The GCF has been extremely successful bringing together Christians including those from traditions which were and remain sceptical about ecumenism.  This is true not only of the Limuru meeting of 2007 but also of four earlier regional meetings in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America.  It is also true of an earlier meeting in Pasadena, which was taken to cover North America.

Participative Methods 6: Scenario Planning

This is another in my occasional series exploring specific participative methods.  The others can be found under the category Participation and the first in the series is here.

Scenario Planning is described in full in Adam Kahane's book 'Solving Tough Problems' .  It works like this.

Yet More About Personal Ordinariates

OK OK I can't leave this topic alone.  Last time  I hoped would be the last post on this topic but I have found two more articles that reflect on the importance of this Vatican initiative.