Exploring Ecumenism

How Conversations Can Heal Our Divisions

It is something deep in the way human beings structure their organisations, that things do not always turn out the way they were expected to turn out.  This is the problem we face when we contemplate the history of the Franciscans and Dominicans (see my last post ). 

People do not set out to be evil.  We tend to have a Dr Evil view of evil.  The villain in the Austin Powers series, is evil because he enjoys being evil.  Usually, we set up our organisations for the good of humanity.  Something goes wrong and this particular group of people, with the best of intentions, sets off down the wrong road.

Inheritors of a Common Past

Following on from my last post , it is important to underline that we are all inheritors of the Christian past.  It may be tempting to turn on one tradition or another and blame them for the absurdities, and of course the violence, of the past.  In this and the next few posts, I want to explore how we deal with our past today.

Let me start with the Catholic Church .  There are 2 billion Christians in the world and half of them are Catholic.  We (I write as a Protestant) have to concede they must be doing something right.  Whatever you think of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, it cannot be true that so many Christians have got it wrong. 

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.

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.

The Reconciling Mission of Global Christianity

The second of the papers from the plenary sessions at the  Global Christian Forum  meeting in Limuru 2007, by Dr Cheryl Bridges Johns , a Pentecostal scholar, underlies this post.  It is called 'When East Meets West and North Meets South: The Reconciling Mission of Global Christianity' and can be found on page 93 of  Revisioning Christian Unity .

Johns makes two assumptions: that the 'mainstream' ecumenical paradigm is no longer viable to meet the challenges of the 21st century; and that when global Christians are honoured as equal partners, their gifts are adequate for the tasks of unity and mission.

reBlog: What kind of Unity? and of Church?

This is an experimental post.  I found this blog a few days ago and thought it would be worth quoting from it and noticed the possibility of reblogging.  The post itself is another contribution to the debate about the future relationship between the Anglican and Roman Catholic communions.

Catholic Unity isn’t something humans create by obliterating others. God created it on Good Friday, and it’s inherent in the Unity of Christ. Is Christ divided? When Jesus prayed for Unity, did God say “no?” or did God decide that the effectiveness of the whole enterprise depends on ecclesiastical politics come right? Or did he say yes, create a spiritual unity by the death and resurrection of Jesus, clothe Jesus’ followers in it by baptism, and ask them to make sense of Unity, not as a goal on the distant horizon to be achieved by diplomacy or conquest, but a resource to be realised in an emergent way by faithfulness in a multiplanar reality we call “communion.” The submission required is necessary but mutual, not one-way. The obedience is primarily to God in Scripture, mediated through the whole life of all the baptised...bishopalan.blogspot.com, Bishop Alan’s Blog: What kind of Unity? and of Church?, Nov 2009

I recommend you read the whole article.

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.

Hopefully a Final Word about Personal Ordinariates

As the dust begins to clear, the various positions taken up by religious commentators are emerging.  In this post, I present two very contrasting articles.