Thomas' Story

Around the year 2000, my wonderful wife Amy  was drawn unexpectedly into the Catholic Church.   I remained Protestant, and together we share both worlds.  As instructed by her priest, she comes with me each Sunday to Hope Chapel, a Protestant non-denominational church.  Frequently I bundle up the kids and attend mass with her.
 
People who meet us did not immediately realize, “She is Catholic, but he is Protestant.”  Instead, they just see a married couple, Amy and Thomas, whom the Lord had mystically made one flesh through the sacrament of marriage.
 
We have the understanding that this represents, in a very faint way, the radiant beauty of the Church universal – we, the body of Christ, are one body, because He, our Lord, is one God.  He has made us one, in a mystical sense.
 
And yet, for Amy and I this oneness has to be worked out in real, practical moments.  I have to apologize for my insensitivity to her.  She has to sacrifice her desire for solitude to join me at a prayer meeting.  We have to sit down together, listen to each other, and decide together how to structure our life.  And so on …
 
In the same way, mystical oneness in the body of Christ must be worked out in a myriad of practical decisions.  Does the Catholic bishop reach out to connect to Protestant pastors in his diocese?  Does the “united” prayer gathering of mostly evangelical pastors, invite Catholic priests to participate?  How does an Anglican respond upon learning that the Roman Catholic church asks her not to receive communion during mass? How does a Messianic Jew respond when he overhears an Eastern Orthodox believer making statements he considers to reflect replacement theology? And so on …
 
Jesus set a high bar when He prayed for us, you and me, as recorded in John 17:
 
My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
 
To me, these words contain an echo of Genesis 2, “a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.”  It is widely recognized that there is a required “leaving” required for the unity of marriage – a death to previous identity and known way of life.  For us to enter, as Jesus prayed, into the unity of the Trinity, must we not also leave behind those aspects of our church identities that are obstacles to reconciliation?

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Thomas' Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/thomas-story.html

Latasha Morrison

Ultimately the name [Be the Bridge] came from a conversation I had with God on my way to attending the IF conference in 2014. In the middle of feelings homesick for Atlanta, I remember God telling me, “I brought you to Austin to be a bridge.” I used to say that phrase “be the bridge” to my staff, back when I was in the African American church in Atlanta. We were in-between: We weren’t traditionally an African American church, but we weren’t a white church, either. We knew how to fit in both worlds and be comfortable.

Source: Latasha Morrison  -  As quoted in Christianity Today, "Latasha Morrison: The Church Is the ‘Only Place Equipped to Do Racial Reconciliation Well’", interview by Morgan Lee, January 2017, http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2017/january/latasha-morrison-church-is-only-place-equipped-to-do.html

J. I. Packer

Across the years, Packer has been involved in theological conversations with Orthodox believers, Roman Catholics, charismatic Christians, as well as mainline Protestants. In each of these encounters, he has promoted a vigorous biblical and spiritual theology, in keeping with the Great Tradition. Packer has been ever mindful of the maxim of Richard Baxter, on whom he wrote his Oxford doctoral dissertation:


in necessariis Unitas,
in non-necessariis Libertas,
in utrisque Caritas.


Despite his charitable spirit and his desire to foster a unitive, irenic evangelicalism, Packer has not been able to avoid controversy. Nowhere have the reactions been more volatile than in the response to Packer’s participation in Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Like his friend Charles Colson, Packer became a major target of the initial evangelical protest against ECT.

Source: Timothy George  -  "Packer at Ninety", First Things, October 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/10/packer-at-ninety

Gaius

My beloved friend Gaius, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters (possibly representatives or missionaries from the church in Ephesus), even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church (in Ephesus) about your love. Please send them on their journey in a way that honors God. They went out from us (the church in Ephesus) for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ, taking no help from the unbelievers. Therefore, we should always provide hospitality to such people, so that we may work together for the truth.

Source: John the Beloved  -  3 John 1:5-8 (IEB)

Importance of story-telling

Thesis 10) Imagination and conversion are the very heart and soul of reconciliation.

Reconciliation is about learning to live by a new imagination … That is why the work of reconciliation is sustained more through storytelling and apprenticeship than by training in techniques and how-tos.  Through friendship with God, the stories of scriptures and faithful lives, and learning the virtues and daily practices those stories communicate, reconciliation becomes an ordinary, everyday pattern of life for Christians.

Source: Emmanuel Katongole & Chris Rice  -  Reconciling All Things, p. 151

Peter Kreeft & St. John of the Cross

Then one summer, on the beach at Ocean Grove, New Jersey, I read St. John of the Cross. I did not understand much of it, but I knew, with undeniable certainty, that here was reality, something as massive and positive as a mountain range. I felt as if I had just come out of a small, comfortable cave, in which I had lived all my life, and found that there was an unsuspected world outside of incredible dimensions. Above all, the dimensions were those of holiness, goodness, purity of heart, obedience to the first and greatest commandment, willing God's will, the one absolute I had discovered, at the age of eight. I was very far from saintly, but that did not prevent me from fascinated admiration from afar; the valley dweller appreciates the height of the mountain more than the dweller on the foothills. I read other Catholic saints and mystics, and discovered the same reality there, however different the style (even St. Thérèse "The Little Flower"!) I felt sure it was the same reality I had learned to love from my parents and teachers, only a far deeper version of it. It did not seem alien and other. It was not another religion but the adult version of my own.

Source: Peter Kreeft  -  Hauled aboard the Ark, http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/hauled-aboard.htm

Protestant water flowing in Catholic aqueducts

Then I caught sight of a Catholic spy in the Protestant camp: a gold cross atop the pole of the church flag. Adoring Christ required using that symbol. The alternative was the froth. My gratitude to the Catholic Church for this one relic, this remnant, of her riches, was immense. For this good Protestant water to flow, there had to be Catholic aqueducts. To change the metaphor, I had been told that reliance on external things was a "crutch!" I now realized that I was a cripple. And I thanked the Catholic "hospital" (that's what the Church is) for responding to my needs.

Source: Peter Kreeft  -  Hauled aboard the Ark, http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/hauled-aboard.htm
http://www.peterkreeft.com/topics/hauled-aboard.htm

We're still friends

Now at The Stream I’m working with both Protestants and Roman Catholics here at every level of leadership and production. I still come down firmly on the Reformation side of Christian doctrine, so I think my Catholic friends have got some things wrong. But that’s okay — they think we Protestants have some things wrong, too. And we’re friends.


Above all else, we’re completely in agreement with Christianity’s historic, orthodox creeds. We all believe “in God the Father almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ His only Son Our Lord….” We’re colleagues and partners in this united enterprise providing news, insight and commentary from a creedal Christian perspective.

Source: Tom Gilson  -  "Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: Catholic and Protestant Changing History Together", The Stream, 4 March 2017, https://stream.org/tolkien-cs-lewis-catholic-protestant-together/

Michael Phelps

[Michael] Phelps told ESPN that [Rick Warren’s] book "turned me into believing there is a power greater than myself and there is a purpose for me on this planet."


Warren's book also convinced Phelps to reconcile with his estranged father, Fred, who divorced his wife when Phelps was just 9 years old. When the two men saw each other for the first time after so many years of separation, they embraced in a big hug.


After he left Meadows in November 2014, Phelps resumed training for the Rio Olympics.

Source: Hazel Torres  -  As quoted in Christian Today, http://www.christiantoday.com/article/legendary.u.s.swimmer.michael.phelps.reveals.how.purpose.driven.life.by.rick.warren.saved.his.life/

Adam's Story

I had never heard of the Wittenberg 2017 movement until just yesterday, when a friend from a church we used to attend in Austin, TX asked my wife and I to share our story among a small gathering of friends. You see, Julia is a non-denominational Protestant, and I a Roman Catholic - both of us practicing Christians, happily married for four years.
 
Having read Amy Cogdell's story, I am struck to my heart; the pain felt by our Lord over the disunion of the Church on Earth is an all-too-present tension felt by the two of us. Still, we continue to thrive in faith with Christ Jesus together, by attending both Mass and church services every Sunday together. Though we have few theological disagreements and rarely let our emotions over our beliefs conquer our tongues, we continuously pray for union and peace from God for the whole Church to overcome the powers of division.

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Adam's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/adamrsquos-story.html

Catholics & Baptists

I see a Catholic monk from the hills of Kentucky standing alongside a Baptist evangelist from the streets of Los Angeles and together offering up a sacrifice of praise.

Source: Emmanuel Katongole & Chris Rice  -  Reconciling All Things, p. 275

What's Most Important in Belfast?

Bishop Daly had discerned that a qualification in ecumenism was “more relevant to the situation” that Martin would be facing back as a newly-ordained priest in divided Belfast than the two year licence in Biblical theology that he had set his heart on, partly because he had grown to love Rome and the Irish College.

Source: Martin O'Brien  -  "A Quiet Peacemaker", The Irish Catholic, 11 Dec 2014, http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/quiet-peacemaker

Danny Malakowsky

And that's why it's important for us, again, when we're thinking of ecumenism, when we're thinking of reconciliation, that's why it's so important not to start with theology, but to start with biography.  That's why we enter into the story.  Because the biography tells how the theology forms. 

Source: Daniel Malawkowsky  -  Daniel Malakowsky, The History and Nature of Church Divisions, Lesson 6, http://www.churchdivisions.com

Peter Kreeft, Bridge-Builder

Ever since, I've found that this choice to come aboard the ark is just about the best thing I ever did.  I've ever since thought of it as my main vocation, to build bridges between Catholics and non-Catholics.  I was a signer of the Evangelicals and Catholics Together statement, and support that very strongly.  I love somebody like C. S. Lewis whom almost all evangelical Protestants love, and almost all faithful Roman Catholics love.  St. Augustine's another one; Catholics and Protestants both love him.

Source: Peter Kreeft  -  Conversion to Catholicism, Catholic Education Resource Center, http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/religion-and-philosophy/apologetics/dr-peter-kreeft-s-conversion-to-catholicism-part-2.html

Frederick Haynes & George Mason

Over the past year, the New Baptist Covenant has encouraged “covenants of action” between congregations as vehicles to pursue racial reconciliation. Pastors of three pairs of congregations described their efforts at the summit, including one between Friendship-West Baptist Church and Wilshire Baptist Church, both in Dallas.

“In our journey of thermostatic two-ness we are out to transform the world,” said Frederick Haynes, senior pastor of predominantly black Friendship-West Baptist. “Jesus has sent us out two-by-two to stand up against structures of injustice.”

George Mason, senior pastor of the mainly white Wilshire Baptist, added: “This two-by-two thing is important. It’s about bringing our stories together. The American story is not one story. We want to make it one story, but in doing so, we deny the story of another. We need a two-narrative ecclesiology about the white church and the black church discovering one another.”

The two churches have engaged in pulpit swaps and choir visits and have collaborated to combat predatory lending in Dallas.

“It is clear we can be faithful to Christ’s vision of beloved community only when we walk side-by-side, have each other’s backs and go on this journey together,” Mason said.

Other “covenants of action” highlighted in Atlanta were First Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Ga., and First Baptist Church and Providence Baptist Church, both in Greensboro, N.C. Also reporting on their covenant were the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma and churches representing Native American tribes in the state.


Source: Robert Dilday  -  "Racial reconciliation tough but essential, say leaders at New Baptist Covenant summit", Baptist News Global, 19 September 2016, https://baptistnews.com/article/racial-reconciliation-tough-but-essential-say-leaders-at-new-baptist-covenant-summit/

"to forgive with all my heart the one who will strike me down"

Christian de Chergé, who forgave his murderer 2 years before he was killed in a prophetic letter:

"I would like, when the time comes, to have a space of clearness that would allow me to beg forgiveness of God and of my fellow human beings, and at the same time to forgive with all my heart the one who will strike me down ... In this 'Thank you,' which is said for everything in my life from now on, I certainly include you, my last-minute friend who will not have known what you are doing ... I commend you to the God in whose face I see yours.  And may we find each other, happy 'good thieves' in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both."

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.57-58

The tension in the room was palpable

Reflection
I will never forget a meeting I was part of in a small German city in 2003.  A group of Christians from different traditions and countries had come together to pray for God’s blessing on this particular city, suffering under the weight of un-forgiveness and division.  During the meeting a young Lutheran pastor said some hurtful things about the Catholic church, rooted in his own painful experiences.  The tension in the room was palpable as we waited to see what would happen next.  An older Catholic woman walked towards this young pastor and knelt down before him and asked for forgiveness for the specific ways he had been hurt by some in the Catholic Church.  He extended his hand to her and helped her up, then they embraced and wept.  Forgiveness and healing in Christ, won the day.
 
Action
Have you ever considered asking someone for forgiveness for sin that was done against them by someone that you represent.  In Daniel 9:16, Daniel confesses to God not only his own sins but the sins of his father and of his people.
 
Prayer
Triune God, following the example of Jesus, make us witnesses to your love. Grant us to become instruments of justice, peace and solidarity. May your Spirit move us towards concrete actions that lead to unity. May walls be transformed into bridges. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Source: A2J Community  -  Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 6", 23 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-6

Abbot Gregory of Conception Abbey

Many remember [Abbot Gregory of Conception Abbey] for his exceptional leadership during the shooting at the abbey in the summer of 2002. A man upset about his divorce went on a rampage at the abbey, killing two monks and seriously wounding two more. Steady during this trauma, the abbot led his community to forgiveness and greater spiritual health.


One incident in particular comes to mind. When it was time to transport the bodies of the monks and the shooter, who had killed himself in the basilica, the trooper asked whether or not the deceased should travel in the same vehicle, the abbot simply responded, “Why not? They are all children of God.” Years spent praying the Psalter had so formed his mind and heart that he could not respond any other way. This is the kind of Christian I aspire to be.

Source: Molly T. Marshall  -  "Can a Baptist be a Catholic?", Baptist News Global, 13 September 2016, https://baptistnews.com/article/can-a-baptist-be-a-catholic/#.V-VcYZMrKu7