Nate Bacon & Robert Aderholt

This week (as occurred two years ago) I was graciously invited by my Republican Congressman friend from Alabama, Robert Aderholt, to attend the National Prayer Breakfast activities.  Robert and I met and became friends on a summer mission in 1985, when we were roommates in London, England. It was that summer that I felt my call to ministry. Later when I began making more frequent trips to DC for faith-based community organizing events through PICO/ Faith in Action, we renewed our friendship, which has been quite remarkable.  Though we sharply disagree on many political issues, he has consistently listened attentively to stories from our ministry, and to the prophetic implications of the plight of the poor, He has been very supportive, gracious and hospitable to countless friends who have visited DC.  We can talk civilly around the divisive issues that are rending the very fabric of our families and our nation.  Our friendship gives me hope that difference does not necessitate dehumanization.

Source: Nate Bacon  -  Recounted in a personal prayer letter, 5 Feb 2020

"Ecumenical Tithing" by Fr. Martin Magill

Fr Magill’s determination to push the boundaries in terms of ecumenical outreach is evident from his practice of what the late Michael Hurley SJ called “ecumenical tithing”.

This means that part of his time each week, usually on a Sunday afternoon or evening is devoted to worshipping in another Christian denomination, sometimes St George’s Church of Ireland in Belfast “a very beautiful very high church”.

He believes this commitment comes from “the imperative I get from Jesus Christ in John 17”.

Fr Magill reveals that it is “only a matter of time before I will worship in a Free Presbyterian church as part of ecumenical tithing”.

He is also working on a list of ten things that Catholics can learn  from other denominations and “top of the list is welcoming because 90% of churches do welcoming better then we Catholics”, followed by singing.

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

Martin Luther

The scene is dramatic: in 1517 young monk and professor, Dr. Martin Luther, stands barefoot in the snow, leaning against the wind to hold up a roll of parchment with one hand while driving nails into the wooden church door with the other.  But today (2013) the small print on a brass plaque at the actual Schlosskirche site issues only a disclaimer, stating: “The historicity of the act is disputed.” Did the historic victory for freedom of conscience ever occur at all? Some scholars dispute it; others defend it based on near-contemporary evidence from Luther’s friends and confidants. Although it is known that Luther sent copies of his 95 complaints (or theses) to the Bishop of Mainz before October 31st, 1517, the modern debate over exactly when and where he made them public has revealed some unexpected turns.

Born to peasant parents in 1483, Luther had been an excellent and serious student of music and Latin, paving the way to his studies at the University in Erfurt. He was on track to study law and pursue a life of public service when he had the terrifying experience of being caught in a violent thunderstorm.  He cried out to St. Anne for deliverance and vowed to become a monk if he survived. He did, and made good on that vow, much to the chagrin of his father and his close friends. Joining what was considered a particularly strict Augustinian monastery in 1505, nothing in his prior life would have led anyone to expect him to challenge the authority of the Pope . . . except his extraordinary piety and love of the Bible. He took the biblical injunctions against greed, acquisitiveness, and love of power to heart and was outraged by the corruption he saw in the church of his day. This outrage drove him to invite the Church’s bishops to debate him publicly on ninety-five questions concerning the nature of salvation and the role of indulgences: The 95 Theses.
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At first Luther hoped only to serve as a corrective voice, a goad to the church’s conscience that would prompt the church to inner reform. In particular, he wanted to see the church put an end to accepting money for religious services, a practice that had led to widespread corruption.  What surprised him and drove him to greater and greater antipathy in his disillusionment was that many of the men entrusted with the spiritual leadership of the Church did not want to be challenged to reform. Cardinal Cajetan, who interrogated Luther in Augsburg in 1518, one year after the issue of the theses, began by showing real concern for Luther’s fidelity to the Bible, but became incensed by Luther’s refusal to submit to the Pope’s authority.  Rather than reforming the suspect practices, the Pope ultimately denounced the would-be voice of conscience as “The damned heretic Martin Luther, son of Perdition.” Luther, who wrote so eloquently of grace, failed to give any grace when the Catholic Church rejected him.  His view of the Pope eroded, changing from his “Blessed Father,” who Luther thought was a persuadable victim of bad counsel from corrupt courtiers, to being “The Anti-Christ in Rome.” 

With this turn in his writings, Luther laid the groundwork for centuries of animosity and mistrust between the new Protestant Christians (called ‘Evangelicals’ in his day in Germany), and Catholic Christians. Several of his most important writings, the commentary On Good Works, On the Lord’s Prayer, The Freedom of the Christian, and Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation were issued during a period of intense conflict between November of 1517 and January of 1521, when he was finally excommunicated. The writings of this period show a relentless devotion to the message of salvation through the grace of God, a passionate concern for the spiritual welfare of the everyday man, and an increasingly uncompromising, almost dualistic view of the moral natures of the Reformers who were joining his cause and the Catholic authorities arrayed against them.  The lasting good that came from this period is the establishment of freedom of conscience, an element in modern nation-states, while the enduring harm has been the readiness of each group to deny that very freedom to members of the other.

Lamentably Luther’s relationship with the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation followed a parallel course, so much so that Luther is now viewed by many as “the father of modern anti-Semitism.” His relationship with the Jews of the Holy Roman Empire did not begin with hostility, though.  In 1523 he published a best-selling pamphlet entitled That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew, denouncing the degrading and cruel treatment of Jews by Christians in Europe. “If the Jews of the early church had treated us [pagans] the way that we treat the Jews today, no pagan would have ever become a Christian,” he wrote. He called for Christians to treat Jews with love and respect with the aim that they convert.

Encouraged by his pamphlet, Josel von Rosheim, Commander of Jewry of the Holy Roman Empire, wrote to Luther and asked him for a personal meeting. Luther refused brusquely. “It was not my intention to encourage you in your errors,” he wrote, rejecting the request for dialogue. From there, Luther’s attitude toward the Jews deteriorated over the years, reaching its nadir in his last sermon, von Schem Hamphoras und sein Geschlecht, a hate-filled tirade that paved the way for modern anti-Semitism. Again, in Luther’s character, disillusionment and bitterness took and held the upper hand over perseverance in grace, a central irony in the life of the man whose name is synonymous, to many, with the words “sola gratia” (grace alone). In both his relationship with the Catholic leadership and between the Jews of Germany and Christians, his legacy has shaped the world we live in for five centuries now.

Approaching the 500th anniversary of the act that began the Reformation, it is clear that Luther’s undeniable, world-shaping influence has been alternately beneficial and harmful to civilization. The reforms he sought in the church did come, but only later, at great cost, and with no contemporary admission that many of his criticisms had been accurate- these only came later as well. Reparation of the division in Christianity that his preaching brought about has only recently begun, through documents such as the Lutheran-Catholic Statement on the Eucharist from 1967 and the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification from 1999.  The work is on-going, and the sincere prayer of this author is that leaders in the Catholic Church and Protestant churches be moved by the Holy Spirit toward the fulfilment of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer of John 17 as they travel together into the next 500 years of Christian witness on earth.

Source: Wittenberg 2017  -  "Martin's Story", from the Wittenberg 2017 (US) website, written by John D. Martin
http://www.wittenberg2017.us/martins-story.html

Fr. Ignatius Spencer

In 1838, Father Spencer instituted a great “Crusade of Prayer for the Conversion of England” and soon after being appointed as the chaplain to the seminarians at Oscott College in Birmingham, preached at St. Chad’s in Manchester on the need for unity between Catholics and Anglicans in England. He went to Oxford to talk to John Henry Newman, Vicar of St. Mary’s the Virgin, Fellow at Oriel, and leader of the Oxford Movement to discuss the goal of unity in truth but Newman refused to meet with him.
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His zealous efforts in the cause of unity between Catholics and Protestants, and his desire for England’s conversion, have earned him the title of “Apostle of Ecumenical Prayer”.

Source: Stephanie Mann  -  Blog post 6 Sept 2016, "Servant of God Ignatius Spencer: Apostle of Ecumenical Prayer", http://www.ncregister.com/blog/stephaniemann/servant-of-god-ignatius-spencer-apostle-of-ecumenical-prayer

The Apostle Paul

I want you to know how hard I am struggling for you and for those believers in Laodicea (one of the seven churches of Revelation; see Revelation 3:14-22), and for everyone I have not met in person.

Source: The Apostle Paul  -  Colossians 2:1

K. Albert Little

I love the Evangelical Church.
I loved being an Evangelical.
I cut my teeth as an Evangelical Christian and cut them deep.
I read my Bible, prayed, and worshipped alongside the most devout and wonderful Christians I have ever met. I went overseas, twice, and spent time bringing the Word of God to all kinds of places where I felt it needed to go. I’ve lead small groups, Bible studies, and campus outreaches. I’ve interned and volunteered and was even an incredibly poor worship leader at a middle school youth group.
I wouldn’t trade my Evangelical past for anything but it was in the Catholic Church, ultimately, were I finally found a solution to a broken situation.

Source: K. Albert Little  -  "The Evangelical Church is Broken (A Love Letter)", The Cordial Catholic, Patheos, 8 Feb 2017, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/albertlittle/evangelical-church-broken/

Ann Cogdell

Any service honoring Ann Cogdell is necessarily ecumenical, because her children represent several different streams of the body of Christ.

Source: Fr. Lee Nelson, SSC  -  Memorial service for Ann Cogdell, Christ Church Anglican, Waco Texas

Pope Francis & Argentinian Protestants

Second, he comes with no fear or suspicion of Lutherans but decades of fellowship. In his interview with the Swedish Jesuit journal Signum he spoke of many friendships with Argentine Lutherans -Danish as well as Swedish - with whom he has had sincere exchanges. Traveling with him on the plane today will be one of his oldest non-Catholic friends, the evangelical pastor Marcelo Figueroa.

Source: Austen Ivereigh  -  Crux, "How a restless reforming pope can help heal Reformation rift", 30 Oct 2016, https://cruxnow.com/analysis/2016/10/30/restless-reforming-pope-can-help-heal-reformation-rift/

Gary Kinnaman & the Bishop of Phoenix

I have a friend standing right here, he's a bishop in Phoenix in my city, and I have a feeling that he's going to remain a Catholic the rest of his life.  And I’m going to remain an Evangelical the rest of my life. But last night we had wonderful time just sitting together, just talking about our relationship with God, with Jesus, and how that's ultimately what it means to be a follower of Christ.  We belong to him, He's the center.  And as I said, all these other things are important.  The differences are important.  The differences are what make me unique.  But it's our relationship to Jesus that actually brings all of our uniqueness together. 

Source: Gary Kinnaman  -  "Unity in Diversity", YouTube video by LightBalloon, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HXZlgjSTQ

Baptists & Catholics In Jail Together

I heard a story — I'm not sure whether this is literally true or not, but some people say it is — in the early days of the prolife movement, about a dozen Southern Baptists and a dozen Roman Catholics were marching together outside an abortion clinic and they got thrown in jail together (for not observing the bubble zone or something), so they shared a common jail cell, about twenty-four people in the same great big cell.  And that night, they didn't sleep; they just prayed and sang hymns together all night.  In the morning, the Baptists went home and asked their family, "Why don't we love Mary like the Catholics do?"  And the Catholics went home and asked their family, "Do you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior?"  Now that's evangelism of the trenches.  I love it.

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

"How can their churches be so beautiful?"

We lived in New Jersey, and we went to New York City a lot as tourists — I'm an only child — with my parents, and we went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, just to see it, and I'd never seen anything like that before.  I was stunned.  It was just like the gate of heaven.  It was a different kind of beauty.  I said to myself, this is the most beautiful piece of architecture I've ever seen in my life.  And I turned to my father and I said, "Dad, this is a Catholic church, isn't it?"  And he said, "Yes."  And I said, "The Catholics are wrong, aren't they?" And he said, "Oh, yes, of course;  they're very, very wrong."  And then I said, "Then how can their churches be so beautiful?"  And it was the first time in my life that my father didn't have any answer to a question at all;  he was just stumped.  I saw the confusion on his face.  I think I was at the time much more scandalized by the fact that my hitherto-infallible father didn't have the answer to a very simple question than my doubts that the Catholic Church was as bad as I had thought it.  Well, sermons in stone: You can argue with thoughts;  you can't argue with beauty.

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-1.html

Bonhoeffer

Since his student days in Berlin, Bonhoeffer had been deeply involved in the emerging ecumenical movement, especially through the group called the World Alliance for Promoting International Friendship Through the Churches. With some exceptions (the great Dominican Yves Congar being one), most Roman Catholics stood aloof from such movements. Bonhoeffer had been attracted to aspects of the Catholic Church since his first visit to St. Peter’s in Rome in 1924. He was also familiar with the Una Sancta movement, an effort to overcome confessional divisions through the renewal of faith among both German Protestants and Catholics, to establish “fraternity in Christ across all barriers.” While Bonhoeffer appreciated this effort, he had reservations about it. His main concern was not the goal, which he shared, but the lack of theological clarity. Without such clarity, he believed, no enduring unity could be built.

Source: Timothy George  -  "Bonhoeffer at Ettal: Advent", First Things, 12 Dec 2016, https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2016/12/bonhoeffer-at-ettal-advent-1940

Amy's Story

I believe we are living in remarkable days.  God is sharing his pain over division in the Church with many, both the great and the small.  Already I can see fruit.  Christians join together for prayer, dialogue and works of mercy in many places.  Still, I believe there is a greater glory to be revealed, the glory which Jesus prayed for His last night on earth.  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. (John 17:22)

I want to share a memorable chapter in my story.  It began on a remarkable day, a day still vivid in my memory.

It was 2:00 am and I was pacing my dining room floor.  I had spent the entire day in a state of shock, though I could not understand why the events of the day had shaken me so.  In the morning I had felt impressed to call an old college friend, my freshman roommate.  I had planned to convey a simple message, but as we talked, God began opening me up and I found myself telling Margaret about some dreams I had been having.  One specific dream was set in my hometown Church of Christ, only worship in the church was nothing like I remembered. In my dream women played guitars  (which was forbidden in my conservative church), the pastor had long hair, and most shocking of all, he had invited a young Catholic woman to preach!  In the church of my youth, women were never allowed to preach and Catholics were not even considered Christian.

Another dream I had was set in a church that felt entirely foreign.  I saw men in black robes with long beards, speaking a language I did not recognize until I heard them chant “Kyrie Eleison.” While I did not understand these dreams fully, I knew they were a vision of increased unity in the worldwide Body of Christ.
After I had told Margaret my dreams, she turned the tables. “Amy,” she ventured tentatively. “I’ve been having dreams too, dreams about you.  I’ve been dreaming that we are sharing the Eucharist.  All these years I have been aching to ask you, why aren’t you Catholic?”

I was stunned. Margaret’s tenderness touched me deeply.  Something about her words stirred an ache in my gut, a longing for something unknown.  Yet part of me felt offended.  After all, I was the elder sister in the faith!  I had been a Christian for years before she had her conversion in college.  Such thoughts had to be nipped in the bud.  “Margaret,” I answered. “Your dream is beautiful. I know we are sisters in Christ, but I could never be Catholic because I don’t believe many teachings of the Catholic Church.”  She apologized for saying anything, and we hung up, both shaken.

I spent the rest of the day in a fog, recalling our conversation.  When my children finally went to bed, I took my Bible and read these words from Ezekiel, “Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, and I will put them with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they will be one in My hand.”’  I wondered if this Old Testament promise to Israel and Judah was also God’s heart for Protestants and Catholics.  I prayed for God to bind Protestants and Catholics together again, but still I felt no peace.  Because I could not sleep, I paced the floor.
About 2:00 am, a sudden, overwhelming physical pain hit my chest.  I fell to the floor with my hands over my heart groaning, “Thank you, Jesus.  Thank you, Jesus!”  I knew that my Lord was sharing something precious with me, an intimacy deeper than I had ever known.  He was allowing me to experience His pain over division in the Church – a pain like the pain of divorce, but deeper and broader, as only Christ’s heart could bear.

Until that night I had no idea that Christian division caused our Lord such pain.  I had always assumed that our differences were a small matter in God’s eyes.  Though I had little hope that we Christians could come to unity on earth, I was blissfully certain that God would work everything out in heaven.   Now God had called me out of complacency.  I knew He wanted me to pray with Him for His followers to be one as Jesus and the Father and the Spirit were one.

I took up this call only to discover God’s interruption of my life was not finished.  Quite unexpectedly, I found myself drawn to the Catholic Church just down the street in my neighborhood.  It was not a matter of dissatisfaction with my own church.  I loved our charismatic, evangelical church!  Even so, the pull I felt towards the Catholic parish down the street was strong and mysterious. 

One day, when I could resist no longer, I showed up for morning mass planning to hide in the back as an observer.  As it happened, there was no place for a blonde woman in her early 30’s to hide.  Daily mass was held in a small side chapel that held no more than twenty people. The average parishioner’s age was about 65.  Everyone was Hispanic except for me.  The mass was in Spanish, and I spoke no Spanish.  Nor was I the least bit familiar with the liturgy.  I didn’t know when to stand, when to kneel, how to make the gestures everyone else was making.  When mass was over, I ran home and cried.  Then I got up the next week and did it again, and again, and again.
After a few weeks of sporadic attendance, I thought I should meet the parish priest and explain my presence.  I planned to ask if I could offer some service to the parish – rides for the elderly, meals for the sick, or some other quiet, practical help. When I left the priest’s office, I found myself on the leadership team of the parish youth group despite my protestations that I was a Protestant and probably should not be teaching young Catholics.

During the next few months, I fell in love with my new Catholic family.  I met some of the kindest, most holy, most sacrificial people I had ever known.  I read Catholic theology voraciously.  I peppered my friend Margaret with all sorts of doctrinal questions.  And I repented for the arrogance and ignorance that had shaped my attitude toward the Catholic Church.

One day as I was reflecting on some passage by a Catholic author, my husband asked, “You aren’t seriously considering becoming Catholic, are you?”  Needing wisdom quickly, I prayed.  It was true that my heart was drawn to the Catholic Church, but I also loved my Protestant family.  More important than any personal desire was the unity of our family, and the honor I both owed and felt toward my husband.  “Thomas,” I answered. “I am not seriously considering doing anything you could not bless with your whole heart.”

Several months later, hidden away in a thousand-year-old church in Switzerland, Thomas gave me his full blessing.   During an afternoon of silent prayer, we both felt released to walk together as a Protestant/Catholic couple, living in the tension of a union which is true and deep and beautiful already, but incomplete.  We long for the day when we can share communion again.  Even more, we long for the return of our Lord who will “make all things new.”  Until then, we pray with Jesus that all Christians “may be perfected in unity so that the world may know Him.”

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

French Catholics & Evangelicals

In writing to a knowledgeable observer of the French Catholic scene that the emphasis on personal conversion through simple faith in Jesus was at least an “allowable minority position” within Catholicism, he responded: “I would go even farther than you do in one respect. My conversations with priests and Catholic theologians in France bring me to believe that the necessity for a personal faith commitment on the part of the baptized is the overwhelming majority position for French Catholic clergy! This is what is continually being taught to the faithful by their parish priests in the homilies that are being presented during the baptisms of infants. Hence, you might want to add to your arguments that on a pastoral level, the teaching of the Catholic Church (at least in France, an overwhelmingly Catholic country) also favors an evangelical view. Again, I have yet in my encounters with Catholic priests and theologians for the past 20+ years in France, to find someone who holds to or teaches a pure (in the sense of excluding the necessity of a personal faith commitment to Christ) ‘baptismal regeneration’ doctrine.  I would say that on the ‘ground level’ Roman Catholicism in France is very friendly to the evangelical emphasis on the necessity of a personal acceptance of Jesus-Christ as Lord and Savior to enter into the fullness of life in Christ that their baptism experience anticipated.”

Source: David E. Bjork, Ph.D.  -  BJORK, D., in a 2004 personal email Re: Your chapters and my paper, to Paul M. as quoted in footnote 45 of "Evangelicals Cooperatively Evangelising & Discipling with Catholics in Faithfulness to Evangelical Distinctives", by Paul M.

The Parents of Peter Kreeft

Though my doubts were all resolved and the choice was made in 1959, my senior year at Calvin, actual membership came a year later, at Yale. My parents were horrified, and only gradually came to realize I had not lost my head or my soul, that Catholics were Christians, not pagans. It was very difficult, for I am a shy and soft-hearted sort, and almost nothing is worse for me than to hurt people I love. I think that I hurt almost as much as they did. But God marvelously binds up wounds.

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

Pope Francis

"Mateo Calisi…developed contacts in Argentina with local Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders, with whom a new body was formed; the movement known as CRECES (literally, Renewed Communion of Catholics and Evangelicals in the Holy Spirit). From the beginning, Catholic archbishop of Buenos Aries, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, now Pope Francis, supported CRECES. Cardinal Bergoglio played a regular part in CRECES gatherings, and was prayed over by leading Pentecostal pastors.... Pope Francis is the first bishop of Rome to have had regular and warm relationships with Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders. This closeness is reflected in the welcome given to Cardinal Bergoglio's election as bishop of Rome by a leading Argentinian Pentecostal, Dr. Norberto Saracco: 'Bergoglio is a man of God. He is passionate for the unity of the church—but not just at the institutional level. His priority is unity at the level of the people.'"

Source: Fr. Peter Hocken  -  Pentecost and Parousia, p. 69