Foxhole Ecumenism

In the U.S. we have seen a foxhole ecumenism develop during the culture wars. Evangelical Protestants—historically the most anti-Catholic sector of the American Church—meet vibrantly faithful Catholics on the pro-life picket line, while Catholics realize that their best allies for upholding the definition of marriage happen to be Evangelicals. Old boundaries become permeable as theological differences get swallowed up in co-belligerency.

What happens at the picket line happens in seminaries and pastors’ studies. These days Protestant pastors read papal encyclicals for edification, and Western Christians discover unexpected wealth in the works of Orthodox liturgists. From the Catholic side, Vatican II, for all its excesses and false moves, has made the Catholic Church sound more Protestant because it has become more attuned to common biblical and patristic sources. Swimming the Tiber has become a popular Evangelical sport, partly because of the manifest attractions of Catholicism, partly because the Catholic Church is more hospitable to Evangelical concerns than anyone could have imagined in 1870 or 1950.

Source: Peter Leithart - First Things, "The Future of Protestantism: The Churches Must Die to be Raised Anew", August 2014, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2014/08/the-future-of-protestantism

A Good Time To Call the Nations To Repent

We have been praying, reading and seeking to hear from God over the past two months. It has been a valuable time for me personally. From our studying Joel and Habbakuk together at home I have been struck by some of the remarkable parallels between their situations and ours. I think that there is also a response that God expects from us in our current situation that parallels what he expected from the recipients of those messages: corporate repentance. I’ve asked our community to consider what they need to repent of in their personal lives, but also to identify the sins of our communities and nations. As the body of Christ incarnated in cultures around the world we identify with those places, interceding on their behalf. We don’t shift blame or justify the sins of the world around us. We should be a people willing to repent, confessing the sinfulness around us as genuine members of those communities. We model repentance and trust in Jesus for the communities around us. And we commit to not participate in that corruption, but to stand against it in all of the ways that we are able. The kinds of corporate sins that have stood out to me in our context include nationalism/racism, materialism, abuse and trafficking of women, and lack of care for the environment. Of course there are other sins and other contexts and other ways of conceiving corporate sinfulness.

The message of corporate repentance is as valid for all of our neighbors as it is for the church. I think this is a good time to find ways to call the nations to repent.

Source: Ryan K. - Posted on FB, 3 May 2020

Evangelicals & Catholics ... Together???

"Evangelicals and Catholics Together: The Christian Mission in the Third Millennium" (ECT) is the title of a programmatic statement composed by eight Protestants (leader, Charles Colson) and seven Roman Catholics (leader, Richard John Neuhaus) and endorsed by 12 more Protestants and 13 more Roman Catholics. It appeared in the journal "First Things" in May of this year and, shortened, in the Spring edition of "Touchstone."

Source: J.I. Packer - Christianity Today, "Why I Signed It. Part 1.", 12 Dec 1994, http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1994/december12/4te34a.html?start=4

"Lord, I Hate Buttermilk!"

One Sunday morning in a small Texas church, the new pastor called on one of the older deacons to lead the closing prayer. The deacon came up on the podium, stood by the pastor, bowed his head and said, "Lord, I hate buttermilk!"

The pastor opened one eye and wondered just where this was going...

The deacon continued, "Lord, I hate lard!"

Now, the pastor was totally perplexed...

The deacon continued, "Lord, and I ain't too crazy about plain flour neither, but after you mix em all together and bake em in a hot oven, I just love biscuits!"

Source: Anonymous - Adopted from a joke posted by Steve McFarland on Facebook, 4 Mar 2020

Professors Who Teach Other Traditions Accurately

What kind of churches do we at Theopolis dream of? Churches like these:
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Seminaries where theologians are encouraged to follow Scripture wherever it leads, even if we have to admit that our opponents were right all along. Seminaries that pass on the tradition of the whole Church, rather than flatter tribal instincts. Professors who teach other traditions accurately.

Source: Peter Leithart - Theopolis Institute blog, "Reformational Catholicism, A Wish List", 20 October 2016, https://theopolisinstitute.com/reformational-catholicism-a-wish-list/

"These non-Jews have received the Holy Spirit just as we Jews have"

(44) While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit came upon everyone who heard his message. (45) The circumcised Jewish believers who had come with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on non-Jews, (46) for they heard them speaking in tongues (spiritual languages) and praising God. Then Peter said, (47) “These non-Jews have received the Holy Spirit just as we Jews have; surely no one can stop them from being baptized in water.” (48) So Peter told the Jews to baptize them in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for several days.

Source: Luke - Acts 11:44-48 (IEB)

Fr. Peter Hocken Died (June 10, 2017)

Fr. Peter Hocken died. Fearless giant and a pioneer among the Catholic Charismatics who walked with all Christians and Messianic Jews while making the desire of Jesus in John 17 to make us one reality of his every day.

This is very sad news for all of us who are into building ecumenical pathways but we hope his intercession will accelerate our work now.

Source: MajorChange - Posted on FB on 10 June 2017

German Lutheran Identificational Repentance

Another example of mainline denominational corporate confession comes from the German Lutheran Church. At the end of World War II, in October 1945, the newly formed United Evangelical Lutheran Church, under the influence of one of its leaders, the prominent anti-Nazi theologian and pastor, Rev. Dr. Martin Niemöller, who had resisted the Nazis alongside the famous Christian martyr, Rev. Dr. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, issued the Stuttgart Confession of Guilt (Stuttgarter Schulderklärung). In the Stuttgart Confession, the German Lutheran church identified with and confessed the corporate guilt of the German people for the widespread suffering perpetrated by the former Nazi government with words like the following:

With great pain we say: Through us unending suffering has been brought upon many nations and countries. . . . Now a new beginning should be made in our churches.

Apparently the Lutheran denominational leadership felt such identificational repentance was in keeping with their theological understanding of Christian confession. This kind of corporate confession of national guilt has been articulated and discussed over the past decades by German theologians like Dr. Martin Honecker and Dr. Gerhard Besier, as well as by German New Testament scholars like Dr. Bertold Klappert of the University of Göttingen.

Source: Dr. Gary S. Greig - The Biblical Foundations of Identificational Repentance as One Prayer Pattern Useful to Advance God's Kingdom and Evangelism, April 2001

Catholic Priest & Presbyterian Minister Working Together

Fr Magill, one of a family of three whose parents are deceased, has always worked in Belfast and as a parish priest first in St Oliver Plunket from 2003 to 2013 – where he immediately inaugurated the annual St Oliver Plunkett lecture – and now in Sacred Heart where he has made a demonstrable contribution to wider civic society.

Last year with Presbyterian minister Rev Steve Stockman he co-founded the 4 Corners Festival which “promotes unity and reconciliation” against the background of the legacy of the Troubles and the challenges of today. It is deliberately scheduled around the time of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity so the 2015 events begin at the end of next month.

“This time our theme is generosity and imagination and we will be asking what generosity actually looks like.”

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

Hanna Miley

It was the start of my healing journey, the way of forgiveness. I tasted mercy, God’s mercy, toward me and the power of Jesus to free me from the effects of the past. And gradually, God took me further into his love. He said, “I am calling you to forgive—to forgive Germany and Germans—to forgive the evil done to you and your parents.”

I asked him for the grace to forgive, and, you know, God delights to answer such a prayer. He led George and me back to the Eifel, and he opened the way to practice forgiveness and reconciliation in the actual physical place of my childhood loss.

Source: Hanna Miley - Speech on July 21, 2016 in Lodz, Poland

Driving Away Non-Believers By Our Political Divisions

This week a friend told me about an atheist who has been involved in a Christian bible study group for nearly a decade. This atheist dropped out of the group a few months ago, telling my friend, “I may return when this election is over. I can’t believe the things I have heard Christians say about other Christians they disagree with in our group. It is alarming and I hate it.” So this non-believer walked away from a group of Christians because of the divisive and constant promotion of political opinion. I have also met Christians who cannot talk to their own family and friends until after November 8.

If ever we needed a renewal of prayer for obedience to Jesus and his costly love it is now. The story my friend shares about their bible study group underscores the need for costly love with profound pathos. Christians have not only stopped talking to one another we are now driving away non-Christians by our lack of civility and growing inability to dialogue with one another.
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I read last week that more friends are breaking up, and more families are being divided, during this election season than at any time on record. Is that what we have come to as a society? As a church? We no longer work to preserve unity. Now we are not even interested in civility. We have connected our ideologies with particular parties and candidates and created a partisan fault line that will not allow love to build bridges to unity. The damage left in the wake of this incivility is dangerous and killing to our mission.

My response should not surprise you. I believe we need love and unity, not passionate emotions and heated arguments. Denominationalism is breaking apart. (I welcome this development since denominations are not biblical and promote tribalism and pride!) But in the place of denominations what will hold us together? We have tried politics and moral issue but this will never work unite us for long. Our myriad divisions are only worse. Perhaps God will lead a growing number of his people to pursue missional-ecumenism, an ecumenism of deep visible unity rooted in respect and dialogue which allows us to center our communities in Christ and eternal hope, not in the political debates of our culture. I am praying and working to this end.

Source: John Armstrong - Act 3 Weekly newsletter, 7 Nov 2016, http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=9b25fafc484bd792c081b1abe&id=cb777cefc2&e=8d662dd023

Maltese Catholics Take Up An Offering For Anglicans

Yesterday, during the Ash Wednesday service in the Anglican church here in Gozo [Malta], we were all surprised, including the priest, to find out that the Catholic Bishop of Gozo had written a letter to us, and sent his secretary to read it on his behalf. In this letter the Bishop shared with us that during this season of Lent he was calling on all the Catholic churches in Gozo to take up a special Lenten offering that would go to the Anglican church to help with the very costly and necessary renovations of St. Paul's Church in Valletta where the Anglican church has been worshipping for 175 years. Can you imagine this? How did this happen when Catholics and Anglicans have such a painful past, each having deeply wronged the other and both historically viewing the other “with suspicion and hostility,”

Source: Ryan Thurman - "Signs of Hope: A Lenten Surprise", A2J Blog post on 2 March 2017, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/signs-of-hope-a-lenten-surprise

Christ Can't Be Divided!

For, my brothers and sisters, some people from Chloe’s household have told me that there are divisions among you, because one claims, “I follow Paul”; another claims, “I follow Apollos”; another claims, “I follow Peter”; and still another, “I follow Christ.” Christ can’t be divided!

Source: The Apostle Paul - 1 Corinthians 1:11-13 (IEB)

Fr. Martin Magill, Ireland

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 than 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

Nate Bacon in Guatemala

Two years ago today, Claudia Patricia Gomez Gonzalez, a beautiful young 20 year old indigenous Maya-Mam woman from near Xela, was shot in the head and killed by a Border Patrol agent in Rio Bravo, Texas. She had made the long, dangerous trek towards the US in search of hope for her future. Tragically, she never made it to her destination.

I felt led to attend her wake at the family home about an hour from us in an all Mam village. It was a life-transforming experience. Seeing her lifeless body in an all-white casket, surrounded by her family and loved ones was heart-breaking. I was the only ‘gringo’ present, and was able to express my own indignation (and that of so many others) at the cruel, criminal, and inexcusable action of another white man like me. God allowed me (it’s quite a story) to ask forgiveness on behalf of my country for its dehumanizing anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric, which no doubt allowed that officer to feel justified in pulling the trigger on a petite and defenseless Guatemalan woman.
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I am grateful for the beautiful unmerited seed of friendship with Claudia’s parents (Gil and Lidia). A situation that could have gone in an entirely different direction ended up with a sacred invitation last year to attend Claudia’s anniversary Mass in their home.

Source: Nate Bacon - Posted on FB 24 May 2020

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory

Some of us are old enough to remember when we Catholics were regularly instructed not to attend the funerals or weddings of our Protestant neighbors, relatives or friends. It was an awkward time to be sure because the human heart seeks to be united to loved ones in such moments of great sorrow and deep joy. I believe that it is the grace of the Holy Spirit that urges us to seek some expression of ecclesial union at those moments.

Source: Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory - The Georgia Bulletin, "The love of Christ compels us to reconcile", 26 Jan 2017, https://georgiabulletin.org/commentary/2017/01/love-christ-compels-us-reconcile/ (ALSO IN SPANISH at https://georgiabulletin.org/commentary/2017/01/el-amor-de-cristo-nos-apremia-reconciliarnos/?lang=es)

David Peters on Martin Bucer

There were fourteen other points they agreed upon easily, but on the fifteenth, the exact nature of the Eucharist, they found no common ground. During the final hours of the Luther/Zwingli stalemate, the other Martin (Bucer) was asked to mediate. It was known that Bucer was open to some sort of compromise, but he was unable to broker any that day. Martin L. rebuffed Martin B, whom he referred to as a chatterbox. “Your spirit and our spirit do not coincide. On the contrary, it is obvious that we do not have one and the same spirit.”

So in the end, Luther and Zwingli made it an all-or-nothing proposition, parting without so much as a handshake. But the other Martin refused to give up. In the weeks following the Colloquy, Bucer called for unity even in the midst of disagreement. He wrote, “If you immediately condemn anyone who doesn’t quite believe the same as you do as forsaken by Christ’s Spirit, and consider anyone to be an enemy of truth who holds something false to be true, who, pray tell, can you still consider a brother? I for one have never met two people who believed exactly the same thing. This holds true in theology as well.”

But few listened. This impasse set the stage for countless schisms and factions that would mar the church for centuries to come.

Source: David Peters - "The Other Martin", Church History Institute, April 2017, https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/blog/post/the-other-martin/

John Dawson - 14 Areas In Need Of Reconciliation

At a Canadian conference in 1995, Christian delegates from over forty nations identified fourteen general categories of deep-rooted, systemic alienation between peoples and elements of society, fourteen areas in which reconciliation ministry must be applied:

#1: Indigenous peoples to immigrant peoples ...
#2: Residual antagonisms, when there is justice under the law but wounds continue ...
#3: People-group conflicts ...
#4: Nation-state rivalries ...
#5: Independence movements ...
#6: Civil wars ...
#7: Alienation between generations ...
#8: Societal conflicts ...
#9: Gender-based abuses ...
#10: Industry, trade and labor disputes ...
#11: Social-class divisions ...
#12: Interreligious conflicts (as between Christians and Jews)
#13: Inter-Christian conflicts (sectarian divisions)
#14: Christianity to peoples ...
...
How do we respond to such deep, gaping, sometime ancient wounds! The simple answer lies in the humility of Jesus expressed through His Body, the church.

Source: John Dawson - What Every Christian Should Know About Reconciliation, pp. 29-31

A Sad Separation

Teresa Jodar, 58, who lives in Stockholm but is a native of Valencia, Spain, said she had taken the train from Stockholm to Malmo in the morning to bear witness.

“This is a historic event,” she said. “I am a Catholic. We are not celebrating the Reformation. That was a sad separation. But we are celebrating taking a step closer. It is wonderful that we can work together instead of thinking about all of the differences that separate us.”

Source: Teresa Jodar - As quoted by Christina Anderson, New York Times, "Pope Francis, in Sweden, Urges Catholic-Lutheran Reconciliation", 31 Oct 2016, http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/world/europe/pope-francis-in-sweden-urges-catholic-lutheran-reconciliation.html