Abbé Paul Couturier

In 1935, Abbé Paul Couturier, a priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons, sought a solution to the problem of non-Roman Catholics not being able to observe the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. He found the solution in the Roman Missal as the Association for Promotion of the Unity of Christians had done seventy-eight years earlier in England. Couturier promoted prayer for Christian unity on the inclusive basis that “our Lord would grant to his Church on earth that peace and unity which were in his mind and purpose, when, on the eve of His Passion, He prayed that all might be one.” This prayer would unite Christians in prayer for that perfect unity that God wills and by the means that he wills. Like Fr. Paul Wattson, Abbé Couturier exhibited a powerful passion for unity and had sent out “calls to prayer” annually until his death in 1953.

Source: Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A.  -  "BACKGROUND: Brief History of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017", by Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A., Associate Director of Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/background/brief_history.html

The Filioque Controversy

A core issue leading to the schism revolved around the Nicene Creed, formulated at the First Ecumenical Council in 325 in Nicaea, not far from today’s Istanbul, still referred to as Constantinople by the Orthodox community. This creed clarified the church’s beliefs concerning the Trinity, and thus definitions of heresy concerning non-Trinitarian teachings such as Arianism.
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This creed is the bedrock of the worldview through which European peoples came to view reality as the story of Jesus spread from the Mediterranean up through the European peninsular to the islands of Britain, Ireland and Iceland. It is the creed that verbalised Europe’s common heritage, a belief in the Triune God, the original and ultimate expression of unity-in-diversity towards which the European project still strives. It is the creed that made such a dream possible. It is the creed that gave Europe a fundamental unity.
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However, the ‘filioque’ controversy catalised the final rupture in 1054. The Western church first added this phrase as early as 589 to the section of the creed concerning the Holy Spirit ‘who proceeds from the Father’. Translated ‘and the Son’, its inclusion was meant to show that both Father and Son were fully God. But the Western church did not consult the Eastern church about this addition.

The resulting 900-year broken relationship, with mistrust, name-calling and even the sacking of Constantinople by Crusaders, profoundly shaped historical developments of the second millennium, including paving the way for the Ottoman conquest.

Source: Jeff Fountain  -  Weekly Word eNewsletter, 8 April 2019, "The Creed That Unites And Divides"
https://us9.campaign-archive.com/?e=0b86898e11&u=65605d9dbab0a19355284d8df&id=0e080f28cf

Austen Ivereigh quotes Peter Hocken

Francis’s outreach to Pentecostals and evangelicals has been marked his insistence that the “current of Grace” represented by the Renewal is fruit of the one Holy Spirit calling the Christian Churches into unity, not through proselytism or purely intellectual dialogue but in revealing their oneness in diversity.
Under Francis, the conciliar and the charismatic renewals are being brought together, Hocken says, in a “Kairos moment of great opportunity.”

Source: Austen Ivereigh  -  "Jubilee in Rome highlights charismatic fruits in Francis’s Pentecost papacy", Crux, 3 June 2017, https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/06/03/jubilee-rome-highlights-charismatic-fruits-franciss-pentecost-papacy/

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/

Unsettled by Disunity - and Grateful

John, your impact on my life has been transformative and challenging. You started me thinking in terms that have moved beyond my sense of denomination to see the terrible fragmentation (disunity) of the whole body of Christ. This has been unsettling and life-giving. I now hope the congregation I serve will partner with a another congregation to do ministry. The other church is in need of a building and we are in need of partners to do the kingdom work God has given to us. We are a very old urban church but we are not too old to still dream. This is a slow process and the road ahead is not one I would have been able to walk 20 years ago. But when your eyes are opened to a bigger vision of the Kingdom, joined with a richer understanding of the church and the centrality of love for our neighbors, then you know you must be on the right track. For me, much of this started in my classes at a little seminary years ago where you taught me. That experience has produced some amazing and unexpected fruit.  I still don't have a real clear sense of where this journey is going even though it will be hard to walk. Thank you brother for speaking into my life when you did. And thank you for your enduring friendship.

Source: Anonymous Pastor  -  Edited version of email sent to John Armstrong, quoted in John's Friends letter, 9 Sept 2020, and used by permission

Would St. Francis Have Been Protestant?

When I was younger, I used to believe that all the great Catholic Christians of history would have been Protestants if they had only had the opportunity or sound teaching.  The more I read of their writing, the more I understand that they were truly Catholic with all the particular quirks of Catholic spirituality .  Many of my favorite writers are from the Counter-Reformation and they spoke out strongly against the reformers. I often like to think of them in heaven, singing next to the Wesley brothers.

Source: Amy Cogdell  -  Personal correspondence

Our Common Heritage

We share meals, snacks, adult beverages, tell our life stories, identify our parishes, talk about books we’ve read and books we should read—each year I see some of the same people and we catch up. Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox acknowledge our differences in doctrine and worship but without animosity or rancor. Of course, Jesus is our center, but the works of the Fathers of the Church are our common heritage. Other names are often mentioned: C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Stanley Hauerwas, Pope Benedict XVI, Dietrich Bonheoffer, Wendell Berry, Charles Taylor, George Florovsky, Dorothy L. Sayers, etc. Two names I seldom hear mentioned are Martin Luther and John Calvin. It isn’t as though the Great Schism or the Protestant Reformation never happened, but the focus on Mere Christianity, the central doctrines of the Christian Faith and the feeling that we must unite on those doctrines and the challenges we face guide the speakers and the audience.

Source: Stephanie Mann  -  "Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox in Wichita, Kansas" blog entry, National Catholic Register, 20 Jan 2017, http://www.ncregister.com/blog/stephaniemann/protestants-catholics-and-orthodox-in-wichita-kansas

Europe's House Divided

As a result, “The division signalled so long ago at Marburg . . . hardened,” with sometimes dire practical consequences: “German and Scandinavian Lutherans behaved inhospitably in the 1550s to Protestant refugees from Roman Catholic persecution (for instance, people fleeing from Mary Tudor’s England to Lutheran Denmark) whom they regarded as belonging to the party of the Consensus.” By the mid-1550s, “the hopes of the early 1540s for a real reunion were dashed. It was not merely that Catholics and Protestants now turned from bringing together the house divided: Protestants too were increasingly accepting that their divisions were not going to be healed.”

Source: Diarmaid MacCulloch  -  "Europe's House Divided", as quoted by Peter Leithart, "Ecumenism in the Sixteenth Century", First Things, 6 Feb 2017, https://www.firstthings.com/blogs/leithart/2017/02/ecumenism-in-the-sixteenth-century

Lausanne-Orthodox Dialogue

With the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, Western missionaries began flooding the former Soviet Union, Romania and other Eastern European bloc countries, often without consultation with existing Evangelical communities in those countries. Partly in response to this wave of Evangelical missions, a new paradigm of ecumenical relations emerged among professional theologians in America when the Society for the Study of Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism (SSEOE) was formed in 1990. Comparative theology, spirituality and missions formed the focus of the organization whose archives are now housed in Asbury Theological Seminary. In 1997, the World Council of Churches (WCC) began its first series of international dialogues between the Orthodox and Evangelical communities over concerns regarding Evangelical proselytism in Russia and Eastern Europe but also shared concerns regarding perceived theological trends within the WCC itself. Publications include Proclaiming Christ Today: Orthodox-Evangelical Consultation (1995); and Turn to God, Rejoice in Hope (1998). From 2000 to 2006, a second series of seminars resulted in the publication of Building Bridges: Between the Orthodox and Evangelical Traditions (2012). Theological and missiological subjects were explored, but financial constraints eventually ended these gatherings. In 2001, the Evangelical Alliance in the UK published Evangelicalism and the Orthodox Church. This was produced by a group of Evangelical and Orthodox theologians whose goal was to lay a foundation for mutual understanding by comparing and contrasting Orthodox and Evangelical beliefs and practices.

Since then, the main ongoing exchange between Orthodox and Evangelicals has been that initiated in 2010 by leaders within the Lausanne Movement and the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox churches, which resulted in the formation of the Lausanne-Orthodox Initiative. Unlike other dialogues, this focuses on exploring how the two traditions can co-operate in the mission of God. A selection of past presentations appears in The Mission of God: Studies in Orthodox and Evangelical Mission (2015). However, in spite of all the work that has been done, there remains scope for further scholarly investigation: for example, few regional studies have examined areas outside the Anglophone world, or the political and legal aspects of relationships between these traditions.

Source: Tim Grass  -  "Call for Papers: : Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism in Global Perspective" email sent out to the Yale-Edinburgh Group by Brad Nassif & Tim Grass of the Lausanne-Orthodox dialogue, 30 July 2020

Lausanne Initiative on Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine

Messianic Jewish and Palestinian Christian disciples of Jesus met in Antalya, Turkey,  February 14-17, 2019 for the 5th conference of the Lausanne Initiative on Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine (LIRIP).  27 participants from Israel, the West Bank and Gaza met in Antalya, Turkey, for three days of prayer, study and discussion. Their focus was how to make a difference through practical demonstrations of the reconciling love of Jesus across the boundaries of intractable conflict and the seemingly irreconcilable dividing walls of politicised identities. The group was comprised of Jewish and Arab disciples of Jesus, including participants from Muslim, Orthodox Jewish and Orthodox Christian backgrounds, all committed to working together to achieve peace. Together they affirmed their unity and commitment to work for reconciliation and a just peace in Israel/Palestine.
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Lisa Loden, co-chair of the Initiative, said “We see each other across the walls and barricades of two separated communities. We are divided amongst ourselves and across our communities yet we are here to seek peace and pursue reconciliation. Living in the context of the intractable Israeli –Palestinian conflict, together we are choosing to cross the divides and build bridges of understanding, trust and mutual commitment; to stand together for justice, peace and reconciliation. Our faith in Jesus as Messiah and Saviour of all unites, empowers and calls us to action.”

Source: Lausanne Initiative on Reconciliation in Israel/Palestine (LIRIP)  -  "Press Release: Reconciled Identities – Israeli and Palestinian Disciples of Jesus Share the Search for Peace", 2 March 2019
https://kehilanews.com/2019/03/02/press-release-reconciled-identities-israeli-and-palestinian-disciples-of-jesus-share-the-search-for-peace/

What Can We Learn From Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel?

In the cases of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel, we need to note that they identified with the sins of their ancestors and their people, not all of which they themselves committed:

Dan. 9:8—“O Lord, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. . . .”

Dan. 9:20—“While I was speaking and praying, confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel and making my request to the LORD my God for his holy hill. . . .”

Ezra 9:5-7, 14—“Then, at the evening sacrifice, I rose from my self- abasement, with my tunic and cloak torn, and fell on my knees with my hands spread out to the LORD my God and prayed: "O my God, I am too ashamed and disgraced to lift up my face to you, my God, because our sins are higher than our heads and our guilt has reached to the heavens. From the days of our forefathers until now, our guilt has been great. Because of our sins, we and our kings and our priests have been subjected to the sword and captivity, to pillage and humiliation at the hand of foreign kings, as it is today. . . . Shall we again break your commands and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor?”

Neh. 1:6-7—“Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’”


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

History of Denominational Divisions in Germany

Centuries ago, Germany consisted of many kingdoms and principalities but was united by a common church. The Reformation, led among others by Martin Luther, resulted in schisms within Western Christianity and ultimately in wars between Catholic and Protestant forces. The Peace of Augsburg (1555) temporarily put an end to these conflicts by stipulating that the people of a kingdom or principality were to adhere to the faith of their ruler. Those who believed differently were forced to convert or move to a different region. These provisions applied to Lutherans and Catholics, but not to the followers of Calvin and the Anabaptists, who were thus subject to persecution. The Peace of Augsburg held for over six decades until the outbreak of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648). Peace was regained again by the Peace of Westphalia which affirmed the Peace of Augsburg, this time, however, including the Calvinists. As a result, the German people lived in regional denominational isolation. Confessional diversity within a sovereign land was unthinkable and, driven by the horrors of war, mistrust and loathing between the denominations were rampant. The 19th century saw the advent of other churches and denominations in Germany, among them the Baptist and Methodist as well as old-confessional churches. Their rise was often due to inner church protest movements. As a result, these churches were relatively small in number and mostly disinclined to ecumenical relations.

Source: Council of Churches in Germany (ACK)  -  "The Ecumenical Situation in Germany", http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/prayer_worship/ecumenical_situation_in_Germany.html

A Protestant Learns About Greek Orthodoxy

Greek Orthodoxy has always been a bit of a mystery to me, and I wanted to get a clearer sense of what it's all about so I drove down to the Assumption Cathedral in Denver, Colorado and spent the morning getting answers straight from the source. Huge thanks to Father Chris Margaritis for taking the time to hang out!

Source: The Ten Minute Bible Hour (Youtube channel)  -  "A Protestant Learns About Greek Orthodoxy", video published on Feb 10, 2019

Distance Makes Us Bitter

Pope Francis said his goal for the trip is to come “closer to my brothers and sisters” in the Lutheran community. The trip will include an ecumenical launch of a year of events before the celebration in 2017 of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

“Closeness does all of us good,” he told Father Jonsson. “Distance, on the other hand, makes us bitter.”

Source: Pope Francis  -  Quoted by Catholic News Service in "Pope on why he’s going to Sweden: ‘Closeness does all of us good’", 28 Oct 2016, https://cnstopstories.com/2016/10/28/pope-on-why-hes-going-to-sweden-closeness-does-all-of-us-good/

National Confession in Nehemiah

Nehemiah 9:2-3 shows outdoor public confession by the Jewish community in Jerusalem in the fifth century B.C., almost a century and a half after the destruction of Jerusalem in 587/6 B.C. and the subsequent exile of Judah. The post-exilic community in Jerusalem had been listening to Ezra and the Levites reading and instructing them from the Book of the Law of Moses (Neh. 8:1-18) and then:
Neh. 9:2-3--"They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the iniquities ("iniquities") of their fathers. They stood where they were and read from the book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God."
It is clear that the community was confessing specific sins of theirs and their fathers, since they spent a quarter of the day—three hours—doing so.

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

Repentance for Sin Struggles from Around the World

The event itself (World Prayer Together) was very much led by the Holy Spirit in the direction of repentance and reconciliation, quite in accord with the mission of CTR, Wittenberg 2017 and even TJCII, which was in and of itself a beautiful thing. What I found especially moving were the prayers of Indians, asking for forgiveness for exporting idol worship into the whole world, Kenyans, repenting for squandering their own natural resources and foreign aid donated to their country, and American Indians for worshipping nature and for harboring bitterness toward Europeans. The three and three-quarters hours Saturday brought into focus the different sin struggles of whole nations and cultures around the world,  and  how the Holy Spirit is bringing conviction in different areas.

Source: John Martin  -  Personal email, 21 Sept 2020