The Prime Minister's Wife's Plea

The Dutch Reformed people, however, almost lost the prime minister as a communicant at one point, however.  He and his wife were together at the communion service, and an elder approached him.  "Mr. Prime Minister," he said, "with all due respect, sir, your wife will not be permitted to take communion with us because she is [a Pentecostal]."

The old man nearly exploded, and was ready to storm out of the church.  "This is the last time I will ever come into this place or any like it," he said loudly enough to be heard for several pews around him.  But his wife, a truly humble saint, held gently onto his arm, and quieted him.  She appealed with all the power within her for him not to turn his back on the church.  Despite his anger, he honored her plea the rest of his life.


Source: David du Plessis  -  From "A Man Called Mr. Pentecost", as told to Bob Slosser, Ch. 7, pp 46-47

The Hidden Ones

But there were women and men who, in times when this joint commemoration was still unimaginable, already gathered together to pray for unity or to form ecumenical communities. There were theologians, women and men, who already entered in dialogue, seeking to overcome doctrinal and theological differences. There were many, who together offered themselves to serve the poor and the oppressed. There were even some who suffered martyrdom for the sake of the Gospel.

I feel deep gratitude for those bold prophets. As they lived and witnessed together they began to see one another no longer as separated branches but as branches united to Jesus Christ. Even more, they began to see Christ in their midst and to acknowledge that even in those periods of history when dialogue was broken between us, Christ continued talking to us. Jesus never forgot us, even when we seemed to have forgotten him, losing ourselves in violent and hateful actions.


Source: Rev. Dr Martin Junge  -  Rev. Dr Martin Junge, General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, Sermon on the occasion of the Joint Commemoration of the Reformation, Lund Cathedral, Sweden, October 31, 2016, https://www.lutheranworld.org/sites/default/files/joint_commemoration_mj_sermon_final_en.pdf

Turning The Hearts

Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord ... Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.

Source: Bible  -  Luke 1:13-17 

Charismatic Ecumenism

Despite the embraces of Karl Rahner and Yves Congar, theologians in the 1980s and 1990s were suspicious that charismatic ecumenism was insufficiently ecclesial and too “emotional,” a fear that only began to disappear after St. John Paul II’s 1999 Ut Unum Sint.

Now, says Hocken, Pope Francis in both word and action “is bringing to an end the lack of connection between official ecumenism and charismatic ecumenism. This is very significant.”


Source: Austen Ivereigh  -  Quoting Fr. Peter Hocken in "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/

"To be Catholic was to be Anti-Protestant ..."

Following the Protestant Reformation, the "Catholic church had to defend itself against Protestant attacks and criticisms, particularly through the development of a Catholic apologetics that refuted the Protestant objections, and provided proof-arguments for distinctive Catholic doctrines. In consequence, Catholic identity between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries was significantly shaped by those elements in Catholic teaching and practice that were rejected by the Protestants. To be Catholic was to be anti-Protestant, especially countries with a significant Protestant population, or regions with a history of antipathy to Catholic power structures....

Source: Fr. Peter Hocken  -  Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 74-5

Pope Francis in Finland

Therefore 2017, the commemorative year of the Reformation, represents for Catholics and Lutherans a privileged occasion to live the faith more authentically, in order to rediscover the Gospel together, and to seek and witness to Christ with renewed vigour. At the conclusion of the day of commemoration in Lund, and looking to the future, we drew inspiration from our common witness to faith before the world, when we committed ourselves to jointly assisting those who suffer, who are in need, and who face persecution and violence.  In doing so, as Christians we are no longer divided, but rather united on the journey towards full communion.

Source: Pope Francis  -  Address to the members of the Ecumenical Delegation from Finland, as quoted in "Pope: Luther’s intention was to renew the Church, not divide her", Vatican Radio, 19 Jan 2017, http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/01/19/pope_luther%E2%80%99s_intention_was_to_renew_the_church,_not_divide/1286728

Public Reconciliation for a Lynching

The words echoed through LaGrange's Warren Temple United Methodist Church Thursday night, where more than 200 people crammed into pews and folding chairs to remember Callaway.

It was a rare public reconciliation for a lynching, attended by black and white people, police, civilians and clergy, sitting and standing side by side. Programs ran out as attendance exceeded expectations, forcing people into an overflow room in a building next door.


Source: Emanuella Grinberg, CNN  -  "'Justice failed Austin Callaway': Town attempts to atone for 1940 lynching", Emanuella Grinberg, CNN, 28 Jan 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/us/lagrange-georgia-callaway-1940-lynching/index.html

Matt Maher

We need everybody.  There was a season when we needed Billy Grahams, and we needed individual evangelists and people with platforms.  That's not what we need now.  What we need is everybody, everybody together.  … We need everyone to come together, be together, and I think that's where the beauty shines the most.

Source: Matt Maher  -  Worship Leader Q&A Panel, Catholic/Ecumentical Track, Onething 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_pesyj1nVo

2017

The year 2017 will see the first centennial commemoration of the Reformation to take place during the ecumenical age.  It will also mark fifty years of Lutheran - Roman Catholic dialogue.  As part of the ecumenical movement, praying together, worshipping together, and serving their communities together have enriched Catholics and Lutherans ... The spirituality evident in interconfessional marriages has brought forth new insights and questions.  Lutherans and Catholics have been able to reinterpret their theological traditions and practices, recognizing the influences they have had on each other.  Therefore, they long to commemorate 2017 together.

Source: Lutheran - Roman Catholic Commission on Unity  -  Conflict to Communion:  Report of the Lutheran - Roman Catholic Commission on Unity, p. 12

An Anonymous Pastor

I keep you in my prayers as well and follow you on Facebook. I've been using social media much less in the past few months, often finding it a difficult place to be. My own denomination is in the midst of a split, or so it seems. I have friends and colleagues on both sides of this divide and much of their destructive energy is vented through Facebook.  It is a deeply disturbing to witness this while feeling so unable to do anything significant to change any of it. Indeed, I feel utterly powerless. A decade ago I would have waded into these waters to do something, whatever that may have been. Now I pray and lament the situation. I continue to serve my congregation, as best I can, while wondering where all of this will go. Thankfully our God is faithful, even when we are not. I hope to see some forms of renewal emerge from this fire of distrust and pain that is burning in my denomination. 

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

Money

When Simon saw that the Spirit was given at the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money and said, “Give me also this ability so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” Peter answered: “May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.” Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”

Source: Bible  -  Acts 8:18-24

From Israel Chaffin

He told me about his growing up in Tennessee’s rural Appalachia—in a community of (primarily) Catholic and Southern-Baptist. Although he has always been Presbyterian, the predominant duality in the environment gave him an opportunity to develop the question, “if you are so much alike, why are you so far apart?”

Fast-forward to college graduation, and despite having his heart set to travel to Nairobi to do ministry work, he ended up in Belfast—where political divides had given birth to blood feuds, and separations of heart that manifested with physical walls in the city—keeping the Catholic and Protestant communities partitioned and separate.

He shared with me about his experience here—things thrilling, sad, fruitful, and frightening. He also shared about his current ministry—some of the challenges, as well as his hopes and desires for growth. The door was open for me to share my dream and desire to engage with the diversity of humanity, and to help them engage each other under the uniting reality of God’s Spirit.


Source: Israel Chaffin  -  FB post about a new friend he met in Memphis, 20 Dec 2020

Nate-ional Prayer Breakfast

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

"If I looked into my own heart ..."

"Trembling, I realized that if I looked into my own heart I could find seeds of hatred there, too.  Arrogant thoughts, feelings of irritation toward others, coldness, anger, envy, indifference - these are the roots of what happened in Nazi Germany.  And they are there in every human being.  As I recognized - more clearly than ever before - that I myself stood in desperate need of forgiveness, I was able to forgive, and finally I felt completely free." -- Hela Erlich, Holocaust survivor

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold  -  Why Forgive?, pp.36

Start with Biography

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

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

Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address (1809)

Many Presbyterians, such as Thomas Campbell, his son Alexander Campbell, and Barton W. Stone, were fed up with the divisive spirit. This frustration is evident in Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address (1809), a sort of manifesto for unity in the church. Campbell insists: "that division among christians is a horrid evil, fraught with many evils. It is anti-christian, as it destroys the visible unity of the body of Christ; as if he were divided against himself, excluding and excommunicating a part of himself. It is anti-scriptural, as being strictly prohibited by his sovereign authority; a direct violation of his express command."

Source: Keith D. Stanglin  -  "The Restoration Movement, the Habit of Schism, and a Proposal for Unity", by Dr. Keith D. Stanglin, in Christian Studies, Volume 28, August 2016, http://austingrad.edu/Christian%20Studies/CS%2028/Proposal%20for%20Unity.pdf

George on Packer

Packer recognized that the deep division that had separated Protestants and Catholics since the time of the Reformation had changed in a significant way. The most important fault line today, he argued, was between “conservationists,” who honor the Christ of the Bible and of the historic creeds and confessions, on the one hand, and the theological liberals and radicals who do not, on the other. In this new situation, Packer argued that ECT has a vital role to play: “ECT … must be viewed as fuel for a fire that is already alight. The grassroots coalition at which the document aims is already growing. It can be argued that, so far from running ahead of God, as some fear, ECT is playing catch-up to the Holy Spirit.”

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