Many examples of Christian churches working together exist today—shared efforts to feed, clothe and house the poor and neglected bring Christians together in many communities across this local Church. I thank all of those who make such endeavors possible and deeply satisfying for everyone.
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)
Deep Regret from Lutherans and Catholics
Lutherans and Catholics often focused on what separated them from each other rather than looking for what united them. They accepted that the Gospel was mixed with the political and economic interests of those in power. Their failures resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Families were torn apart, people imprisoned and tortured, wars fought and religion and faith misused. Human beings suffered and the credibility of the Gospel was undermined with consequences that still impact us today. We deeply regret the evil things that Catholics and Lutherans have mutually done to each other.
Source: Common Prayer (Lutheran-Catholic) - Common Prayer, p. 14, From Conflict to Communion, Lutheran-Catholic Commemoration of the Reformation in 2017, https://www.lutheranworld.org/content/joint-common-prayer-lutheran-catholic-common-commemoration-reformation-2017
The Unity Pilgrims of Clonard Monastery
One of the most obvious examples of ecumenical tithing here in Ireland are the Unity Pilgrims of Clonard Monastery, who visit various Protestant churches in and around Belfast to share in their Sunday morning services.
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Unfortunately, such initiatives are few and far between, forcing me to ask why – in a society divided along religious lines – the churches have not implemented, or perhaps even considered, ecumenical tithing?
Source: Gladys Ganiel - From her blog post "Fr Michael Hurley on Ecumenical Tithing", 5 November 2011, http://www.gladysganiel.com/irish-catholic-church/fr-michael-hurley-on-ecumenical-tithing/
Scripture-Rooted Foundation
Even the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers, especially magisterial men like Martin Luther and John Calvin, understood that there was an established historical foundation deeply rooted in the Scripture. The creeds and the doctrines taught by a consensus of the early church fathers were continually appealed to by all the great Protestant Reformers. For them, common faith was expressed in the earliest ecumenical creeds.
Source: John Armstrong - Your Church is Too Small, p. 19
Fr. Paul Symonds
As well as enjoying good relations with the Church of Ireland (Anglican), Methodist and Presbyterian ministers in Ballymena, Father Symonds has worked closely with Protestants found guilty of sectarian attacks. ... "If you had told me when I was being ordained that I would be working with former loyalist prisoners, I would have thought that I would have been disastrous," he said.
Source: Fr. Paul Symonds - As quoted by the Catholic Review in "English priest receives awards for work in Northern Ireland", 5 Jan 2008, http://www.catholicreview.org/article/faith/vocations/english-priest-receives-award-for-work-in-northern-ireland#sthash.kh59mvOi.dpuf
CS Lewis to a Catholic Convert
CS Lewis once corresponded with a woman who had converted to Catholicism. What Lewis wrote to her, I would like to say to Francis Beckwith: “It is a little difficult to explain how I feel that though you have taken a way which is not for me, I nevertheless can congratulate you – I suppose because of your faith and joy which are so obviously increased. Naturally, I do not draw from that the same conclusions as you – but there is no need for us to start a controversial correspondence! I believe we are very dear to one another but not because I am at all on the Rome-ward frontier of my own communion. I believe that in the present divided state of Christendom, those who are at the heart of each division are all closer to one another than those who are at the fringes.”
Source: C.S. Lewis - As quoted in “Evangelicals and the Great Tradition” by Timothy George, First Things, Aug/Sept 2007, p. 21
We Must Continue On The Road
Greeting the German delegation in his private library, Francis sought to give new impetus to the effort toward Christian unity. He encouraged evangelicals and Catholics, when considering an ecumenical initiative, to ask themselves: “Can we share it with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we do another stretch of the road together?
“We have the same baptism: We must walk together, without growing tired,” Francis said. There is no going back on the road to unity he assured the delegation; Catholics and evangelicals must “continue to witness together to the Gospel and to continue on the road to full unity.”
Source: Pope Francis - As quoted by Gerard O'Connell in "German Evangelical Church issues historic invite to Pope Francis", America : The Jesuit Review, 6 Feb 2017, http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/02/06/german-evangelical-church-issues-historic-invite-pope-francis
Anabaptist Parents
Although we are Anabaptist, our parents – wishing to introduce us to other Christians and their forms of worship – had taken us to observe Mass on this particular Sunday.
Source: Erna Albertz - "The Plough Diet: Bread and Wine", a Following Jesus blog post on Bruderhof.com, 14 Feb 2017, http://www.bruderhof.com/en/voices-blog/the-plough-diet-bread-and-wine
Unity - Not Theoretical In India
The divisions of Christendom do not appeal to the Christians in these lands. Christians in India, for instance, did not have a share in creating them. They entered into this ready-made system, and it has not really taken hold of them …
We must have one Church. We want a Church of India, a Church which can be our spiritual home, a Church where the Indian religious genius can find natural expression, a living branch of the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, a Church which, being visible symbol in that divided land, will draw all [persons] to our blessed Lord ...
Unity may be a theoretically desirable ideal in Europe and America, but it is vital to the life of the Church in the mission field. The divisions of Christendom may be a source of weakness in Christian countries, but in non-Christian lands they are a sin and a scandal.
Source: V.S. Azariah - Talk given in 1910 at the World Missionary Council in Edinburgh, as found in the Mission as Common Witness section of Classic Texts in Mission and World Christianity, edited and with introductions by Norman F. Thomas
The 7 Ecumenical Councils
In 325, the first Ecumenical Church Council, convened by emperor Constantine, was held in Nicea’s emperor’s palace. In 381, the second Ecumenical Church Council, convened by emperor Theodosius I, was held in Constantinople’s Church of Holy Peace (Hagia Sophia). In 431, the third Ecumenical Church Council, convened by emperor Theodosius II, was held in Ephesus’ Church of Mary. In 449, an unofficial church council, later called the “Gangster Council,” convened by emperor Theodosius II, was held in Ephesus’ Church of Mary. In 451, the fourth Ecumenical Church Council, convened by emperor Marion, was held in Chalcedon’s Church of Saint Euphemia. In 553, the fifth Ecumenical Church Council, convened by emperor Justinian, was held in Constantinople’s Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia). In 680-681, the sixth Ecumenical Church Council, convened by emperor Constantine IV, was held in Constantinople’s Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia). In 787, the seventh Ecumenical Church Council, convened by emperor Constantine VI and his mother, Irene, was held in Nicea’s Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia).
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Today, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches generally accept the doctrinal conclusions of these councils, which defined the true (orthodox) Christian faith.
Source: Dr. Andrew Jackson - "The Ecumenical Church Councils of the Early Church (325-787)"
https://www.drandrewjackson.com/the-ecumenical-church-of-councils-of-the-early-church-325-787/
Early 1967
But it was with the dramatic outbreak of [the charismatic] movement in the Roman Catholic Church in early 1967 that its unprecedented range became unmistakable. Never before since the division that rent Western Christendom in the sixteenth century had Protestants and Catholics been brought into the same movement of revival and renewal. This was not like getting Catholics and Protestants to have a common service for peace or some other cause of mutual concern. Both were being equally touched by the same unexpected grace. People from both sides were being so grasped by the Spirit of God that they were all able to worship God together in a way that neither could before.
Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - One Lord One Spirit One Body, pp.38
What Has Our Response Been to Jesus' Request?
As members of the Church we have every reason to repent. In many ways we have hardened ourselves agains the Spirit of God. Jesus' last request was that we would be one. Our response was division, hatred and mutual condemnation. True, recent decades have seen improved relations between the major branches of Christianity. Yet how much in-fighting, divisiveness and entrenchment we still see within the Protestant camp.
Source: M. Basilea Schlink - Repentance: The Joy-Filled Life, p. 33
"To our most bitter opponents we say ..."
To our most bitter opponents we say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, we will continue to love you … Throw us in jail, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at teh midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer.
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.51-52
The Main Principle Is ... Talking
Not just in Germany, but in Israel too, there has been a silencing culture about the Holocaust for many years. The main principle of the organization, therefore, is talking. The actual discussion of the matter, after years of silencing on both sides, brings people closer and releases tensions and old hatreds. It aims to guarantee that the past does not repeat itself.
As part of the organization, the young Germans meet with Holocaust survivors around the world, tell them about their families’ Nazi past and seek their forgiveness, promising to do everything in their power so that those hate crimes do not repeat themselves.
Source: Itay Ilnai - "Nazis’ descendants sing ‘Hatikva’ to Holocaust survivors", Ynet News, 6 Jan 2017, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4902914,00.html
Viktor Frankl
“The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude.”
So wrote Viktor Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust, living through the deprivation and horrors of both Auschwitz and Dachau.
Prisoner of the Nazi concentration camp
Consider the background for his writing about freedom.
His wife, parents and brother were killed by the Nazis. His captors imprisoned him with barbed wire. They assigned him his lice-infected bed. They gave him one set of striped prison clothes. They allowed him no menu options, just a crust of bread and watered-down soup.
They told him when to wake up, when to work and when to sleep. They controlled all his relationships and restricted his speech, severely punishing the slightest disrespect or opposition.
They took away every freedom a person can have … except for one. They could not force their way into his mind and take away his freedom to choose his attitude toward his circumstances and his life. That was his and his alone to control.
Source: Viktor Frankl - Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor (Dachau & Auschwitz), as quoted by Ken Sande, Relational Wisdom 360 blog, 12 Feb 2017, https://rw360.org/2017/02/12/last-human-freedom/
Pope John Paul II
Concerning the different Christian traditions, Pope John Paul II said: "All of them in fact have martyrs for the Christian faith. Despite the tragedy of our divisions, these brothers and sisters have preserved an attachment to Christ and to the Father so radical and absolute as to lead even to the shedding of blood. . . In a theocentric vision, we Christians already have a common martyrology. . . . I have already remarked, and with deep joy, how an imperfect but real communion is preserved, and is growing at many levels of ecclesial life. I now add that this communion is already perfect in what we all consider the highest point of the life of grace, martyria unto death, the truest communion possible with Christ who shed his Blood, and by that sacrifice brings near those who were far off (cf. Eph 2:13).
Source: Pope John Paul II - Ut Unum Sint, 83-84
Another Stretch of the Road
Greeting the German delegation in his private library, Francis sought to give new impetus to the effort toward Christian unity. He encouraged evangelicals and Catholics, when considering an ecumenical initiative, to ask themselves: “Can we share it with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Can we do another stretch of the road together?
“We have the same baptism: We must walk together, without growing tired,” Francis said. There is no going back on the road to unity he assured the delegation; Catholics and evangelicals must “continue to witness together to the Gospel and to continue on the road to full unity.”
Source: Gerard O'Connell - "German Evangelical Church issues historic invite to Pope Francis", America : The Jesuit Review, 6 Feb 2017, http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/02/06/german-evangelical-church-issues-historic-invite-pope-francis
Let My Words Bring Honor ...
When darkness closes in, introduces itself as a friend, then I'm sad to say I'm too often drawn in to the lies and gossiping
God Your words are purest silver, full of meek untainted grace
So let my words bring only honor to Your vast and gracious name
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I call upon my name of the Lord to guard my heart, make my words pure
Source: Peter Nevland - Purest Silver - Psalm 12, from Exposing the Psalms, by Peter Nevland & Co.
39 Churches in Maui
Today people all over the island are out sharing the Gospel. Thirty nine churches have joined in a massive Maui movement to share the simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus. This has been going on for three days now and just from the combined groups from upcountry churches alone, there have been more than 200 individuals who have said yes to Jesus.
Source: Bill Vanderbush - Sharpening Iron blog post, 6 Sept 2007
https://billvanderbush.blogspot.com/2007/09/today-people-all-over-island-are-out.html?m=1
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