Recited by millions from childhood on, the Lord's Prayer includes the plea, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Familiar as it is, I often wonder whether we really mean what we say when we repeat these words, and whether we sufficiently consider their meaning. To me, at least, they imply that once we recognize our own need for forgiveness, we will be able to forgive. This recognition does not come to most of us easily, because it demands humility. But isn't humility the essence of forgiveness?
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?
Reasons for Church Splits
I'll even take it a step farther: I will go on record as to say that few splits—if any—have ever been purely theological. Every split is probably a combination of at least two of more of these factors.
Well, they say never say never, right? Given the thousands and thousands of Christian denominations, I can't say for sure that there has never been a split which hasn't been based entirely on theological grounds. However, I would suspect that even if it seemed like there were, there were also probably cultural or generational differences dovetailed into the mix somehow. Even some of the most famous splits, such as between Catholics and Lutherans in the 16th century Reformation or between the Churches of the East and West over the Chalcedonian Creed in the 5th century, may have been driven as much by different cultural approaches to language and inflection that could very well have factored heavily into what seemed like theological differences. In other words, it was like both groups were looking at the same coin, but one was describing the front and the other the back. What seemed like irreconcilable differences were perhaps more a difference in perspective rather than content.
Source: The Traveling Ecumenist - "Why would a group dedicated to Christian unity talk about justice?", Traveling Ecumenist blog post on 29 April 2019
https://travelingecumenist.blogspot.com/2019/04/why-would-group-dedicated-to-christian.html
I believe in forgiveness, and also the law
In the interview that was conducted before Stephens' death, Cooper asked the sisters if they had a message for him.
"I would say turn yourself in, that would be No. 1," Debbie Godwin said.
"I mean because although I do believe in forgiveness, I do believe in the law, meaning, when you break the law, there's a penalty for breaking the law. And this man broke the law by taking my father's life."
For two days, authorities scrambled to find Stephens in a nationwide hunt.
"I believe that God would give me the grace to even embrace this man. And hug him ...," Godwin said. "I just would want him to know that even in his worst state, he's loved, you know, by God, that God loves him, even in the bad stuff that he did to my dad."
Source: Melissa Mahtani - "Cleveland victim's family: We forgive killer", CNN, 18 April 2017
http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/us/cleveland-victims-family-we-forgive-killer-cnntv/index.html
Evangelicals in the Church of Mary
That question did occur to me, but I decided that he had a right to pursue his ministry, and the handful of evangelicals at Catholic universities have a right to be ministered to. Although his organization is not interested in “sheep stealing,” I could certainly foresee that some students who were baptized Catholic might decide to convert to evangelical Protestantism. I think such conversions could, at least in some instances, turn out to be a good thing. And I think John Paul II might agree with me.
Source: Daniel P. Moloney - "Evangelicals in the Church of Mary", First Things, December 2000, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/12/evangelicals-in-the-church-of-mary
Blessed Maria Gabriella of Unity
Blessed Maria Gabriella of Unity wanted to console the Sacred Heart, so saddened by division in His Church.
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Maria Sagheddu was born to large family of modest means on the island of Sardinia in 1914. At the age of 21, she entered a Trappist convent and took the name Maria Gabriella.
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A year after Maria entered the convent, her abbess announced that the sisters would take part in the “Prayer of Unity Octave,” eight days of prayer asking God to bring an end to divisions in Christianity. Immediately after the announcement, a 78-year-old sister named Mother Immacolata approached her abbess with the request to offer the remainder of her life as an oblation for Christian unity: “I’ve come to ask your permission to offer to the good Lord the little bit of time I have left. It’s truly a worthy cause!” Exactly one month after the octave concluded, Mother Immacolata died.
With this example before her, Maria Gabriella followed suit. The next year when the octave was announced, Maria Gabriella asked for and received permission to offer her life for the cause of Christian unity. Almost immediately afterward, she feel ill and was eventually diagnosed with tuberculosis.
Her suffering increased dramatically, but so did the joy she radiated. A year later Sr. Maria died, having revealed her sacrifice only to a handful of confidantes including her abbess and her spiritual director. At the time of her death, her Trappist sisters discovered that Maria Gabriella’s Bible was particularly worn at John 17 – which contains Christ’s prayer that “they may be one” (John 17:20 and 22).
Source: Amos Long - "Meet the awe-inspiring patron saint of prayer for Christian unity", Aleteia, 18 January 2018
https://aleteia.org/2018/01/18/meet-the-awe-inspiring-patron-saint-of-prayer-for-christian-unity/
2x2
Over the past year, the New Baptist Covenant has encouraged “covenants of action” between congregations as vehicles to pursue racial reconciliation. Pastors of three pairs of congregations described their efforts at the summit, including one between Friendship-West Baptist Church and Wilshire Baptist Church, both in Dallas.
“In our journey of thermostatic two-ness we are out to transform the world,” said Frederick Haynes, senior pastor of predominantly black Friendship-West Baptist. “Jesus has sent us out two-by-two to stand up against structures of injustice.”
George Mason, senior pastor of the mainly white Wilshire Baptist, added: “This two-by-two thing is important. It’s about bringing our stories together. The American story is not one story. We want to make it one story, but in doing so, we deny the story of another. We need a two-narrative ecclesiology about the white church and the black church discovering one another.”
The two churches have engaged in pulpit swaps and choir visits and have collaborated to combat predatory lending in Dallas.
“It is clear we can be faithful to Christ’s vision of beloved community only when we walk side-by-side, have each other’s backs and go on this journey together,” Mason said.
Other “covenants of action” highlighted in Atlanta were First Baptist Church and First Baptist Church of Christ in Macon, Ga., and First Baptist Church and Providence Baptist Church, both in Greensboro, N.C. Also reporting on their covenant were the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma and churches representing Native American tribes in the state.
Source: Robert Dilday - "Racial reconciliation tough but essential, say leaders at New Baptist Covenant summit", Baptist News Global, 19 September 2016, https://baptistnews.com/article/racial-reconciliation-tough-but-essential-say-leaders-at-new-baptist-covenant-summit/
Father Steve Grunow on Repentance
The one thing I must do, that I am compelled to do, is to repent. Repentance is understood by some as an act of humiliation, but what our egoism perceives as humiliation is actually liberation. We caricature repentance as humiliation because we are afraid of leaving behind the life we have created out of our own self striving and self interest.
Repentance is the proper response to God’s mercy, (which is the form God’s love takes when it is received by a sinner). God’s mercy engenders a response and if our response is acceptance, then our acceptance takes the form of repentance. Repentance is manifested in willingness to change one’s mind, one’s attitude, one’s behaviors-one’s way of life.
For the disciple of the Lord Jesus this means rejecting a self-centered life and accepting a Christ-centered life-the Christ-centered life is a way of faith, hope and love. Turning towards God necessitates a turning away from all that is opposed to him. Repentance necessitates deliberating choosing God’s way, rather than my own way.
The experience of God’s mercy never leaves us the same or merely affirms us as we are. Personal transformation always precedes and is the condition for the possibility for cultural transformation. The experience of God’s mercy is a summons to repentance, which is always followed by a summons to mission.
The great follow up to the Year of Mercy, it seems to me, is a year of repentance. It is only through repentance that we can move forward in mission.
Source: Father Steve Grunow - Father Steve Grunow, CEO, Word on Fire, As quoted by Kathryn Jean Lopez, Crux, 13 Nov 2016, https://cruxnow.com/church-in-the-usa/2016/11/13/mercy-can-help-america-heal-bitter-political-season/
The key to peace in Northern Ireland
Yet when we look at where we have come from to where we are now, enormous progress has been made. The North Belfast I live and work in is not the same North Belfast in which I went to school in the 1970s. More and more people from different religious and political opinion meet and get to know one one another in every day life. The building and developing of these human long term relationships will be key to reaching the tipping point to a society at peace with itself.
Source: Fr. Martin Magill - "It’s not all hopeless argues Fr Martin Magill who works in North Belfast", EamonnMallie.com, 18 July 2015, http://eamonnmallie.com/2015/07/its-not-all-hopeless-argues-fr-martin-magill-who-works-in-north-belfast/
Losing a vote is ... a breakthrough?
One Sunday when I was traveling, our deacons at our Plains Baptist Church (where I was a member and a deacon) voted not to admit any African American worshipers into the building. I came home for a church conference, and I made a speech about how we should let them come into God's house. My family and one other, six people, voted to integrate the church and let black people come in and worship at least. All the rest of them voted against it. But almost 100 people didn't vote. That was the first time I saw we really had a breakthrough. The majority of the members who were in conference agreed with me, although they wouldn't vote with me.
Source: Jimmy Carter - Christianity Today, October 2016, "Jimmy Carter: Pursuing an Arc of Reconciliation", pp. 66-69
A 4-Square Approach from the Anglicans
A primary source for the Quadrilateral was The Church-Idea, An Essay Towards Unity (1870) by William Reed Huntington (1838-1909), an Episcopal priest. He indicated the Anglican basis for an ecumenical "Church of the Reconciliation" in America should be acceptance of l) the Holy Scriptures as the Word of God; 2) the Nicene Creed as the rule of faith; 3) the two sacraments ordained by Christ himself (baptism and the eucharist); and 4) the episcopate as the keystone of governmental unity in the church. This "foursquare" approach became known as the "Quadrilateral." Huntington was the moving force behind its approval by the House of Bishops in Chicago.
The Chicago version of the Quadrilateral provides an ecumenical statement of purpose and introduction which states that the Episcopal Church is "ready in the spirit of love and humility to forego all preferences of her own" concerning things of human ordering or choice regarding modes of worship, discipline, and traditional customs. However, the statement of purpose warns that Christian unity "can be restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Catholic Church during the first days of its existence."
Source: Episcopalchurch.org - "Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral", glossary entry for episcopalchurch.org
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/library/glossary/chicago-lambeth-quadrilateral
One Response to Hurtful Words
Reflection
I will never forget a meeting I was part of in a small German city in 2003. A group of Christians from different traditions and countries had come together to pray for God’s blessing on this particular city, suffering under the weight of un-forgiveness and division. During the meeting a young Lutheran pastor said some hurtful things about the Catholic church, rooted in his own painful experiences. The tension in the room was palpable as we waited to see what would happen next. An older Catholic woman walked towards this young pastor and knelt down before him and asked for forgiveness for the specific ways he had been hurt by some in the Catholic Church. He extended his hand to her and helped her up, then they embraced and wept. Forgiveness and healing in Christ, won the day
Action
Have you ever considered asking someone for forgiveness for sin that was done against them by someone that you represent. In Daniel 9:16, Daniel confesses to God not only his own sins but the sins of his father and of his people.
Prayer
Triune God, following the example of Jesus, make us witnesses to your love. Grant us to become instruments of justice, peace and solidarity. May your Spirit move us towards concrete actions that lead to unity. May walls be transformed into bridges. This we pray in the name of Jesus Christ in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Source: A2J Community - Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 6", 23 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-6
Not "their" problem ...
What kind of churches do we at Theopolis dream of? Churches like these:
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Churches that take the pedophilia scandal, or the upheavals of the Anglican Communion, or the persecution of Orthodox believers as crises among our people—not problems for someone else over there. If one suffers, all the members suffer.
Source: Peter Leithart - Theopolis Institute blog, "Reformational Catholicism, A Wish List", 20 October 2016, https://theopolisinstitute.com/reformational-catholicism-a-wish-list/
Jesus was in a Polarized Culture
Blame it on Jesus for starting a polarization-busting movement. Make no mistake, Jesus inhabited a polarized culture of Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, Herodians, Zealots (all political parties, by the way), but he refused to play by their rank-and-file games.
Jesus sits with the progressive: the Jameses and Johns who are zealous to see God’s kingdom restored and justice rendered to marginalized, impoverished, oppressed, and occupied people. Jesus also sits and shares meals with the Matthews—Matthew was a tax collector who had cozied up to the Romans and was a part of the occupying powers—those some might consider greedy neocons.
When Jesus gathered the first core of disciples, there was an intentional disruption of the poles. If it were not for Jesus holding the space at the center, James and John would loathe Matthew and his ilk; they’d all naturally slide into the cultural ditch of mutual hatred for one another.
Source: Dan White - "When Clinton and Bush go to church … together", V3 Church Planting Movement, Jan 2017, http://thev3movement.org/2017/01/when-clinton-and-bush-go-to-church/
What Terrorists Don't Ask
There is another ecumenism, which we must recognize and which is so timely today: the ecumenism of blood. When terrorists or world powers persecute Christian minorities or Christians, when they do this, they do not ask: But are you Lutheran? Are you Orthodox? Are you Catholic? Are you reformed? Are you Pentecostal? No. “You are Christian.” They recognize only one: the Christian. We are witnesses, and I am thinking, for instance, of the Coptic Orthodox brothers beheaded on the beaches of Libya: they are our brothers. They gave witness to Christ and they died saying: “Jesus, help me!” With the name: they confessed Jesus’ name.
Source: Pope Francis - Zenit, "It’s Not My Jesus vs Your Jesus, But Our Jesus, Pope Says to Ecumenical Group", 13 Oct 2016, https://zenit.org/articles/its-not-my-jesus-vs-your-jesus-but-our-jesus-pope-says-to-ecumenical-group/
A Foreigner in a New Tribe - Fuller!
With the blessing of the monks of St. Andrew’s Abbey, Brother Peter [PhD ’87] enrolled in 1975 as the first Catholic PhD student at a Protestant school in Pasadena—Fuller Theological Seminary. In his first classes, Brother Peter was a foreigner in a new tribe; still wearing his black Benedictine habit, he seemed a visible outsider to the students and teachers around him. It was so obvious that at the end of one quarter, Paul Jewett, the senior professor of systematic theology, invited him to the front of the class to debate the differences between Protestant and Catholic theology—a series they called the “Peter and Paul Debates.” He found that the Reformation was alive and well at Fuller, he says: “It made me a better Catholic!”
Source: Michael Wright - https://fullerstudio.fuller.edu/a-voice-from-narnia/
Blood on our hands
We often talk about in our American history of the breakdown of political efforts to avert war, but has the Church in America ever reckoned that the blood of the 600,000 who died in the Civil War is also on our hands? Our dividedness then aided and abetted and inflamed the divides in our land and tore country apart even as it tore many denominations into northern and southern counterparts, some lasting to this day. One wonders what might have been if church leaders from North and South, who may have been educated in the same seminaries, had reached across the lines and said, “we must reconcile our differences and lead our country in doing the same.”
Source: Robert C Trube - rtrube54, "The Scandal of the Church in America: Part One", Bob on Books, 13 Feb 2017, https://bobonbooks.com/2017/02/13/the-scandal-of-the-church-in-america-part-one/
Work Together for the Truth
(5) My beloved friend Gaius, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters (possibly representatives or missionaries from the church in Ephesus), even though they are strangers to you. (6) They have told the church (in Ephesus) about your love. Please send them on their journey in a way that honors God. (7) They went out from us (the church in Ephesus) for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ, taking no help from the unbelievers. (8) Therefore, we should always provide hospitality to such people, so that we may work together for the truth.
Source: John the Beloved - 3 John 1:5-8 (IEB)
AtONEment
The name of the new community was inspired by a passage in the Saint Paul's letter to the Romans (Romans 5:11), which, in speaks of the atonement Christians have received through Jesus. Fr. Paul interpreted the word "atonement" in the literal sense of "at-one-ment," out of his vision that his new community should have the aim of leading all Christians to unity (oneness) with one another.
Source: Franciscan Friars of the Atonement - "They Started As Episcopalians in an Abandoned Church, and Ended Up Becoming Catholic Franciscans", https://www.atonementfriars.org/started-as-episcopalians
Shalom vs. Contentiousness
The late Martin Luther King Jr. is famous for his peaceful protests amongst his enemies. In one of his essays, “Non-violoence: The Only Road to Freedom,” King says that the way to shalom “will be accomplished by persons who have the courage to put an end to suffering by willingly suffering themselves rather than inflict suffering on others.” This is one way of turning on the lights. “Blessed are the peacemakers,” Jesus says, “for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). In the book Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement, Brian Walsh and Steven Bouma-Prediger say this about contentiousness (which is the opposite of peaceableness): “Like a parasite living on a host, contentiousness feeds on rage and rancor, antipathy and animosity, to fan the fire of discord and accelerate the spiral of violence.” (214).
Source: Brian Walsh & Steven Bouma-Prediger - "Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement", p. 214, as quoted by Jeff Skeens in "The Beautiful Disruption of Peace", A2J Blog, Apprenticeship to Jesus, 7 Feb 2017, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/the-beautiful-disruption-of-peace
http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/the-beautiful-disruption-of-peace
Living out Unity in Community
People of Praise is a charismatic Christian community. We admire the first Christians who were led by the Holy Spirit to form a community. Those early believers put their lives and their possessions in common, and “there were no needy persons among them.”
Jesus desires unity for all people. We live out this unity the best we can, in spite of the divisions within Christianity. We are Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians, Methodists, Pentecostals, Presbyterians and other denominational and nondenominational Christians. Despite our differences, we are bound together by our Christian baptism. Despite our differences, we worship together. While remaining faithful members of our own churches, we have found a way to live our daily lives together.
Source: People of Praise - From the website of the ecumenical, charismatic community that Amy Coney Barrett belongs to, https://peopleofpraise.org/about/who-we-are/