Christian unity is not what it used to be

What started out as a time of prayer by an Episcopal priest and nun a century ago is now observed by Christians around the world and planned by the Vatican and the World Council of Churches. But the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has both suffered from its success and highlighted that profound differences still exist within and between the several Christian traditions.

Peter Steinfels writing in the New York Times says:

…for most Christians, the week, centennial or not, carries no more resonance than, say, National Secretaries Week (now officially Administrative Professionals Week).

Has the ecumenical movement lost steam? Or has it, perhaps, fallen victim to its own success? One way or the other, does it make any difference?

In 1908, it certainly did to the Rev. Paul Wattson and Mother Lurana White, an Episcopal priest and nun, founders, in Garrison, N.Y., of a small Anglican religious community in the Franciscan tradition. They initiated eight days of prayer between what were then feast days associated with Saints Peter and Paul.

These two leaders and their Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement soon became Roman Catholics, so the week of prayer naturally had little appeal to Protestants. Still, all sorts of other streams fed into the cause of joining in prayer for Christian unity: the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, often described as the beginning of the modern ecumenical movement, and efforts by the Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A.

Christian unity was, of course, a chief goal of the Second Vatican Council, when the world’s Catholic bishops invited Protestant and Orthodox leaders, now known as “separated brethren” rather than “heretics” and “schismatics,” to observe and consult during the council’s four sessions from 1962 to 1965.

That work has been carried on by Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox ecumenical officers and theologians engaged in interchurch dialogue. These highly committed people track the progress of unity the way brokers watch the stock ticker.

But people in the pews appear to have other things on their mind. They take for granted the lowering of what were once painful barriers dividing spouses and family members and even citizens.

Steinfels says that the success of the movement has removed the sense of urgency. Also, the vision of what Christian unity might look like has changed. Instead of a single church devoid of institutional and denominational barriers, the vision has become one of diversity of communities and traditions. “Thanks to the understanding and fellowship generated by dialogue, what was once the scandal of division now looks more like the virtue of diversity.”

Relationship between religions, such as between Islam and Christianity, has supplanted the need for dialogue within Christianity. “To the extent that religion currently abets violence, it is hardly in conflicts over papal authority or whether worshipers sharing in the Lord’s Supper should partake of both bread and wine.”

Finally, what were once well-defined differences between Christian traditions has become a kind of homogenization especially among Protestant traditions, where Presbyterians rarely speak of predestination and Methodists no longer think about arminianism. The most apparent conflict in Christianity today — over homosexuality — is largely fought out within, not between, traditions.

Read the rest here.

Learn more about the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity here.

Here is the official website for the 2008 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

Past Posts
Categories