With a desire for ecumenical dialogue there sometimes seems no way forward without tolerance and an acceptance of a "less than perfect" agreement on matters, but NT Wright here at the 1975 World Ecumenical Council asserts a new way for us to be ecumenical, that is to draw closer to Christ:
"…if we are to come together as Christians it will not be by watering down everything until there is so little left that we can all agree on it. It will be by all of us learning more and more of Christ, and of the truth about him, so that we can grow closer to each other because we are closer to him.
I have seen this work out in practice. When I was a delegate at the
1975 Assembly of the World Council of Churches I found over and over
again that it was when we said what we really meant, expressing
ourselves and our viewpoints most clearly, that real fellowship and
trust came about — not when we hid the light of truth under a bushel of
tolerance". [Small Faith—Great God, p.80]
This is, in every way, a desirable basis for moving forward in ecumenical relationship, but how do we achieve this? I would welcome your thoughts but as we fix our eyes upon Christ and the central image of the cross and ressurection we have to believe in faith that we will be transformed into his image, and with that hold importance in the areas which are of importance to Christ, and loosen our grip on the things which are not.
3 responses so far ↓
1 Sam Clark // Mar 18, 2008 at 2:49 am
in my own journey I have discovered the beauty of discipleship (which the western church often believes is synonymous with leadership) or rather the enjoyment of sitting and really listening to the lives of people. One cannot be faulted for actively loving their neighbor nor for trying to learn from them. I used to believe that we’d all have to give up something in order to truly embrace ecumenism but I’m finding more and more that its less about giving up but more about living up what the gospel is trying to say to us. I do find myself opposed to any type of “leadership development” (maybe its a season?) and consider it one more way that we westerners conspire to 1)get to the top of the heap if we are striving to lead or 2)once we are on the top, learning to influence others to think like we do as if that is the definitive way to think.
2 Liam // Mar 18, 2008 at 10:45 am
Sam,
Thanks for your comment. I especially like the phrase “itsless about giving up but more about living up what the gospel is trying to say to us”. I think you are right.
Liam
3 End of Week round up | Byrnesys Blabberings // Mar 21, 2008 at 1:00 pm
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