We are in the midst of the Octave of Christian Unity, which runs from January 18th through the 25th. We have compiled some prayers and resources for the octave that you may find helpful, that focus specifically on East-West unity. We also have an Online Handbook of Denominations that has gotten some recognition from Catholic ecumenical organizations.
I have been really busy this week, and still am, so I wish had time to reflect more on the Catholic view of unity. Nonetheless, I often express our view of unity and ecumenism in terms used by Family-Systems Theory (My B.A. is in Psychology). Catholics practice a self-differentiated ecumenism, which is to say we will work with others when possible, pray together, and work for unity, but we aren’t going to pretend serious differences don’t exist just to achieve some sort of false “feel good” unity, when there really are fundamental differences. To use another Family-Systems term, we avoid “fusing,” i.e. losing our individuality to get along with someone else. Unfortunately, many of the mainlines have taken the view that we should unify first, and ask questions later, which is really not an honest and open form of communication, if you ask me. Given Jesus’ emphasis on both unity and truth, I think he valued both, so sacrificing one for the other strikes me as unbalanced. This being said, I work for unity a lot. Heck, I spend most of my time in my classroom and with my family, and both are very religiously diverse places! I would like to think that all of us have enough respect for each other that we can work together and pray together, but also be honest with each other about the limitations of unity at this point.
David Bennett
Jennifer
asimplesinner
Fr. J.
Chad T.
Jorge Flores
Jonathan B
carmelbennett
nicenehobbit
Jason S
jaybird68
papaz
Dave Hartline
faceman
January 23, 2009 at 3:55 pm |
Hi David,
I think that your definition of the Catholic understanding of unity is a good one. Pretending that serious differences don’t exist doesn’t work in any sort of a relationship situation, much less within Christianity. I further agree that the tendency for some of the mainline Protestant denominations to unify (on paper) while maintaining radically different positions on key issues (like the ELCA Lutherans and the Episcopalians) does nothing to advance true unity.
There’s a saying I read once, however, and I (sadly) think it applies to the relationships between the most ancient of Christian bodies. It goes something like this: “Some people don’t know when to squawk when they’re hurt; others don’t stop squawking even when the hurt is over.” Far too many Christians are fighting over 1000+ year-old hurts, and issues which have long since ceased to exist — yet continue to invent arguments to justify separation. This is what I find most grievous.
Blessings,
Papa Z
October 10, 2009 at 3:47 pm |
hi, these 1000 yr old hurts you refer to, do they include killing bible believing christians and other inquisition related activities? do lepards change their spots?
October 20, 2009 at 9:41 pm |
I just read an article on CNN.com regarding unity in the Catholic Church without cultural uniformity (i.e., as Anglican congregations join while retaining their rites). I then wrote a post about the relationship of unity and doctrinal uniformity. In general terms, does unity require uniformity?