Is there one church or are there many? On the face of it, there are hundreds of Christian denominations and thousands of independent Christian churches. A Google search for churches in any given community will reveal the diversity and even the divisions of Christianity. Hundreds of small energetic congregations, with little more than a bulldozer and a building crew, have built new churches. But what is their relationship to other churches in their city, to other churches in the United States, and to other Christians throughout the world?
Can a local church be Christian all by itself, or are the churches with all their differences called by Christ to seek one another and to make manifest their unity? The search leads us to value the virtues of our ecumenical colleagues.
He remarked one day at lunch that while they had theological differences, the Anglican priest was outstanding in living the Gospel. In my experience, our conversation with our fellow Christians leads us to look deeper into the roots of our own faith. We clarify our deepest beliefs—and sometimes need to acknowledge our own misunderstandings of Catholic belief.
A deep search into our own faith can make us aware of commonalities that we share with our fellow Christians. It is the Holy Spirit who will help us work our way through the divergences which we also discover.
Ecumenical conversation leads us back to prayer. I think that ecumenical relationships are a School of Virtue. To engage others we need humility, honesty, patience, and gentleness. Sometimes we see these in our ecumenical partners.
I hope they see them in us. The Vatican did not give formal recognition to the existence of the ecumenical movement until , when it established the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity. Protestant and Orthodox Eastern observers were invited to the Second Vatican Council —65 , and the Decree on Ecumenism promulgated by that council encouraged new dialogues with Protestant and Orthodox churches. Catholics and Lutherans signed a joint declaration in on the doctrine of justification that resolved some of the issues that led to the Reformation in See B.
Leeming, The Churches and the Church ; N. Goodall, The Ecumenical Movement 3d ed. Individual members of traditions not among these churches do participate, such as Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, Missouri Synod Lutheran, and others.
While continuing the aims of its predecessor bodies, the NCC has been involved in antiwar protests, the promotion of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, world hunger, agricultural development, and publication of statements on issues from human trafficking to evangelism in a pluralistic world. Formally organized in , COCU brought together nine denominations oriented toward organic reunion in a church "truly catholic, truly evangelical, truly reformed.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is a partner in mission and dialogue. One such force was a encyclical published by the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople, titled "Unto all the Churches of Christ Everywhere. This proposed "League of Churches" would come to be embodied in the Faith and Order and Life and Work movements that shortly took their rise.
Another proposal for a world ecumenical body came from Archbishop Nathan Soderblom of Sweden who convened the first Life and Work Conference in Stockholm in With the motto "Doctrine divides, service unites," Life and Work sought to continue the practical form of cooperation found in earlier world conferences, but with key differences.
For one, there were official representatives sent from a wide variety of churches as opposed to church agencies , including Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Protestant. However, tensions arose at the meeting when German delegates balked at what they heard as a mandate to build the kingdom of God on earth in the discourse of Anglo-American delegates who spoke optimistically of the possibilities of social transformation.
The German critique was reflected in the Oxford, England, meeting of Life and Work with its concerted effort to include a more theological background in the form of papers and studies presented in anticipation of the meeting by a wide variety of constituents.
German representatives, however, were unable to attend due to restrictions placed on them by the Nazi government.
Brent had attended the WMC in and saw the need for ecumenism to move beyond cooperation in common missionary interests to dialog over doctrine and ministry. The Lausanne meeting exposed as many theological fault lines as had the Life and Work conference two years earlier in Stockholm. Evangelical Protestants clashed with Orthodox, Anglicans, and Old Catholics over the status of the Nicene Creed, leaving little room to hope for an accord.
As had become customary between large annual world gatherings, a continuation committee worked in intervening years to publish research papers and prepare for the next meeting, which was held in Edinburgh in However, the onset of World War II delayed the first meeting of the council until A committee of 14, composed of seven representatives each from Faith and Order and Life and Work devised foundational principles and called Archbishop William Temple of the Church of England and W.
The WCC assembly was held in Amsterdam, attended by representatives of 44 nationalities from churches. The Roman Catholic Church declined to participate. Basically, the council, it was stressed, was not a super-church or even a prototype of a future world church. It was, by official definition, "a fellowship of churches which accept our Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour. However, member churches remain free in their confessional norms and their judgments of the ecclesial status of other churches.
The WCC meets about seven to eight years as an assembly.
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