Pray For Christian Unity

Christian unity is a practice based on theology rather than the theology itself. There seem to be theological grounds for hope in practical ecumenism. The followers of Christ differ in mind and go their separate ways but there is a call to unity. The disunity in the Church is an obvious contradiction of the will of Christ and many people of all kinds feel impelled by grace to come together to pray for the unity for which Christ prayed to be faithful to that call. Dialogue based on shared convictions has helped to clear up misunderstandings and share insights bringing participants to recognise revelations they had overlooked or to which they hadn't given sufficient attention. It has also set the participants on convergent rather than divergent theological courses (Butler, 1981).

Differences also arose in the early Church. The Apostle Paul was called on to heal the divisions in the church of Corinth, there were controversies over liturgy and apostasy, Arianism, Gnosticism, Pelagianism, Marcion and Mani (Comby, 1985). Christians were divided by the Churches of the East and West in 1054 but reconciliation was attempted on two major occasions at Lyons in 1274 and Florence 1493-45. Since then the dialogue has continued (Neuner and Dupuis, 1988). Christians were again divided by the schisms and reforms of the 16th century in Europe. The people of today however who are members of these separated churches cannot be held responsible for what happened in that separation.

The Second Vatical Council (VII) in the document on Ecumenism, called for total involvement in ecumenism. It involves a complete change of attitude from a unity based on juridical principles to one based on an ecclesiology of communion in the mystery of Christ. The change of attitude can be made more real by an inner conversion without which it will not be a genuine ecumenism. In a gesture of profound significance VII called for that continual reformation of which it has always had need and recognised that in the past people on both sides were at fault (Thornhill, 1988). As a result, Christian unity is no longer sought as inviting other Christians to join the Church but as integration into the one Church willed by Christ (Neuner and Dupuis, 1988). Catholics and Anglicans have held discussions on Christian unity on a number of occasions in the ARCIC forum and a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is held every year from 18 to 25 January.