All Saints: an occasion for ecumenism

This morning I participated in an online ecumenical service that originated in Scotland. Those who led the service were the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Anglican Primus (Bishop) of Scotland, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of St. Andrews-Edinburgh. It was essentially a 15-minute Liturgy of the Word. I can't think of a better worship experience for me this morning. Yes, this includes worshiping live.

And so, today I want to offer to further things on ecumenism. The first is from a very good book I just finished. The book is The Way of St Benedict. The author of this book Rowan Williams. It is one of those books that is a compilation of previous works on the Rule of St. Benedict that is collected in one place. In my view, it is more valuable for that. Practically throughout these works, Williams emphasizes the importance of chapter 4 of the Rule of Saint Benedict. Along with chapter 11, the fourth chapter constitutes something like the core of the rule for those interested in "Benedictine spirituality."

Incidentally, it is in chapter 4 of The Way of St Benedict that Williams takes up ecumenism. The chapter is entitled "From Solitude to Communion: Monastic Virtues and Ecumenical Hopes." What I offer are a few critical insights from this chapter. Towards the beginning of the chapter, he identifies the tension inherent in seeking "to hold together the community life and the vocation to solitude" (55). He then moves, in his seemingly effortless manner, to the fundamental observation that seeking "to hold together what seems like opposites is, of course, grounded in a deeply Christian anthropology" (55). Before moving to the importance of community, Williams points out that it is in solitude that "we allow God to challenge and overcome our individualism" (55). It is "in solitude," he continues, that "we are led to recognize the strength and resilience of our selfishness," which points to how much we "need to let God dissolve the fantasies with which we protect ourselves" (55).

As to the need for community, he summarizes with Tertullian's quote: unus christianus nullus christianus- "no Christian is a Christian alone." Stated more simply, one Christian is no Christian, just as one person is no person. What I mainly wanted to pass along is this:

One of the hardest yet most important lessons the different Christian communities today have to learn is that they cannot live without each other and that no single one of them in isolation possesses the entirety of the gospel. God has used the often-tragic divisions of Christian history in such a way that each community has been permitted to discover new depths in this or that emphasis in doctrine and devotion. And the challenge of the Lord of the Church is that we should recognize this diversity of providential discovery in one another (56)

I'll end with the ending from my November 2008 ecumenical presentation, "What the Catholic Church Learned from the Reformation"-

Tone deaf Catholics puzzle over why Christians would celebrate the split of the Western Church in the sixteenth century. But people who listen and attend grasp that while the split is lamentable and even scandalous, who recognize there is enough blame to go around, what we celebrate on this 500th anniversary of the Reformation is both the commitment to unity and the concrete steps Christians have taken to reconcile with each other and work towards unity. As Catholics, we rejoice that the Church has been diligent in its ecumenical commitment over the past 50+ years. I think much reconciliation has been achieved between Catholics and Protestants. It is on the basis of our reconciliation that we can continue to walk toward the goal unity, the goal of communion

Such a communion can only be unity in diversity, not uniformity, lest the salt lose its savor.