Talk Given at the Counterslip Baptist Church, Bristol for Christian Unity Week
19 January 2005
1.
Thank you for inviting me to be part of your service for Christian unity. I think this is an important week because it reminds us that ecumenism is not something extra to our commitment to Christ but an essential part of that commitment. As Pope John Paul said about ecumenism in his letter – The Church in Europe:
“We may not halt on this journey nor may we turn back. We need to continue this journey in a spirit of trust, so that mutual respect, search for truth, cooperative in charity and above all the ecumenism of holiness, will not fail with the help of God, to bear fruit.”
2.
Someone said to me the other day that ecumenism seems to have ground to a halt. In one way I can understand that comment but in another way I think the present moment challenges us more urgently to move on in our endeavors for unity – the more our society becomes fragmented, the more people need from the Church a sign of unity and peace and to be shown a way to reconciliation.
3.
In the letter to the Ephesians, St Paul urges us to lead a life worthy of our vocation. Our vocation is to be the Body of Christ, made up of different members but all needing one another and all contributing to the health and growth of the whole body.
4.
I think we need to listen to one another’s stories about what it is to follow Christ and to listen with respect. The Spirit of God is at work within us all if we are prepared to open ourselves to the Spirit’s presence.
5.
Story is powerful. Stories can changes people’s perceptions of who others are. The telling of story can help us to understand better our own experience of discipleship and realise the challenge that still face us.
6.
Part of a story either of the individual or of a community can be about hurt and pain. Part of the story can be about prejudice or barriers we might have towards others. The story telling can bring a healing of memories and enable new beginnings.
7.
In our search to find oneness in Christ we may well need to heal memories and misunderstandings that have arisen and still do arise between Christian of different traditions. But we can find healing and new beginnings can occur because Christ is our Peace. He came to reconcile people by the power of his Cross.
8.
At the centre of our Christian faith is the Cross which because it is taken up in love does not crush but liberates. The cross which was an instrument of death became the tree of life. The points of the cross unites north, south, east and west.
9.
In our striving for reconciliation we will meet the cross – those moments when we will be tempted to give up either out of frustration, suspicion or indifference. If we take up the cross, we will be led to resurrection and it will be hope for our world.
10.
Ecumenism is not an end in itself. Ecumenism and evangelisation are intimately linked because the will of God is that all humanity should be reconciled to God, to one another and to the whole of creation – there should be peace – shalom.
11.
As people of God, or again as St Paul says to the Ephesians – as God’s art work, we need to know the joys and hopes, the fears and anguishes of the people of our time so that we can bring to human yearnings the Good News of Jesus Christ who transforms life and makes all things new.
12.
We need to know the questions that people are asking even when we may find those questions awkward or distressing because those questions are a search for truth and meaning in life.
13.
For us Christ is the foundation stone of our lives and that of the whole Church. As we come together in prayer this evening, we ask that the Lord who calls us to follow him may enlighten our minds so that we may know the love of Christ and be filled with the utter fullness of God. Then the Lord working in us will do more than we can ask or imagine.
14.
Ends.
1.
Thank you for inviting me to be part of your service for Christian unity. I think this is an important week because it reminds us that ecumenism is not something extra to our commitment to Christ but an essential part of that commitment. As Pope John Paul said about ecumenism in his letter – The Church in Europe:
“We may not halt on this journey nor may we turn back. We need to continue this journey in a spirit of trust, so that mutual respect, search for truth, cooperative in charity and above all the ecumenism of holiness, will not fail with the help of God, to bear fruit.”
2.
Someone said to me the other day that ecumenism seems to have ground to a halt. In one way I can understand that comment but in another way I think the present moment challenges us more urgently to move on in our endeavors for unity – the more our society becomes fragmented, the more people need from the Church a sign of unity and peace and to be shown a way to reconciliation.
3.
In the letter to the Ephesians, St Paul urges us to lead a life worthy of our vocation. Our vocation is to be the Body of Christ, made up of different members but all needing one another and all contributing to the health and growth of the whole body.
4.
I think we need to listen to one another’s stories about what it is to follow Christ and to listen with respect. The Spirit of God is at work within us all if we are prepared to open ourselves to the Spirit’s presence.
5.
Story is powerful. Stories can changes people’s perceptions of who others are. The telling of story can help us to understand better our own experience of discipleship and realise the challenge that still face us.
6.
Part of a story either of the individual or of a community can be about hurt and pain. Part of the story can be about prejudice or barriers we might have towards others. The story telling can bring a healing of memories and enable new beginnings.
7.
In our search to find oneness in Christ we may well need to heal memories and misunderstandings that have arisen and still do arise between Christian of different traditions. But we can find healing and new beginnings can occur because Christ is our Peace. He came to reconcile people by the power of his Cross.
8.
At the centre of our Christian faith is the Cross which because it is taken up in love does not crush but liberates. The cross which was an instrument of death became the tree of life. The points of the cross unites north, south, east and west.
9.
In our striving for reconciliation we will meet the cross – those moments when we will be tempted to give up either out of frustration, suspicion or indifference. If we take up the cross, we will be led to resurrection and it will be hope for our world.
10.
Ecumenism is not an end in itself. Ecumenism and evangelisation are intimately linked because the will of God is that all humanity should be reconciled to God, to one another and to the whole of creation – there should be peace – shalom.
11.
As people of God, or again as St Paul says to the Ephesians – as God’s art work, we need to know the joys and hopes, the fears and anguishes of the people of our time so that we can bring to human yearnings the Good News of Jesus Christ who transforms life and makes all things new.
12.
We need to know the questions that people are asking even when we may find those questions awkward or distressing because those questions are a search for truth and meaning in life.
13.
For us Christ is the foundation stone of our lives and that of the whole Church. As we come together in prayer this evening, we ask that the Lord who calls us to follow him may enlighten our minds so that we may know the love of Christ and be filled with the utter fullness of God. Then the Lord working in us will do more than we can ask or imagine.
14.
Ends.
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