The more specific we get when it comes to behavior and belief, the less unity there will be. If there was some way to bring together all denominations into one big Church (and I'm not saying I agree it would be a good idea with the fallen state of the world), I fear it would end up being completely watered-down and meaningless like you implied when we were discussing denominations that didn't "bicker" with one another.
I'd much prefer having multiple, strong denominations than one giant watered down whole. Christ will come someday as promised and gather together his universal church, so we will ultimately have the unity that you crave, but I don't believe it's ever going to happen by human effort, and if it did, chances are very good it would be largely political and corrupt on an even more widespread level than now, because that's how fallen humans tend to operate.
I do agree with ecumenical efforts with churches and denominations working together on things though. I think there could certainly be more unity there despite any theological differences. I regularly participate in activities with other denominations besides my own and there have been plenty of things we have all agreed on.
Yes, I'm with you on that. Each year my Catholic parish hosts an interfaith Good Friday service where pastors from Pentecostal, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican, Non-denominational, and Presbyterian churches all get a chance to read sequentially from the scriptures surrounding Jesus trial, death, and burial, and to say a few words, lead a song, or say a prayer.
I believe in a very practical, progressive ecumenism. You start on the outside and work inwards. IOW, you begin with the lowest common denominator, such as feeding the hungry, and you join in those activities as much as possible. The food bank at my parish is a joint effort by ALL the churches in our town. From there you go up to common worship activities as much as can be handled. Obviously since we have different beliefs on communion we are not ready for that yet. But we all believe in things like prayer, songs of worship, and reading of the scriptures. Most churches are at this point of the game. Sadly, there are still some churches (almost always fundamentalist ones) playing the "only we have the true gospel and all the rest of yous are the false gospel and we will have nothing to do with you." We can only continue to reach out to them with love.
Looking to the future, I believe the next bar to leap over is shared communion. This will be easier for some than others. I think there are really only essentially two groups: symbol only and real presence. The symbol only people already break bread together across denominational lines and have for a long time.
The challenge now is for the real presence folks to come to an understanding among ourselves. In the past we have made this a doctrinal issue: you must believe in ALL the doctrine our church teaches or you cannot break bread with us. More and more we are beginning to understand that this doesn't really make sense. The only obstacles to communion are being in a state of sin and not recognizing the body of Christ. Weeeell, now, it's kind of scary to logically take the next step, but if that's true, then if a Lutheran is in a state of grace and believes in Real Presence, they should be able to take communion at a Catholic Church. If a Catholic is in a state of grace and believes in Real Presence they should be able to receive Eucharist at an EO church.
Will the "symbol only" people and the "real presence" people ever see eye to eye? Probably not in my lifetime. But I believe it will happen, because I believe that when people repent, even when they repent of schism, that the Holy Spirit will change hearts and minds and a way will be found.
Once we are all breaking bread together, although we will still not have ideal unity (and we must continue to strive for it), we WILL have necessary unity.
May we all be one as Christ is one with the Father.
