Ecomenical movement - Do you support the unity of all churches?

Serapha said:

For clarity, there is a difference in "cannot" and "will not". You could take communion in my church, but would you?

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Hi Serapha

No, if I am to be in line with my Church (and not commit a mortal sin) it is cannot. It's not a legitimate decision.

If we were to argue semantics, then yes, I ultimately have the choice ... but that is true of every sin.

Rochir said:

- What do you think of the ecumenical movement which promotes services to be held together by different denominations and churches?

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to tell you the truth i have never heard of that ever happening...

- Would you willingly break the bread with a person who is of a different church than you?

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i dont judge people by what church they go to...or what religion they are. God wants everbody to be happy wheter what church or religion they are so why would i mistreat a person for going to a different church than me.

- How do you see the chances of Christianity ever becoming One again?

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i dont see it happening any time soon...well not untill scienctist finally come to their sences and prove God to be right...then maybe people will start to belive more.

jessica

SparkleSpaz said:

i dont see it happening any time soon...well not untill scienctist finally come to their sences and prove God to be right...then maybe people will start to belive more.

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Hi Jessica

Scientists can't prove God right. Science can be used to verify certain beliefs, and logic can prove for the existence of God, but neither can prove that Jesus Christ is God's Son, nor can either prove that God is right. We have faith for that.

What do you mean by breaking bread? As in the Holy Communion, or just eatinga meal?

I fast during the last day of Ramadan, and break the fast with my Muslim friends... by eating a bunch of great food. Are you people seriously opposed to that?

feo said:

What do you mean by breaking bread? As in the Holy Communion, or just eatinga meal?

I fast during the last day of Ramadan, and break the fast with my Muslim friends... by eating a bunch of great food. Are you people seriously opposed to that?

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I took "breaking bread" to mean Holy Communion. Outside of that, Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise, let's eat!

Serapha said:

Hi there!



For clarity, there is a difference in "cannot" and "will not". You could take communion in my church, but would you?


~serapha~

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I'm not the person you quoted, but I would agree with that person and my response to this is :

I cannot and I will not/would not.

I should add that before my conversion to Orthodoxy, I was an evangelical Protestant, a member of a mainstream denomination. Even then, I was extremely careful about which churches/assemblies I "broke bread" in.


Not surprisingly, I agree with SLStroh, clskinner and Inner Phyre: Until there is agreement of all doctrine, there is no unity.

clskinner said:

I took "breaking bread" to mean Holy Communion. Outside of that, Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise, let's eat!

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Me too! What's to eat??? Who's cooking and what are we having? I'm starving....no fast day today!

clskinner said:

I took "breaking bread" to mean Holy Communion. Outside of that, Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise, let's eat!

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whew good! I got really scared there for a sec!

Dialogue among Christians is a good thing, but the goals of the formal ecumenical movement, as we find in the World Council of Churches (WCC), is bad. Where there is no agreement on the nature of Christ's Church, the interpretation of scripture, and agreement on what the orthodox teachings are, there can be no true unity, only false unity, which keeps us away from reaching genuine unity.

If our expectations are only to learn to get along peacefully with one another, then dialogue will help us reach mutual understanding, but we cannot call it unity. At least not as it existed in the early church, which was unified by bishops who were all in communion with one another and in agreement on the true doctrines Christ passed down. We cannot be unified if we do not share the true faith, as it was passed down by Christ. Unity will only exist when we are united in truth. Christian truth is not relative or subject to ones own interpretation, it is a body of Truth established by God's revelation in Christ. This is not subjective. We must not form opinions on what Christ did for mankind, we must strive to know what he did by seeking out the truths as they were deposited to the apostles and passed down in the Church. For me, this was found in the Orthodox Church, but you must make your own search.

Basil

- What do you think of the ecumenical movement which promotes services to be held together by different denominations and churches?
- Would you willingly break the bread with a person who is of a different church than you?
- How do you see the chances of Christianity ever becoming One again?

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It's bad because if it all become one religion then eventually we will be told how and who to worship. There will only be one Bible, maybe not the true one.
I would eat with someone from a different church. yes.
very slim. If you have any questions, pm me. I usually only visit once per thread.

xeledhwenx said:

The body of Christ is for all those who have accepted Him personally as their Lord and Savior, and that's that.

For we should ground our belief in God upon His Word, and not upon the laws of man.

And as for the unity of all churches, it's on my prayer list

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im also praying for that. i myself do not understand why the minor differences in beliefs should stop us from worshipping with other believers. beliefs are as diverse as people who have minds to believe. unity in the essentials, charity/love in the non-essentials. i believe it is possible. as possible as it is for people with diverse levels of faith to go to the same church every week. it is jesus' prayer for all who believe to be one so that the world will believe. jn 17.

you do not have to compromise your faith to worship God. nobody should adapt a group's beliefs and take it as the only true thing in this world. we can all (believers) work together to reach the world for Christ.

now, i can just imagine what it would be like if all believers went to worship in just one place, that would be awesome. but at the same time, doing so would be impractical (to travel so far every week, to build a really big place that will be used one day of every week, etc)..plus unbiblical. in acts, they just met in the houses. God did not want His people to stay in just one place (babel), He wanted them to spread through all the earth, and what would all the other ministers do while one pastor preached Sunday morning- others will not be able to use their gifts.

my point is: we shouldnt discriminate other denominations, but work with them to glorify God. we need to make that extra effort to connect with them. to show the world that we are indeed brothers and sisters no matter where we are or what we do. but most importantly, obey God's greatest commandments, love Him and love others as ourselves. in that way, we can make sure we are doing and praying according to His will.