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Ecumenism
- Thread starter PrinceJeff
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Well Wols I looked the word "ecumenical" or something like that up on Merriam-Webster.com and it said, "a : of, relating to, or representing the whole of a body of churches b : promoting or tending toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation".
Seeing as I know little to nothing about it except what I read on a fundie website (www.wayoflife.org), I thought maybe I would ask my Catholic friends about it and get the other side as well.
Is it good, bad, or what? Opinions appreicated.
Inquiring,
Jeff
Seeing as I know little to nothing about it except what I read on a fundie website (www.wayoflife.org), I thought maybe I would ask my Catholic friends about it and get the other side as well.
Is it good, bad, or what? Opinions appreicated.Inquiring,
Jeff
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Ecumenism is the movement within the various Christian bodies to work together on common causes and re-assess those beliefs and peculiarities that separate us.
Examples of Protestant ecumenism are the National and World Councils of Churches. Many individual Protestant bodies have worked ecumenically to bring harmony to their beliefs so as to allow for common communion, and/or interchangeability of clergy, ie reaching Full Communion, where a member of one church can go and participate fully in a church of the other body. I believe that the Episcopalian Church and the ELCA have such an arrangement.
The Catholic Church approaches ecumenism from a different angle. Inter-communion is not possible with churches lacking a valid Apostolic priesthood and proper Eucharist, but the Church endeavors to work with other Christian bodies in areas of agreement (moral issues like abortion) and to engage in dialogues with groups like the Lutherans and Anglicans about divisive issues, trying to reach common understandings.
A fruit of this is the decree on common understanding of justification published by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (which includes the ELCA), effectively harmonizing Catholic and classical Lutheran soteriology.
Perhaps the focus of Catholic ecumenism is the Eastern Church, though unfortunately, there is not as much of a response from those bodies, who have suffered 100 years of Soviet persecution and are just now getting back on their feet, and thus are not in a position to be engaging in dialogues aimed towards resolving the millenial schism. Unlike talks with, say, the Southern Baptist Convention, talks with the Orthodox focus on only one thing: reunion and what it will take. Since Rome accepts the validity of Orthodox priesthood and sacraments, the barriers towards more unity between what John Paul II calls "the two lungs of Christ's Church" is far more reasonable than any hope of major agreement between Catholicism and some Protestant groups, especially those way off in the left field of fundamentalism.
Kirk
Examples of Protestant ecumenism are the National and World Councils of Churches. Many individual Protestant bodies have worked ecumenically to bring harmony to their beliefs so as to allow for common communion, and/or interchangeability of clergy, ie reaching Full Communion, where a member of one church can go and participate fully in a church of the other body. I believe that the Episcopalian Church and the ELCA have such an arrangement.
The Catholic Church approaches ecumenism from a different angle. Inter-communion is not possible with churches lacking a valid Apostolic priesthood and proper Eucharist, but the Church endeavors to work with other Christian bodies in areas of agreement (moral issues like abortion) and to engage in dialogues with groups like the Lutherans and Anglicans about divisive issues, trying to reach common understandings.
A fruit of this is the decree on common understanding of justification published by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (which includes the ELCA), effectively harmonizing Catholic and classical Lutheran soteriology.
Perhaps the focus of Catholic ecumenism is the Eastern Church, though unfortunately, there is not as much of a response from those bodies, who have suffered 100 years of Soviet persecution and are just now getting back on their feet, and thus are not in a position to be engaging in dialogues aimed towards resolving the millenial schism. Unlike talks with, say, the Southern Baptist Convention, talks with the Orthodox focus on only one thing: reunion and what it will take. Since Rome accepts the validity of Orthodox priesthood and sacraments, the barriers towards more unity between what John Paul II calls "the two lungs of Christ's Church" is far more reasonable than any hope of major agreement between Catholicism and some Protestant groups, especially those way off in the left field of fundamentalism.
Kirk
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Hey Kirk thanks for the input. I'm no theologian by any means, but on the surface I can't see anything wrong with the body of Christ being united. Since I am no way fundy either, them guys can stick it.
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Fundamentalists don't want to sully their ranks with people who think horrible things like, you know, that the pope is a Christian, or that not all non-Christians roast in Hell for all eternity and other abominable thoughts of that nature.
In truth, I don't care what Baptists, "non-denoms" or any of the Fundies do. Theirs is a tradition that is younger than the United States, and has almost no grounding in historical Christianity anyway, so I can't say it really matters what they think. And in any case, they're such a small minority of Christians (not much more than 100 million worldwide, since they're almost exclusively an Anglo-American phenomenon) that while they may make a lot of bluster, their impact on teh world is pretty much nil.
Kirk
In truth, I don't care what Baptists, "non-denoms" or any of the Fundies do. Theirs is a tradition that is younger than the United States, and has almost no grounding in historical Christianity anyway, so I can't say it really matters what they think. And in any case, they're such a small minority of Christians (not much more than 100 million worldwide, since they're almost exclusively an Anglo-American phenomenon) that while they may make a lot of bluster, their impact on teh world is pretty much nil.
Kirk
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