January 27, 2015
The quest for Christian unity began when seemingly providential circumstances brought friends together. The chance encounter on the island of Madiera in 1890 and subsequent friendship of Lord Halifax, an Anglican layman dedicated to the reunification of the Church of England with the Church of Rome, and Abbé Fernand Portal, a French Catholic priest, eventually made possible the encyclical Divinum Illud Munus which established the Ascensiontide novena of prayer for unity.
A similar example of this dynamic is that a book by another Anglican, Rev. Spencer Jones, titled England and the Holy See, evoked an extensive correspondence with Father Paul Wattson, founder of the Graymoor Atonement Friars who subsequently began the original Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Octave. Their friendship became, in the words of Wattson, “the seed-thought of the Octave.”
Lord Halifax and Abbé Portal, Rev. Jones and Father Wattson came from diverse backgrounds and experiences. But as the classical and Christian tradition demonstrates, friendship consists of three movements. First, friends enjoy one another’s company. Next, they render service to one another. And finally, they share a commitment to the common good.
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity that we have just celebrated internationally emerged from the efforts of friends in different churches. Could there be a more fitting symbol of what God can do through persons open to the grace of Christian friendship and committed to pursuing the common good?
As we go forward now into the year, let’s continue to “grow” the relationship, both with individuals newly encountered, and between local church communities who only infrequently do something together. Church union will happen in much the same manner that friendship takes hold: through a gradual process of growth, not as a once and for all move.
In our Sunday assemblies, do we pray by name for the neighboring Christian communities, thereby witnessing to a sense of real albeit imperfect communion in faith with them? When we play as a faith community, do we extend an invitation to the congregations down the street to join us in our picnic so we can get to know one another? When we respond to the gospel mandate for peace and justice, do we pool our resources with our Christian neighbors and do it together?
The World Council of Churches’ meeting in Lund, Sweden, established a principle for the normal operating procedure of each church: “Do everything together as far as conscience permits.” If you stop to think about it, there are very few things that conscience obliges us to do separately.