|
DATE |
CHURCH |
SUBJECT |
PREACHER |
BIBLE
REF. |
|
18.01.09 |
All Saints Church |
Christian Unity |
Tony Higton |
John 17:1-11
Isaiah 62:1-7 |
|
Introduction
In the third week of January each year the
church focuses on Christian unity and united events locally are
advertised in this week’s Pews News.
Our gospel reading concluded with Jesus
praying these incredible words –‘I am coming to you, Holy
Father, protect them (my followers) by the power of your name…so
that they may be one as we are one’. We can scarcely
imaging such unity but one day it will come.
In our first reading Isaiah gave a prophecy
that the Lord would in the future rejoice over his people as a
bridegroom rejoices over his bride and she will be the praise of
the earth. So in the future there will be a transformation of
the people of God to such an extent that they will be a crown of
splendour and a royal diadem.
I wonder how much the Lord grieves that the
world-wide church falls far short of that standard?
The subject of Christian unity may be
viewed as a series of ever-increasing circles:
1.Unity in the
local congregation
This is where unity begins – with us here
and each congregation throughout the world which gathers to
worship Jesus. When new people come to All Saints most comment
what a happy family atmosphere there is. But how we need to
guard that and not allow in divisive attitudes. There is
nothing that spoils a church more than people gossiping
negatively about each other or forming cliques or coming to
church full of resentment about someone else there. We may
think that our church is remarkably free of such things, but the
enemy of God’s work won’t miss a trick to try to spoil the
atmosphere – so let each of us look to ourselves to guard
against any divisiveness or negativity.
2. Unity in the
local group or benefice
So we start with our own congregation, but
then the circle widens to include those congregations we are
most closely connected with, in this case, the other
congregations in the Church in the Woottons – the 8.0’clock
members, the St Mary’s congregation, the Café Church. There
used to be a group of about 30 people that went from St Mary’s
to All Saints and vice versa on weeks when there wasn’t a 10.0am
congregation at each church. So we inherited a good deal of
unity, but the leadership felt for the sake of newcomers that
there should be a weekly 10.0am congregation at All Saints and
St Mary’s. So now we foster unity in other ways – in the PCC,
in the home groups, in the prayer group, in social events, etc.
This unity needs to be nurtured. In some parishes there is
rivalry between the churches, which is such a shame as it
detracts from the witness of the church. In addition to
fostering unity in our benefice, the Church in the Woottons has
for many years been deeply involved in the wider community of
the Woottons, so that is another circle where unity over certain
matters can be encouraged. For example, the opportunities in the
schools are fantastic, even better than some areas where they
actually have church schools.
3. Unity between
Christian churches
There has been a vast improvement since the
1960s in relationships between Christian denominations. In the
more distant past there was a time when Catholics went to war
against Protestants and vice versa. When I was growing up (and
still in Northern Ireland), there was deep suspicion of each
grouping. But in the 1960s there were positive developments in
the English churches, including a major attempt at Synod level
to unite the Anglicans and Methodists, which tragically failed.
But this sent such shock waves through both churches that a
grass roots movement began where ordinary lay people began to
meet to try to discover common ground. This has had amazing
success, but also brought about a huge difference in the way we
look at unity between denominations. At first there almost
seemed to be an expectation that we should try to carry out our
worship and organise ourselves in the same way. But the buzz
phrase now is ‘ Unity in diversity’ – a recognition that we have
found different ways of worshipping and organising ourselves,
but we can respect one another and certainly do some things
together. We will still prefer our own way of doing things, but
we don’t look down on other Christians who do things
differently.
There is a BUT: since the Anglican Church
ordained women priests that has brought a new cause of division
with the Catholics and within the Anglican Church there is a
huge problem over different views of homosexual practice. So
there can be no question that progress towards unity is fraught
with problems.
4. What about
unity between religions?
Our theme is Christian unity and the Bible
has a simple definition of a Christian – someone who worships
and follows Jesus as Lord. So clearly that does not include
people like Jehovah’s Witnesses and obviously not people of
other religions altogether. But there is so much we can
cooperate over, especially social, community and national
issues. A lot goes on at diocesan level on such matters and
Tony is involved in a Muslim-Christian dialogue group, to deepen
understanding, but without compromising our faith. Also the
Council of which he is a member for Andrew White’s work in
Baghdad involves Jews and Moslems as well as Christians.
So there are widening circles of unity –
the local congregation, the Church in the Woottons and respect
for other Christian denominations. There is also the importance
of fostering good relationships within the local community and
cooperation between different faith groups over issues that will
benefit us all.
But I will end with a word of warning -
some people think it would be wonderful to work towards some
interfaith, one world religion, because religion can be so
divisive in our world. But actually such a move would in itself
be divisive because it would be very intolerant of any who could
not in all conscience go along with it. There are prophetic
warnings in the Bible against idolatry and also of a one-world
religion, such as prophecies in the Book of Revelation. Either
Jesus is Lord of all or he is not Lord at all. So we do need to
be aware of such pressures and ask God for the courage to uphold
our faith in Jesus, while being loving towards people of other
faiths. And that love must involve sharing the love of Jesus
with them too when we get the opportunity. That is why Tony and
I went to live in Israel some years ago. We all are called to
walk a tight-rope, avoiding interfaith compromise on the one
hand and lack of love on the other.
In all of this we are not on our own – the
Holy Spirit is the Counsellor. He is the One who comes
alongside us to give us wisdom and to enable the Church of God
to be both united and loving, so that one day we shall bring joy
to the heart of Jesus our Lord, who prayed that we should be one
as He, the Father and the Spirit are one.
Patricia Higton |
