Since becoming a Christian, I have witnessed and received spiritual scrutiny. This has come in the form of disdain for stained glass windows, declarations of denominations being barred from salvation, and professors who are reluctant to answer questions about prominent theologians who were not presbyterian. The connection which I make with these interactions is one of spiritual illiteracy. By that I mean that a common trend I have noticed is that many Christians (and myself for a time) are highly uncomfortable in any style of worship that is different than their own. This breeds immense division in the body of Christ, and I would like to challenge the effects of this division.
Paul writes in Galatians that “for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ.” (Gal. 3:26-28)
We are all a part of the body of Christ and called to unity as the bride of Christ. In our depravity, it seems that we have, as a society, fetishized categorization and division, and we have allowed this sin to seep into our religion.
Ecumenicalism is a word coined by the Confessing Church in Germany WWII which served to oppose and challenge the Reichskirche of its day. I use it in a way which refers to unity among the body of Christ; Protestants, Orthodox, and Catholics, and whatnot.
I have friends at Covenant and beyond who do not feel comfortable visiting any other church other than their home church. While I am glad that they are so passionate about their traditions, this leaves me with a sinking feeling in my chest. While I agree it is beneficial to plant roots in a church and grow in that community, it is possible that we are falling subject to this division can lead us to unnecessarily narrowing our community. When, in fact, we are one body in Christ, and I believe it to be essential that we commune and engage in fellowship with those who are outside of our tradition.
Christ was persecuted for doing what He did best: associating with those who were socially unacceptable, loving them, and breaking bread with them. If we want to follow in Christ’s footsteps, we need to love those who are different from us. If we were all to integrate unity like this into the church, we would find that we have much more in common than not.
Since coming to Christ, it has been natural for me to be integrated in different parts of the church. I have friends who are a part of the Orthodox, Catholic, Dutch Reformed, and Church of England, and the truth is that we all have much more in common than we allow ourselves to think. When engaging in conversations with these friends it is not often that we find something which we disagree about, and when we do, it’s usually over an inaccurate presupposition.
A prominent lesson I have learned since coming to Christ would be that there are strengths and weaknesses in every Christian tradition. There are facets of Catholicism which I adore dearly, like confession and monasticism. There are traditions of Orthodoxy which I find very helpful, especially the emphasis on morning, evening and midday prayers. There has not yet been a tradition which I have come across which has not fertilized my spiritual growth in some way.
Conversely, it is also important that we realize that there are also weaknesses associated with every tradition. Add extra emphasis on “every” tradition. I don’t believe that we should completely ignore the differences among our traditions, but I know that we do a great job of erring on the side of emphasis on differences instead of similarities, and I believe that we would benefit from correcting that.