Ecumenical Sunday

[TurtleHare]

Do y'all have this at your place of worship where you focus on unity with other Christians?

 

[Lamb]

We do not celebrate that. A lot of churches that do have a LOT in common with those they celebrate it with. Their differences are very minor from what I've seen. I could be wrong though.

 

[Josiah]

Do y'all have this at your place of worship where you focus on unity with other Christians?

Every Sunday...... by our joining with the WHOLE catholic church in the Lord's Prayer, in the Nicene Creed, in the Holy Eucharist..... even by (usually) reading the same lessons as they on a Sunday, celebrating the same liturgical calendar..... And when our Pastor leads the general prayer, there is ALWAYS a prayer for "the whole church, spread out over the centuries and continents" and often a prayer for "persecuted Christians."



- Josiah

 

[Josiah]

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I wrote this 11 years ago, when I was still a teenager. I think I pretty much still hold the same position.....

SOME THOUGHTS AROUND UNITY AND DISAGREEMENT AMONG CHRISTIANS:



Faith:

ALL Christians are of one faith. It is faith in Christ as our Savior. ALL Christians share this faith and are one in this faith. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ. And we are a part of His church by faith. IMO, one would not be a Christian without this faith in Christ - and all who have that faith in Christ are Christians. IMO, it's not rocket science.



Customs, Traditions, Teachings:


Of course, not all 2,000,000,000 Christians agree with all other 2,000,000,000 Christians about every viewpoint, custom, tradition, practice, policy, interpretation, application, etc. Duh. Never have. Never will. In some cases, it would be nice. In other cases, it matters not. BUT...



Unity:

IMO, the Bible and the Creed are correct and that there IS ONE faith, ONE Lord. That there IS ONE holy catholic church. Always has been. Always will be. Man cannot change that reality, no matter how much ego and pride, no matter how much they condemn and rebuke, no matter how great their propensity to excommunicate each other, no matter how they try to institutionalize Christianity. They CANNOT destroy His church.




Concern those teachings, the level of unity among the great majority of Christians is nothing less than AMAZING! Physics prof of mine: "It all makes sense until you get to the edges, then it all gets crazy." LOL. It seems true in many things. But, in Christianity, I think we quickly discover that perhaps 90-95% of Christians agree on perhaps 90-95% of teachings. The fact that we're all here agreeing to the Nicene Creed is HUGE!!!! And we agree on much, much more than that!!!


IMO, much of the "problem" (if it is such) is because of our unwillingless to leave things where God does. Many have an uncontrollable urge to "explain" everything, to "connect the dots" to "fill in the blanks" to make it all "make sense." We think we have to supply all the "answers" even if God doesn't seem to think so. MOST of the things I disagree with brothers and sisters in Christ is not because I think they are wrong but because I think they've overstepped what we can verify as true.



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Yup. That kid was on to something....


- Josiah