Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

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Intercommunion is not yet practised in the sense of literally taking bread and wine together, but it is already practised at Maranatha conferences and retreats in the sense that Protestants sit with Catholics as they celebrate the mass, without actually taking the elements, and viceversa. Everyone is encouraged to attend the Roman Catholic Mass, and Protestants are encouraged to receive a blessing alongside those who receive communion. And the clergy of all traditions share together in the Protestant Communion. Most recently a Roman Catholic priest took the intercessions, while nine other clergy ministered the other parts of the liturgy. I would call this sitting-in a „Sensing the Presence of Christ‟. If it is objected that this is a sham and not the real thing, it can be urged that it is certainly better than sitting apart. A more difficult situation arises when considering intercommunion with Eastern Orthodox believers, who have an even stronger sense of the singularity of their church than do many Roman Catholics. But „Sensing the Presence of Christ‟ would be a step forward here, too. Attending each other‟s communion services is already being practised by other groups, even when fully participating in intercommunion as such is not yet possible. A correspondent wrote to me: „Cooperative ministry to seafarers in the Port of Rotterdam, while I was there, was exceptional, especially with regard to the Eucharist, which was purposely celebrated in an identical way by Roman Catholics, Anglicans, and Dutch Reformed.‟ b) Churches Together In 1990 Churches Together was formed from the ecumenical work of the British Council of Churches (BCC), which was constituted in 1942 by the cooperation of 16 denominations and several organisations. Its doctrinal basis was that of the WCC, and therefore Trinitarian. By 1950 the BCC had 119 members appointed to represent member churches covering the whole of the British Isles, and it operated through 175 local councils of churches. 180 The basis of Churches Together reads: „The Council of Churches for Britain and Ireland is a fellowship of Churches in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and in the Republic of Ireland which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Saviour according to the Scriptures and therefore seek to fulfil their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.‟ Gestures are made from time to time to try to show that progress is being made ecumenically. In the spirit of Churches Together three ecumenical canons have been appointed to the staff of Blackburn Cathedral: the German Lutheran Bishop of Braunschweig (Brunswick), a Methodist District Chairman and the Roman Catholic Dean of Blackburn. 180 Rouse, Ruth and Neill, Stephen C, A History of the Ecumenical Movement, 1517-1948, SPCK, London, 1954, p 625. Page 143
Ministers, priests and laypeople in all denominations are hard-pressed to do all they have to do without further ecumenical activities. The correspondent quoted above wrote to me: „The diaries of most denominational ministers and lay-leaders are too full. Where local churches share the same units of mission-field it is much easier to cooperate.‟ A speaker at a Churches Together meeting recently made the same judgement, and said that we should think of sharing in each other‟s meetings and activities rather than of multiplying ecumenical gatherings. He cited as an example the visitation of old people in care homes. If one church has a surplus of people willing to visit, they should offer to go on the rota for visiting of a church which has not enough workers. Together, most needs can be met by basic care and love offered in Christ‟s name. P Mark Achtemeier tells of a Presbyterian church in South Dakota which was approached by nearby local Roman Catholics who were planning a prayer service for their (the Presbyterians‟) church and its work. 181 This same Roman Catholic Church later made cakes to raise money for a building programme of a Baptist Church. Inspired by Churches Together there is joint worship, albeit just for one week a year, in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. c) Traduction Œcumenique de la Bible Inter-church academic study of the Bible and translation work is exemplified by the production of the Traduction Œcumenique de la Bible, a joint effort of the Protestant Societé Biblique Française and the Catholic Editions du Cerf in 1988. d) The Sharing of Meeting-places The sharing of meeting-places by different denominations is now becoming more common. Resources are often wasted by keeping several meeting-places going in one location. Would it not be better if, say, the Anglicans, Methodists and United Reformed believers in a town shared the same building? This may or may not lead to an amalgamation of services. Each congregation could have its own order and identity. e) Sharing Baptism Some Anglican and Free churches already observe both paedo- and credo-baptisms. On Easter Day 2008 the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, baptised 27 candidates in a water tank outside the Minster. Most were baptised by immersion, some with one immersion, others with a threefold immersion. A baby was christened and a girl of seven baptised by immersion. An ecumenical group in York, One Voice, had organised the event. The Archbishop, helped by representatives of the candidates‟ own churches, did the baptizing. It was a significant display of Christian unity, but it was also a statement from a 181 Ed Braaten, Carl E and Jenson, Robert W, The Ecumenical Future, William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, 2004, p 197. Page 144
Page 1 and 2:
Digging Out the Embedded Church Dis
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The Maranatha Community comprises t
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Introduction CONTENTS Chapter 1 Chr
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ead, nicely browned on top. He plac
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HOW DO WE DIG OUT THE EMBEDDED CHUR
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That the Church should express this
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For Alfeyev, „Faith is a gift, th
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„heresies„ of the Early Church
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Traditionally, the Church has made
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CHAPTER 1 CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EA
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A certain Docetic teacher, often id
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Novatianism When the persecutions o
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The fortunes of the Arian party in
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An attempt was made in 482 AD (29 y
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was development in the interpretati
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CYPRIAN AND AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO The
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position would see baptism as not t
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The Eastern Church‟s relationship
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insisted from the second Lateran Co
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There is so much that Orthodoxy sha
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we do not talk to each other. Our t
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The question of heresy does not com
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They were missionary-minded and the
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Lollard ideas lingered in English r
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CHAPTER 4 THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: W
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unity‟s sake in subsequent centur
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Erasmus wrote he asserts, through o
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attle-cry, is perhaps the most famo
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Regulations for the good ordering o
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Eucharist was not just a commemorat
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CHAPTER 5 QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME O
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How rare then it is to meet a man w
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are often much bigger divisions bet
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St Germanus of Constantinople - 8 t
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manner. He declared that men could
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S L Greenslade - 20 th Century: „
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CHAPTER 6 HOPES FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY
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imminent return of Christ (Komensky
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a concern that merchant adventurers
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also anti-Socinian. Calixtus himsel
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The Eastern Churches were not rent
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everyone - from outward forms to in
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Women were not usually members of t
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work in America, shows him, though
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The aim of the conference was to br
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From 1768 Harris‟s home at Talgar
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twice more to congregations of Whit
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denominations was not their distinc
Page 97 and 98: It was from the overseas Protestant
Page 99 and 100: THE OXFORD TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT Anot
Page 101 and 102: the Church of England‟s doctrinal
Page 103 and 104: „We pray that… all who desire t
Page 105 and 106: thereof, in prayer, in the remembra
Page 107 and 108: honours the Lord and his Word; the
Page 109 and 110: apostolic church enjoyed, and that
Page 111 and 112: episcopate were too radical for mos
Page 113 and 114: Denominations began to form their o
Page 115 and 116: In this Shanghai Conference‟s Rep
Page 117 and 118: With so much talk of unity and coop
Page 119 and 120: „The liturgical movement in weste
Page 121 and 122: • Sharing a corporate life of wit
Page 123 and 124: • Our acknowledgement of the Apos
Page 125 and 126: (h) The Evangelical Church in Germa
Page 127 and 128: It changed nothing in respect of do
Page 129 and 130: Some Evangelical Protestants want t
Page 131 and 132: • It is in continuity with the
Page 133 and 134: But things have changed. Richard Ma
Page 135 and 136: evangelism - (and) state what the r
Page 137 and 138: Repentance and faith are at the hea
Page 139 and 140: outcome of being justified. Agreeme
Page 141 and 142: Virgin‟s salutary influence on me
Page 143 and 144: h) Confession The sacrament of pena
Page 145 and 146: demanding way would be sin. The que
Page 147: If the opportunity for the Church t
Page 151 and 152: West Kirby, near to my home, the Si
Page 153 and 154: n) Shared Study Courses There is a
Page 155 and 156: Even some Protestant churches today
Page 157 and 158: Vincent de Lérins spoke of a „pr
Page 159 and 160: It is not likely, in the foreseeabl
Page 161 and 162: Christ and are trying their best to
Page 163 and 164: upon the name of our Lord Jesus Chr
Page 165 and 166: Perhaps this dying process is now b
Page 167 and 168: economic factors giving rise to suc
Page 169 and 170: deeper ecumenism, one that does not
Page 171 and 172: APPENDIX 1 THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPO
Page 173 and 174: APPENDIX 2 FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON T
Page 175 and 176: The „apostles and elders‟ of th
Page 177 and 178: „The purpose of the Reformation C
Page 179 and 180: What all three traditions have in c
Page 181 and 182: Cromwellian period, in a treatise o
Page 183 and 184: BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS AND DOCUMENTS
Page 185 and 186: Cullman, Oscar, The Earliest Christ
Page 187 and 188: McCarthy, Tim, The Catholic Traditi
Page 189 and 190: Letter concerning the civil princip
Page 191 and 192: Coptic Orthodox Church, 10 Council
Page 193 and 194: Parousia, 24, 68, 93 Paul VI, 10, 1
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