Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

INDICATORS FOR THE WAY FORWARD
a) The classical Creeds of the Early Church must be the foundation of any basis of
Christian Unity.
The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 is the most appropriate foundation for any basis
of Christian Unity, as it is confessed by both Eastern and Western Churches. As we have
seen, attempts to modernise the wording of the Creeds may need to be made, provided they
give insights into the original words, yet there is an alternative view. The words that lie
behind the Creeds, such as „incarnation‟, „Trinity‟, and „substance‟ are the common currency
of a classical Christian faith. They are words with universal significance throughout the
Church, key words of the faith which are faithfully reflected in the words of the Creeds.
b) It has become clear that, realistically, unions and reunions of churches are only
going to take place within the protestant tradition.
The 20 th Century saw a good number of unions and reunions, usually among the younger
churches of the „global south‟. Paradoxically, the hope of Catholic and Protestant unions
became less sure at a time when there was much more openness and contact between the
traditions than previously.
Views in Protestantism which demand a place of leadership for women in the Church and the
acceptance of the practice of homosexual lifestyles have made unions between Protestant and
Catholic and Orthodox churches impossible, and hinder fellowship even at the „grass roots‟
level.
Further, it is not realistic to expect the Roman Catholic Church to abandon its allegiance to
the supreme authority of the Papal Office or the Orthodox to give up their conviction that
their Church is the one, true, „undivided‟ Church to which all Christians should belong. Nor
can Protestants give up their allegiance to the supremacy of the authority of the Scriptures.
The future for Christian Unity as a visible organisational unity seems farther off than ever.
c) Organisational unity is not the only model for Christian Unity, nor is it even
desirable.
Nicholas von Zinzendorf, founder of the Moravian Church, spoke of there being a „jewel‟ in
every denomination. To him the greatest setback to Christian Unity was not
denominationalism but nominalism. Organisational unions of churches do not guarantee a
real meeting of souls who, to use Zinzendorf‟s phrase, are „Christed Ones‟.
Alec R Vidler, in a remarkably prophetic book, God‟s Judgement on Europe (1940), wrote
that reuniting the existing churches seems laudable but it is unrealistic as they are no longer –
„…potentially powerful institutions in modern society… It is more likely they will have
to die, in order that by the grace of God in His good time they may become born
again.‟ 198
198 Vidler, A R, God‟s Judgement on Europe, Longmans, Green and Co, first published 1940, p 107.
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