Digging Out the Embedded Church - The Maranatha Community

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Later, the Western Church added the filioque clause in order to state that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father „and from the Son‟ (filioque). Gerald Bray writes: „The filioque clause was never accepted in the East, and although it did not provoke the great schism of 1054, it helped to prevent a reunion of the Churches in 1274 and again in 1439. Today it is a major difference between the Eastern and Western Churches.‟ 203 At one level, the filioque debate is a matter of semantics, a question of a Greek or Latin word being preferred. The Greek (Eastern) church, in speaking of the relation of the Holy Spirit to the Father, used „ekporeuesthai‟, to go forth as from a source, and the Latin (Western) Church used „proceder‟, to come from, without involving any idea of origin. The Western Church was keen to emphasize the full Deity of the Son, and filioque says that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and also from the Son. The Eastern Church, while also holding to the full Deity of Christ, wished to safeguard the sole origin of the Holy Spirit in the Father, as the source of all things, and so could not accept the filioque. The debate goes on and there are theologians on both sides who maintain that theological truth, not just semantics, is the issue at stake. One way forward that has been suggested is that the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the Father, should be seen as coming through the Son. Some Eastern theologians seem happy with this definition. The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is the only Creed that all branches of the Church, Orthodox (without the filioque), Roman Catholic and mainstream Protestant, can accept, and so is an important basis for Christian Unity. Since 797 AD, no Council has been convened which is truly ecumenical, binding on both Eastern and Western Churches; the Niceno- Constantinopolitan Creed is a Creed coming from this period of the „undivided‟ Church. At first, creeds were used as baptismal confessions; later thay were incorporated into liturgies. So creeds are meant to be assertions of faith, a faith that binds all Christians to God and to one another. These classical creeds have bound the people of God together through the long history of the Church. Here is the value of retaining the creeds substantially as they were first formed. Where churches have dispensed with creedal confessions, they have tended to lapse into some form of Unitarianism. This is graphically illustrated by the history of the English Presbyterians, who abandoned creeds in the mid-18 th Century: all their congregations ended up as Unitarian churches. Modern groups like the Brethren and the Pentecostal Churches, while not reciting Creeds liturgically, have strong commitments to their doctrines. Cults like the Jehovah‟s Witnesses and the Mormons reject the Creeds. 203 Bray, Gerald, Creeds, Councils and Christ, Mentor Books, 1997, p 183. Page 167
APPENDIX 2 FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON THE THEME OF CHRISTIAN UNITY a) Psalm 133 This Psalm describes the characteristics of unity in a graphic way. As a „song of ascents‟ it was probably used in Temple worship in Jerusalem. The pilgrims going up to worship are united in their act of devotion as a united family is bound together in happy (where „good‟ = „beautiful‟) fellowship. It is an analogy of the unity of the people of God in any age and so can be applied to the Church. The writer sees the people‟s unity as being like the anointing oil with which a high priest was consecrated to the service of the Lord (Exodus 30.22-33). There the oil flowed down his beard, like the dew of distant Mount Hermon distilling over and blessing Zion. This oil was costly, fragrant, must not be copied and was holy. Christian unity is costly; it cannot be achieved without considerable pain and patience and self-sacrifice. It is a fragrant thing. Visitors to churches where there is unity smell it almost as soon as they enter the church. It cannot be imitated successfully; a pretence of unity is soon detected as false. True unity is a beautiful thing that delights the heart of God and so is „holy‟. Michael Wilcock writes on this Psalm: „Does the life of our own church fellowship achieve this? Does it even seek it? Aiming at real unity within a church is a much greater challenge than attending ecumenical events between churches. If we cannot get on with the members of our Christian fellowship what right have we to try to promote unity more widely? 204 b) John 17. 21-23 These are key verses in any discussion of Christian Unity as they are the words of our Lord. Christians living as one body declare to the world by so doing that they are an illustration of the unity in the Godhead, and they authenticate Christ‟s ministry and message to the world. As Christian unity is so much at the heart of Jesus‟ concern for the manifestation of the Godhead, the pursuit of it cannot be an option for Christians today. c) Ephesians 4.1-6 Paul‟s words on the unity of believers are equally searching. He says unity has a seven-fold aspect: one body; one Spirit; one hope; one Lord; one faith; one baptism; one God and Father of all. 204 Wilcock, Michael, The Message of the Psalms 73-150, The Bible Speaks Today, IVP 2001, p 244. Page 168
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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
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It was from the overseas Protestant
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THE OXFORD TRACTARIAN MOVEMENT Anot
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the Church of England‟s doctrinal
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„We pray that… all who desire t
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thereof, in prayer, in the remembra
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honours the Lord and his Word; the
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apostolic church enjoyed, and that
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episcopate were too radical for mos
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Denominations began to form their o
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In this Shanghai Conference‟s Rep
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With so much talk of unity and coop
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„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 and 148: If the opportunity for the Church t
Page 149 and 150: Ministers, priests and laypeople in
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: APPENDIX 1 THE NICENO-CONSTANTINOPO
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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