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Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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CHAPTER 8VISIONS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE 19 TH CENTURYIn <strong>the</strong> 1830s three remarkable religious movements came into being in GreatBritain, all of which, in different ways, tried to regain <strong>the</strong> primitive unity of <strong>the</strong>Church. Each was motivated by despair over <strong>the</strong> divided state of <strong>the</strong> Church.<strong>The</strong>y were <strong>the</strong> Irvingite Movement and its establishment of <strong>the</strong> CatholicApostolic Church, <strong>the</strong> Oxford Movement, and <strong>the</strong> Plymouth BrethrenMovement.All three were romantic in outlook in that <strong>the</strong>y envisaged a return to <strong>the</strong>purity of <strong>the</strong> Early Church, a golden age when (it was held) <strong>Christian</strong>ity wasclose to <strong>the</strong> pattern laid down by <strong>the</strong> apostles. But all three resulted in afur<strong>the</strong>r dividing, not a uniting, of <strong>the</strong> Church.THE IRVINGITE MOVEMENTEdward Irving (1792-1834) 95 greatly influenced <strong>the</strong> founding of <strong>the</strong> CatholicApostolic Church, which tried to recapture <strong>the</strong> offices and practices of <strong>the</strong> earlyChurch and hoped for a return to primitive unity, even experiencing a revival ofspeaking in tongues and <strong>the</strong> performing of miracles in <strong>the</strong> spirit of <strong>the</strong> firstPentecost. It quickly became a sect, but tried to justify its meeting separatelyfrom o<strong>the</strong>r <strong>Christian</strong>s on <strong>the</strong> ground that it had been raised up by God totestify to <strong>the</strong> oneness of all believers.95Irving was a Scot educated at Edinburgh University and licensed to preach in <strong>the</strong> Churchof Scotland in 1815. He became assistant to a well-known Evangelical preacher in Glasgow,Thomas Chalmers, and worked among <strong>the</strong> poor of <strong>the</strong> city. He preached in London churchesand drew great crowds to his impassioned preaching in which he rebuked <strong>the</strong> rich for <strong>the</strong>irtreatment of <strong>the</strong> poor. He got caught up in teachings on <strong>the</strong> Second Coming of Christ(Parousia) and was excommunicated by <strong>the</strong> local presbytery in 1833. He was <strong>the</strong>n deposed asa preacher by <strong>the</strong> Church of Scotland for his teaching on <strong>the</strong> human nature of Christ, whichheld that Christ partook of our sinfulness as well as our bodily human nature. His followersbuilt a large church for him in Regent Square in London, where soon ecstatic worship withhealings and tongues were experienced, and which became a fashionable church. He waslater expelled, and took with him some followers who formed <strong>the</strong>mselves into <strong>the</strong> CatholicApostolic Church. <strong>The</strong> ‘catholic’ nature of <strong>the</strong>ir worship lay in <strong>the</strong>ir stress on a Real Presencein <strong>the</strong> Eucharist, <strong>the</strong> reservation of <strong>the</strong> sacrament and <strong>the</strong> use of holy water.Page 124

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