Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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If it is true that Christians in their traditions are more or less divided onecclesiological matters, yet understand each other better on doctrinal issuesand views of spirituality, then it seems sensible for Christians to speak withone voice where they can.It is not likely, in the foreseeable future, that either the Roman Catholic or theOrthodox Church will abandon its claim to be the one true Church, or thateither will accept women into the priesthood.The evidence seems to be that there has been a hardening of attitude towardsother churches by the Roman Catholics since the turn of the Millennium. TheVatican document Dominus Iesus of 2000 cautioned Catholics not to think oftheir own church in terms of equality with other denominations. There was asense in which any church other than the Roman church was not a ‘proper’church.Recently, Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Ratzinger, who was behind Dominus Iesus,has repeated that warning to the dismay of many ecumenists. 195 Yet the doorof fellowship opened in Vatican II towards other Christians will not be shut bythis later pronouncement. It simply underlines what this book has beenmaintaining, that the pursuit of formal union schemes with Rome or theOrthodox Churches is not the way forward.The Church is made up of people who love and worship Christ and follow histeaching and such are embedded in the historic churches. Our task is to seekthem out as brothers and sisters largely lost to us by denominationaldivisions, to have fellowship with them in worship, witness and service: to‘dig them out’, in Vidler’s phrase. Digging requires effort; it will not be doneby wishful thinking.195Article in The Times, 11 July 2007. Subsequently (September 2007), Cardinal WalterKaspar has explained that the Roman Catholic Church does not infer that other churches arefalse churches but that they have a different way of understanding what the church is.Page 207
CHAPTER 12NOW WHAT?This book began with my finding a simple company of believers in an EastYorkshire country town and subsequently finding that their confession of faithin Christ as Saviour and Lord was consistent with the confession of the faith inall three classical traditions of Christianity. The way they worshipped, havingno clergy as such nor any central Church authority, made them so verydifferent from the majority of Christian churches. But I found Christ in theirmidst as I was later to find him in Anglican, Methodist, Baptist, Reformed,Catholic and Orthodox hearts and in the lives of many other believers.It seems to me that there are several reasons why Christians hold back fromecumenical activity.REASONS WHY CHRISTIANS HOLD BACK FROM ECUMENICAL ACTIVITYa) The word ‘ecumenical’ itself.The word, from the Greek ‘oikumenikos’, ‘of the inhabited earth’, meansuniversal, worldwide. So to have ecumenical interests is to have the interest ofthe worldwide church at heart.But for many Christians, Catholic or Protestant, the word is associated with theidea of compromise. It is assumed that ecumenism means finding the lowestcommon denominator of the Christian faith and having to give up the rest.However, that is not the concept of ecumenism envisaged in this book. Againand again the idea of ‘unity in diversity’ is expressed across a wide range ofdenominational loyalties. There is a basic core of ‘primary truths’ which cannotbe yielded, which true Christians of all denominations hold.These truths are those which Christians throughout history have held: thatJesus, true Man and true God, is our Saviour and Lord; that the Bible holds therevelation that brings us that truth and is the supreme authority for faith andconduct; and that the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is the essentialConfession of the whole Church.Page 208
Page 11 and 12:
Can Christian Unity be expressed ac
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‘In the Trinity the three are one
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Protestants, equally, have to be ab
Page 17 and 18:
When John Wesley said that Christia
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(Geneva) Agreed Statement was issue
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While organised Christian endeavour
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Christian Unity consist?’ We shal
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CHAPTER 1CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EAR
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Almost all the heresies in the Earl
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interpreted as being against the la
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was raised by the Novatian schism.
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ArianismArianism was the most impor
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the Person of Christ. This was the
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Nicaea (325 AD), which asserted, ag
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He wrote:‘The ancient doctrines o
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agreement into the terms and ethics
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authority of the local bishop; Cypr
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Protestants. He was born in Tagaste
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guide the affairs of men: the Papac
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The distinction between laity and c
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ule. Christians were allowed to be
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fallen corruption and mortality but
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During the 1917 Communist Revolutio
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his repentance and restoration. The
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just before death, they might recei
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In both the East and the West heres
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The Waldensians were so named after
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CHAPTER 4THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: WE
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Far more serious criticisms of the
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and the sacraments. He was tried by
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and his discovering that the Script
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denominational allegiances: confess
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aptism and substituting for it bapt
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Vincent de Lérins’ threefold bas
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Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorra
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CHAPTER 5QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME OF
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Dr Charles Malik - 20 th Century:
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Nicholas Zernov - 20 th Century:‘
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The restoration of the universal Ch
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Timothy Ware - 20 th Century:‘It
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Basilea Schlink - 20 th Century:‘
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Cardinal Basil Hume - 20 th Century
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Keith A Fournier - 20 th Century:
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concept of a contract between a rul
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harmoniously ordered society of pea
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interesting to note that the disput
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• In the Eucharist, Komensky main
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The Conference opened with much pom
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a growing unity among Christians at
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We cannot leave the 17 th Century w
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CHAPTER 7CHRISTIAN UNITY AND THE EV
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In Dr Woodward’s account of the r
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for Whitefield’s work in America,
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the West, the North and the South.
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‘John Wesley, displeased at not b
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formally, though it may have helped
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In view of all this, Charles Wesley
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Some of the refugees were persuaded
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Isaac Watts (1647-1748), the pionee
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CHAPTER 8VISIONS OF CHRISTIAN UNITY
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hymns and Eastern orthodox spiritua
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eplied with a series of Eirenicons
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positively wrote on grace and love
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hand that pours out sorrow’ and t
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He died in England in 1853 an ‘ec
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assembly, without much hesitation r
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‘Loving all whom Christ loves bec
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says, the Broad Church was ‘a moo
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far greater part for the laity in t
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ehind some of the criticism of the
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came together with the clear purpos
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In subsequent missionary conference
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university formed by a federation o
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credo-baptists to accept the provis
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Horton Davies 137 points out in his
Page 161 and 162: However, since New Delhi, the WCC s
Page 163 and 164: (b) The Church of Christ in China (
Page 165 and 166: the Scriptures as the supreme autho
Page 167 and 168: In 1970 a similar scheme to that of
Page 169 and 170: indulgences, were all confirmed str
Page 171 and 172: however, at a lower level, manifest
Page 173 and 174: In her study of the Evolution of th
Page 175 and 176: Even within the Reformed Protestant
Page 177 and 178: the publisher’s foreword to Gee
Page 179 and 180: and so I have some golden opportuni
Page 181 and 182: CHAPTER 10 THESE BRIDGES CAN’T BE
Page 183 and 184: ‘Only he - only Christ - was able
Page 185 and 186: c) Justification by Faith and Works
Page 187 and 188: However, in the Credo of the People
Page 189 and 190: f) Purgatory‘Purgatory’ is a na
Page 191 and 192: The Catechism of the Catholic Churc
Page 193 and 194: who love and trust the Lord Jesus C
Page 195 and 196: However, there is a growing awarene
Page 197 and 198: encouraged to receive a blessing al
Page 199 and 200: c) Traduction Œcumenique de la Bib
Page 201 and 202: witness. There is one such Sisterho
Page 203 and 204: Practically all para-church groups
Page 205 and 206: s) Missions and CampaignsMissions a
Page 207 and 208: My Protestant friends say to me tha
Page 209 and 210: Most Christians, in all three tradi
Page 211: of God may be complete, equipped fo
Page 215 and 216: c) For some Protestants ecumenism m
Page 217 and 218: The church at Corinth was full of C
Page 219 and 220: ) It has become clear that, realist
Page 221 and 222: Christians who believe a Catholic d
Page 223 and 224: There are three confessions that ha
Page 225 and 226: ‘The solution to the ecumenical i
Page 227 and 228: k) Christ has left us an example -
Page 229 and 230: day’, the Niceno-Constantinopolit
Page 231 and 232: APPENDIX 2FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON TH
Page 233 and 234: of the common good, and when one’
Page 235 and 236: eaten, as idols did not exist anywa
Page 237 and 238: 14. That to continue in any known s
Page 239 and 240: What all three traditions have in c
Page 241 and 242: Calvin held that the Gospel of Jesu
Page 243 and 244: Relations between Protestantism, Ca
Page 245 and 246: Brandreth, Henry, R T, The Oecumeni
Page 247 and 248: Hopko, Thomas, All the Fullness of
Page 249 and 250: Rupp, E G and Drewery, Benjamin, Ma
Page 251 and 252: INDEXAAct of Uniformity, 114aggiorn
Page 253 and 254: Frame, John M, 91, 187Francis of As
Page 255 and 256: Richardson, Paul, 239Roman Catholic
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