Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is the only Creed that all branches of theChurch, Orthodox (without the filioque), Roman Catholic and mainstreamProtestant, can accept, and so is an important basis for Christian Unity. Since797 AD, no Council has been convened which is truly ecumenical, binding onboth Eastern and Western Churches; the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed is aCreed coming from this period of the ‘undivided’ Church.At first, creeds were used as baptismal confessions; later thay wereincorporated into liturgies. So creeds are meant to be assertions of faith, afaith that binds all Christians to God and to one another. These classical creedshave bound the people of God together through the long history of theChurch. Here is the value of retaining the creeds substantially as they were firstformed.Where churches have dispensed with creedal confessions, they have tended tolapse into some form of Unitarianism. This is graphically illustrated by thehistory of the English Presbyterians, who abandoned creeds in the mid-18 thCentury: all their congregations ended up as Unitarian churches. Moderngroups like the Brethren and the Pentecostal Churches, while not recitingCreeds liturgically, have strong commitments to their doctrines. Cults like theJehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons reject the Creeds.Page 225
APPENDIX 2FOUR BIBLICAL TEXTS ON THE THEME OF CHRISTIAN UNITYa) Psalm 133This Psalm describes the characteristics of unity in a graphic way. As a ‘song ofascents’ it was probably used in Temple worship in Jerusalem. The pilgrimsgoing up to worship are united in their act of devotion as a united family isbound together in happy (where ‘good’ = ‘beautiful’) fellowship. It is ananalogy of the unity of the people of God in any age and so can be applied tothe Church.The writer sees the people’s unity as being like the anointing oil with which ahigh priest was consecrated to the service of the Lord (Exodus 30.22-33). Therethe oil flowed down his beard, like the dew of distant Mount Hermon distillingover and blessing Zion.This oil was costly, fragrant, must not be copied and was holy. Christian unity iscostly; it cannot be achieved without considerable pain and patience and selfsacrifice.It is a fragrant thing. Visitors to churches where there is unity smell italmost as soon as they enter the church. It cannot be imitated successfully; apretence of unity is soon detected as false. True unity is a beautiful thing thatdelights 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 seekit?Aiming at real unity within a church is a much greater challenge thanattending ecumenical events between churches. If we cannot get on withthe members of our Christian fellowship what right have we to try topromote unity more widely? 204204Wilcock, Michael, The Message of the Psalms 73-150, The Bible Speaks Today, IVP 2001,p 244.Page 226
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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
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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
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However, since New Delhi, the WCC s
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(b) The Church of Christ in China (
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the Scriptures as the supreme autho
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In 1970 a similar scheme to that of
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indulgences, were all confirmed str
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however, at a lower level, manifest
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In her study of the Evolution of th
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Even within the Reformed Protestant
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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 and 212: of God may be complete, equipped fo
Page 213 and 214: CHAPTER 12NOW WHAT?This book began
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: day’, the Niceno-Constantinopolit
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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