Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

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‘The “Vatican opens the ecumenical door on Communion” by allowingnon-Catholics to receive Communion on special occasions, but still forbidsits own communicants from receiving Communion in non-Catholiccongregations and gatherings.’ 29There is so much that Orthodoxy shares with both Catholicism andConservative Protestantism, especially in the Niceno-ConstantinopolitanCreed, with its commitment to the doctrines of the Trinity, the real humanityand deity of Jesus, and Jesus as sole Saviour and Lord. It has much to offer theWest in its ‘apophatic theology’, 30 its truth of theosis, its freedom from acentral overpowering authority and in its sense of the majesty and mystery ofthe Godhead in the Divine Liturgy.In September 2006, the Russian Orthodox Church called for ‘traditionalist’Christian churches to join to meet the threats of secularism and liberaltheologies. An appeal was made by Bishop Hilarion of Vienna, the MoscowPatriarchate’s representative to ecumenical organisations, during the Dialogueof Civilisations forum in Rhodes. His appeal for an alliance was not just toRoman Catholics, Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox and traditionalist Anglicans,but also to traditionalist Protestants, which in effect meant ConservativeEvangelicals.Earlier, in August of the same year, Metropolitan Kyrill of Smolensk andKaliningrad, the Russian Church’s chief of external relations, contactedPittsburgh’s Bishop Robert Duncan, seeking to restore relations betweenMoscow and the traditionalist dioceses in the Episcopal Church. 31This is surely evidence of something new happening in the Church, whichought not to be ignored by any of the three traditions.Orthodoxy does challenge some Western theology, in particular its doctrine oforiginal sin seen as original guilt. In Orthodoxy man is seen to inherit Adam’s29Church of England Newspaper, 11 November 2005.30Apophatic theology, also known as ‘Negative theology’. A theology that attempts todescribe God, the Divine Good, by negation, to speak only in terms of what may not be saidabout the perfect goodness that is God. In brief, negative theology is an attempt to achieveunity with the Divine Good through discernment, gaining knowledge of what God isnot (apophasis), rather than by describing what God is.31Church of England Newspaper, 6 October 06.Page 47
fallen corruption and mortality but not his guilt, and consequently in Orthodoxteaching an unbaptised baby is not in danger. Recent theologicaldevelopments in the Roman Catholic Church on the question of limbo, anintermediate, eternal place for unbaptised babies outside heaven, are pointingin the direction of the doctrine being dropped, which would bring Catholicismcloser to Orthodoxy and Protestantism.All three traditions agree, however, that mankind is fallen and cannot bringitself back to God without the Incarnation and the Atonement.While Orthodoxy and Catholicism share much in common – sacramentalworship, ‘sacerdotalism’, 32 veneration of Mary, and belief in the efficacy of theprayers of the departed – yet Orthodoxy can be quite close to Protestantism,especially in its Evangelical form. For instance, on the question of purgatoryOrthodoxy parts company with Catholicism:‘When a man dies in the grace of God, then God freely forgives him all hissins and demands no expiatory penalties: Christ, the Lamb of God whotakes away the sin of the world, is our only atonement and satisfaction.’ 33It would be true to observe that in general Eastern Orthodoxy has not tried toproselytise in the way that both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestantchurches have tried to win the Orthodox to their brands of Christianity. For thisboth groups need to repent of any unchristian conduct towards the Orthodox,while in no way retracting their particular views and emphases. 34Yet, to be realistic, Orthodoxy looks askance at both the Roman Church andthe Protestant churches, seeing them all as defective. A very interestingOrthodox writer who critiques both camps is Alexis Stepanovich Khomiakov(1804-1860). Under the influence of William Palmer of Magdalen College,Oxford (not the Palmer of the Tractarians), he wrote a seminal work, TheChurch is One (1844-45).32Sacerdotalism. The idea that a propitiatory sacrifice for sin must be offered by theintervention of an order of men separated to the priesthood.33Ware, Timothy, The Orthodox Church, Penguin Books, 1967, p 259.34See Lawrence, John, Hard facts of Unity, a Layman Looks at the Ecumenical Movement,SCM Press, 1961, Ch 8.Page 48
Page 11 and 12: Can Christian Unity be expressed ac
Page 13 and 14: ‘In the Trinity the three are one
Page 15 and 16: Protestants, equally, have to be ab
Page 17 and 18: When John Wesley said that Christia
Page 19 and 20: (Geneva) Agreed Statement was issue
Page 21 and 22: While organised Christian endeavour
Page 23 and 24: Christian Unity consist?’ We shal
Page 25 and 26: CHAPTER 1CHRISTIAN UNITY IN THE EAR
Page 27 and 28: Almost all the heresies in the Earl
Page 29 and 30: interpreted as being against the la
Page 31 and 32: was raised by the Novatian schism.
Page 33 and 34: ArianismArianism was the most impor
Page 35 and 36: the Person of Christ. This was the
Page 37 and 38: Nicaea (325 AD), which asserted, ag
Page 39 and 40: He wrote:‘The ancient doctrines o
Page 41 and 42: agreement into the terms and ethics
Page 43 and 44: authority of the local bishop; Cypr
Page 45 and 46: Protestants. He was born in Tagaste
Page 47 and 48: guide the affairs of men: the Papac
Page 49 and 50: The distinction between laity and c
Page 51: ule. Christians were allowed to be
Page 55 and 56: During the 1917 Communist Revolutio
Page 57 and 58: his repentance and restoration. The
Page 59 and 60: just before death, they might recei
Page 61 and 62: In both the East and the West heres
Page 63 and 64: The Waldensians were so named after
Page 65 and 66: CHAPTER 4THE SECOND GREAT SPLIT: WE
Page 67 and 68: Far more serious criticisms of the
Page 69 and 70: and the sacraments. He was tried by
Page 71 and 72: and his discovering that the Script
Page 73 and 74: denominational allegiances: confess
Page 75 and 76: aptism and substituting for it bapt
Page 77 and 78: Vincent de Lérins’ threefold bas
Page 79 and 80: Charles de Guise, Cardinal of Lorra
Page 81 and 82: CHAPTER 5QUOTATIONS ON THE THEME OF
Page 83 and 84: Dr Charles Malik - 20 th Century:
Page 85 and 86: Nicholas Zernov - 20 th Century:‘
Page 87 and 88: The restoration of the universal Ch
Page 89 and 90: Timothy Ware - 20 th Century:‘It
Page 91 and 92: Basilea Schlink - 20 th Century:‘
Page 93 and 94: Cardinal Basil Hume - 20 th Century
Page 95 and 96: Keith A Fournier - 20 th Century:
Page 97 and 98: concept of a contract between a rul
Page 99 and 100: harmoniously ordered society of pea
Page 101 and 102: 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
Page 149 and 150:
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
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and so I have some golden opportuni
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CHAPTER 10 THESE BRIDGES CAN’T BE
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‘Only he - only Christ - was able
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c) Justification by Faith and Works
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However, in the Credo of the People
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f) Purgatory‘Purgatory’ is a na
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The Catechism of the Catholic Churc
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who love and trust the Lord Jesus C
Page 195 and 196:
However, there is a growing awarene
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encouraged to receive a blessing al
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c) Traduction Œcumenique de la Bib
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witness. There is one such Sisterho
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Practically all para-church groups
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s) Missions and CampaignsMissions a
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My Protestant friends say to me tha
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Most Christians, in all three tradi
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of God may be complete, equipped fo
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CHAPTER 12NOW WHAT?This book began
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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
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‘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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