January 13, 2014
Jesus intended to have one Church. He says that in the Scriptures, “That they also may be one, as you Father are in me and I in you.” It was at the Last Supper that Jesus said that; the words are recorded in John’s Gospel. It seems simple enough: One Lord, one Christ, one Baptism, one Church with many disciples. But clearly that is not the way it has turned out. First our Orthodox brothers and sisters disagreed with how the Church was operating, and the first schism in the Church occurred.
Then came the Reformation, and faithful sons of the Church like Martin Luther began to disagree with many teachings of the one Western Church. He protested the idea that indulgences could be sold – they should not be. And he had 94 other concerns, which he nailed to a door in a church at Wittenberg, and the Protestant Reformation began.
Following Luther there were many who believed that their way of Christianity was the best and only way to a relationship with God in Jesus’ name, and so the one Church of which Jesus spoke was not one at all.
The above is a much too simple explanation of why it is important for us to now pray together – Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox – that we might achieve the unity that Jesus prayed for at the Last Supper.
So, as part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Jan. 18-25), we at the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Grand Rapids, Mich., are inviting all local Christian communities to join together with us in prayer. On Jan. 21 at 7 p.m., we will welcome not only our own parishioners but all the ministers and members of various communities of the Christian communities in the Heartside neighborhood and downtown Grand Rapids. I am, of course, hoping that we will have a large group of Cathedral parishioners at the church to welcome our brothers and sisters as well as to share in the reality of praying together for unity. Because Eucharist is one of the dividing realities of our faiths together, we will not celebrate the Eucharist. We will instead celebrate God’s Word together and pray in the way Jesus taught us to – praising God and celebrating in song and word about those things that we hold dear in our search for a deeper relationship with our Father.
The Decree on Ecumenism from the Second Vatican Council tells us: “The ecumenical movement is striving to overcome … obstacles. But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ’s body, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church.”
It is in that spirit of love and concern for those of other Christian faiths that we call Christians together so that we can pray for the one Church that Jesus truly wanted. Come join us in that prayer.