Christian
Unity
An Address by David Kilgour
To the Christian Council of
the Capital Area/Conseil Chrétien
de la Capitale
St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic
Church, Hull, Québec
January 24,1999
Dear Fellow Believers,
It is a great honour to join
you today on such an important
topic. But let me mention
first an issue that has troubled
many Christians across our
country: the perception that
representatives of our Catholic
and United churches were denied
the right to refer to Jesus
Christ and to read from the
New Testament at the multi-faith
memorial service for the victims
of the Swiss Air catastrophe
off Nova Scotia.
Having discussed the matter
since with senior protocol
officials in the Department
of Foreign Affairs, I understand
there was no intention
at all to prevent such references
in the service. Somehow, however,
a different impression was
created for two ministers
of our faith and the ministry
regrets it profoundly. If
Foreign Affairs is involved
in another such service in
the future, we’ll do
everything feasible to avoid
a recurrence. I apologize
for what happened.
With that clarification,
I’d like to take off
my Secretary of State hat
and speak to you as a fellow
Christian and private individual.
What follows are my own views,
but you’ll perhaps be
interested to know that committed
members of fully five denominations
have made suggestions as to
what I might say to you. It’s
been an exercise in Christian
unity itself, but we all know
that a camel is a horse designed
by a committee. But the faults
in this talk are solely my
own responsibility.
I congratulate the Christian
Council for its 28 years of
work to build bridges and
co-ventures among the various
Christian denominations in
this bi-provincial capital
area. You have lit many candles,
so to speak, and I hope you
continue to do so, possibly
building bridges to other
faith communities as well.
We all have much in common.
In this week of prayer for
Christian unity, verses 20
and 21 of chapter 17 the Gospel
of John are probably the best
authority. Jesus was praying
for his apostles, but he went
much further, saying:
Neither pray I for these
(apostles) alone, but for
them also which shall believe
in me through their word;
that they all may be one;
as thou, Father, art in me,
and I in thee, that they also
may be one in us: that the
world may believe that thou
hast sent me.
The founder of our faith
wanted His first followers
to be united so that they
could help convince contemporaries
that He was the Son of God
and still dwelled with them.
Does He not today leave to
the individual churches each
of us attends the task of
embodying His presence in
the world and of spreading
the same message?
Before giving some reasons
for all of us to continue
to work hard towards Christian
unity, let me indicate a few
things which I believe such
unity should not include:
Things Unity Does Not
Include
Unity does not include, in
the hope of being more inclusive,
a movement away from the central
role of Jesus Christ as Son
of God and our Saviour. It
is in Christ, as St. Paul
reminds us, that there is
no longer Jew or Greek, male
or female, slave or free.
The Good News still is that
God so loved the world that
He gave His only Son to it.
This does not mean for a
moment that we believers should
have a static view of Christ.
The world has changed much
since his coming and the pace
of change is astonishing,
but Jesus Christ is
our contemporary. He is
sufficient for the needs and
questions of our time. I am
intrigued by those billboards
in the U.K. in which Jesus
is presented by some churches
more as a revolutionary like
Che Guevara to attract people
to Easter services. Jesus
was revolutionary. He still
means to turn our worlds upside
down. Or is it rightside up
?
On that I’d recommend
to each of you Philip Yancey’s
best selling book, The
Jesus I Never Knew. It
is a great resource for congregations
and study groups.
2. Unity should not mean
uniformity in our forms of
service. God has created humankind
in enormous variety: a form
of service that works well
for one group of Canadians
in one part of the city or
country will not work as well
for everyone else. For example,
some Christians prefer to
sing and dance during a service;
others prefer more traditional
forms of worship. In my own
view, most Canadians today
prefer the piano or guitar
to the organ. Guitar music
can help attract new believers,
especially young people.
3. Unity does not mean merging
denominations unless their
memberships provide informed
consent and a positive vote.
One reality in the late 20th
century is that where the
number of denominations is
large in a community their
impact on the population is
greater at least in terms
of the percentage of men,
women and children who attend
services regularly. In other
words, denominational competitiveness
is normally good for Christianity.
4. Unity does not require
a standardization of theological,
political, economic and other
viewpoints among Christians.
In most congregations in my
experience, there is a wide
range of views on a host of
subjects. No thoughtful Christian
would attempt to argue that
Jesus would be, say, a Liberal,
Bloc Québécois, Reformer or
New Democrat if he returned
to Canada today.
I’d urge you here to
read, The Soul of Politics:
Beyond ‘Religious Right’
and ‘Secular Left’,
by Jim Wallis, who spends
most of his time fighting
poverty and hopelessness on
inner Washington, D.C. streets.
Wallis excoriates both sides
of the U.S. political spectrum.
Contemporary American conservatives,
he asserts, ignore the effects
of poverty, racism and sexism
in calling for family values
and individual self-development;
today’s liberals in the
U.S. on the other hand are
for him "unable to articulate
or demonstrate the kind of
moral values that must underpin
any serious movement of social
transformation". Readers
have to decide for themselves
to what extent, if any, his
analysis is applicable to
contemporary Canada.
Bridging Right/Left Divide
Traditionally the ecumenical
movement has worked to develop
unity among Christian denominations,
but it has become increasingly
apparent that one of the greatest
threats to unity is not the
gap created by differences
between denominations but
the gap found within denominations
… between those who are
sometimes called "the
religious right" and
those who are sometimes called
"liberals or activists."
Thus Anglicans are divided
against Anglicans; United
Church Members are divided
against United Church Members.
A Roman Catholic who is a
social activist tends to feel
more affinity with activists
from other denominations than
with a fellow Roman Catholic
who is theologically conservative
and whose concerns focus on
the personal.
How do we come together?
How do we bridge this Right/Left
gap?
It is an important question
because it is also becoming
apparent that neither side
alone has the answers which
are needed to address the
critical problems of our society,
problems such as loneliness
and poverty to name only two.
Those who advocate personal
spiritual renewal while turning
their back on issues of social
justice present a distorted
spirituality at best. Those
who only speak of social justice
while turning a blind eye
to issues of personal faith
are equally guilty of distortion.
What is urgently needed in
our churches is a renewed
ecumenical movement which
seeks to find common ground
between the Left and the Right,
between the evangelical and
the liberal, between those
whose primary concern is social
justice and those whose main
concern is personal faith.
Prophetic Spirituality
Can such common ground not
be found in the "prophetic
spirituality" which is described in so
many of the stories of the Old Testament,
where concerns for Righteousness and justice
are melded into one?
Is not such common ground
epitomised in the person of Jesus Christ, who
not only preached personal turning to God in
faith, but also proclaimed good news for the
poor who were oppressed by systemic injustice?
For me there is much hope
for the unity of the church in our day. There
is hope because God does dwell with us, and
the spirit of God empowers us to bridge the
gaps which exist between us all in the same
way that he did in the Book of Acts.
Issues Needing More
Unity
1. A recent series of very
troubling articles in the
Ottawa Citizen by Bob Harvey
reminded us that fully half the Christians who
have died for their faith since AD33 probably
did so since 1900. The estimate of those
martyred in the 20th
century is more than 35 million – about
163,000 per year at current levels. If all
Christian denominations around the world were
to speak out everywhere with one voice on this
phenomenon, we’d have a far greater impact
than speaking as individual denominations. Why
not establish an inter-denominational task
force on persecution in all countries with
significant Christian populations?
2. When someone attacks a
Christian – or any – faith community
anywhere in our own country unfairly, wouldn’t
it be more effective if members of other
denominations – or perhaps even the heads of
them – were to reply? More specifically, if
a media outlet ridicules, say, the Catholic
church, Protestants should come to its defence
thoughtfully but with vigour.
None of us here needs to be
reminded of the awful things done in the name
of our various faiths in the past, including
the Inquisition, the Crusades, and Canada’s
residential schools. Most of us deeply regret
these acts. Today, like you, I’m delighted
when Christians stand shoulder-to-shoulder
with other faith communities on issues of
persecution of any human being for their
faith. In Edmonton, for example, Christians
participated with Muslims in a large rally at
City Hall a few years ago over the persecution
of Muslims in ex-Yugoslavia by so-called
Christians. Christian MPs and senators of all
parties were members of the Parliamentary
Group for Soviet Jewry in the 1980s, and so
on!
Yes, there is much we can
do, but at the same time we
know as believers, the church
and especially the individual
churches to which we belong
is a good place to be. I have
already mentioned Philip Yancey,
the editor at large of Christianity
Today, and recommended him
to you. His latest book Church:
Why Bother? has much to
say to us too. He notes that
when critics say a particular
parish fails to live up to
the New Testament’s high
standards in some respect,
"anyone who enters the
church expecting perfection
does not understand the nature
of that risk or the nature
of humanity. Just as every
romantic eventually learns
that marriage is the beginning,
not the end, of the struggle
to make love work, every Christian
must learn that church is
also only a beginning."
None of us has perfect parents,
children or spouses, so why
give up on a parish church
because of imperfections?
Many have done so. Let us
do everything in our power
to invite them to give the
church a second look.
I am reminded here of something
that one of Canada’s
greatest writers, the late
Gabrielle Roy of this province
and Manitoba, noted in her
autobiography, Enchantment
and Sorrow, about her
return to the church:
"Many years later, God’s
presence throughout this world
seemed very clear to me, leading
me to consider the Church’s
practices not so puerile after
all, since they had helped
keep the light at its nucleus
alive for me. I won’t
deny that when I returned
it was partly from a nostalgic
desire to be kneeling again
beside my dead mother, and
how could I do this except
through God."
Eating Tears
- The New Testament holds
up the model of a church
which exists primarily for
the sake of non-members.
Most parishes fall short
here, but many have enormous
outreach in their communities.
In Ottawa and Hull the churches
are involved in shelters
for the homeless, ministries
to street people, safe places
for abused women and food
banks to name only a few.
I am especially impressed
with the work of L’Arche
founded by Jean Vanier.
The late Henri Nouwen of
Toronto’s L’Arche
community wrote often about
lonely abandoned people
without people to love them.
Nouwen tells of a young
minister who has nothing
to offer an old man facing
surgery except his own loving
concern. "No man can
stay alive when nobody is
waiting for him," he
wrote. All of us, priests,
ministers, and laity, can
fulfil this role of eating
tears for someone.
Yancey thinks our parishes
should ideally be "God’s
neighbourhood bar, a hangout
like the television show Cheers
for people who know all about
your lousy boss, your mother
with heart trouble …,
and the teenager who won’t
do what you tell him; a place
where you can unwind, spill
your life story, and get a
sympathetic look, not a self-righteous
leer." Can anyone disagree?
The suggestion has been made
that AA in it’s meetings
is very close to the early
Christian Church, such as
the one in Corinth.
- No-one can be a Christian
alone. Parish churches exist
primarily to worship God;
His reconciling love transcends
all differences of nationality,
race, age and gender. In
the words of Blaise Pascal
"the real strength
of Christianity is that
it is adapted to all."
Conclusion
In closing, we all know about
the church schism which occurred
at the start of the second
millennium between the Eastern
and Western parts of the church.
We know about the Protestant
Reformation in the 16th
century. Can we today at the
start of the third millennium
not all see ecumenism as an
important part of our faith
and work?
If so, is not prayer at the
core of the ecumenical movement?
In our common Christian prayer,
the essence of brother- and
sisterhood in Christ can become
clear to all, Christian and
non-Christian alike. When
our denominations gather together
in prayer as we are doing
this week, do we not see how
little divides us and how
much unites us spiritually?
We saw this unity in mid-1998
during the Billy Graham Crusade
as Catholics and Protestants
worked together in common
cause for months. Can we believers
of all faiths – Christians
and non-Christians –
afford the luxury of division
today? Wasn’t it Richard
John Neuhaus who called on
believers to be "against
the world for the world"?
By that, of course, he meant
violence, greed, pride, anger,
materialism and other ills
one sees daily. The "loss
of the sense of sin"
should probably be in the
list too.
So if the first millennium
was the one of Christian unity,
the second one of division,
is it not our task –
yours and mine – on the
eve of the third to build
Christian unity? Let us pray
to our Father so that all
who believe in His Son Jesus
might be one family and the
Father glorified. This increased
grace and harmony among Christians
would also allow us to reach
out in love to other faith
communities.
Thank you and God bless.
