Fr. Louis Birabaluge, SX
The following reflection stems from the context characterized by the increasing number of what Cardinal Walter Kasper calls “mushroom churches”[1]. It’s not fair to continue the journey of ecumenism just in terms of gathering, praying and sharing experiences with Christians of other confessions, as it is usually done in the week of prayer for Christian unity (18-25 January). If we want the experience of ecumenism to be meaningful and fruitful, a time of pause and discernment is needed in order to find out answers to these questions: with whom do we come to dialogue, on what and for which purpose? Furthermore, this pause should be a time of strengthening our own identity as Catholics as well as our sense of belonging to the Catholic Church.
Just to give you an example from Sierra Leone, which has prompted my reflection, in a country where only about 20% are Christians[2], apart from the Catholics, Anglicans, Assemblies of God, Methodists, and Wesleyans, some of the “Christian new churches” present in Freetown and Makeni are as follows:
“New Life Ministries Church of God in Christ International, Evangelical Full Gospel Church of the First Born, Bethel/World Outreach Ministry, Bethel Ministries, Faith Outreach Ministries International, Deeper Life Bible Church, Sanctuary Praise Church, Faith Healing Bible Church, Benthely Deliverance Church, Foursquare Gospel Church, Destiny International Worship Centre (D.I. W.C.), Christ Evangelical International, Winners Chapel International, Our Lord’s Healing and Deliverance Fire for Fire Ministry, Victory Bible Church, Christ Embassy Church, New Life Ministries Church, Fleming Bible Church, The Way of Truth Evangelical Ministry Church, The New Beginnings Baptist Church, Set the Captives Free Evangelical Church of Freedom, New Beginnings Ministry, Holy Ghost Fire International Evangelical Church, Faith Baptist Church, Outreach Ministry International, Door Christian Fellowship, Great Harvest Evangelical, Fire Deliverance Ministry, Pentecostal Evangelical Deliverance Church, The Chapel of Peace, The Rock Church Ministry, Life of Christ Ministries, The Full Gospel Outreach Ministry, The Calvary Charismatic Ministry, The Resurrection Power Ministries Life Church International, Harvest Filed Chapel International, Jesus is Lord Ministry, Christ Revival Evangelical Ministry Sanctuary Praise Church (C.R. E. M. S. P. C.), Mount Aureol Fellowship, Church of the First-born Sierra Leone…”
Even though there are many similarities between these churches and the worldwide movement of the Evangelical and Pentecostal communities, this indicative list of almost 40 churches prepared by Fr. Joseph Tamba Kamanda[3] shows how difficult it is to know the difference among them, if only one considers their names. It is true that all these new religious movements claim to be Christian: they believe in Jesus as their Saviour and profess one baptism. Precisely, on these basic and common notions of Christian faith one needs to reflect and be sure they meet with the Catholic doctrine. For, without a common foundation, the commitment to ecumenism is utterly meaningless. There is nothing of dogmatism in this statement: serious ecumenism for sure cannot tolerate amalgamation, syncretism and indifferentism.
An ecumenical purpose is needed and urgently
In our present time, marked by the spread and multiplication of Christian confessions, the purpose of the ecumenical journey has to be kept alive and continuously reminded. Thus the call for a prudent attitude toward ecumenism, which does not mean immediate unity of all Christians, is still necessary and urgent. The ecumenical movement is a grace of God, given to us as an answer to Jesus’ prayer. (Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, n°22).
Therefore, the commitment to ecumenism must be carried out always, both in obedience to God’s will, to gather all nations into one family; and as our response to Jesus’ prayer (John 17:20-21). As disciples of Christ we cannot tolerate any act of violence or division for whatever religious reasons, least of all among Christians.
But we are now witnessing the paradox of the Christian need for unity and of the increasing number of new Christian confessions. For example, the risk of schism in the Anglican Communion because of women's ordination to the priesthood and, in some Anglican provinces, also to the episcopacy, the case of gay marriage…are problems which will make the journey to unity with the Catholic church ever more difficult but also within the Anglican Communion itself as her recent Synod has revealed.[4]
In the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism n°61 §a, b, published in 1993, pastoral agents whose task is to help forming a genuine ecumenical attitude among Catholic Christian communities, are asked: first of all, to expound clearly, with charity and due firmness the whole doctrine of the Catholic Church. Secondly, they are advised, when speaking of other Churches and ecclesial communities, to be sure that they present the teaching and doctrine of other Christian confessions correctly and honestly.
However, due to the diversity and the complexity of Christian confessions today, it seems quite impossible to fulfill this orientation from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. If we must explain to others what our faith is, (surely not without difficulties and uncertainty, as J. Card. Ratzinger reminds us in his Introduction to Christianity, San Francisco, Ignatius Press, p. 42) none of us is able to explain presently, with full clarity, the beliefs of the many Christian confessions around us. We may just repeat what is commonly said: “We are all saved by Jesus!” This lack of knowledge about the faith and doctrine of our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus calls us Catholics for an urgent need of a new, wise and balanced ecumenical attitude in our promotion for unity among Christians.
Surely, the journey of ecumenism cannot be stopped without betraying our faith in God the Father who has no favourites (Dt 10: 17), in whom there is no partiality (Ac 10: 34; Rm 2: 11), and who wants to save all men and women (1Tm 2: 4). But at the same time, we cannot deny our profession of faith where we confess Jesus Christ as the Unique mediator between God and the human race, who gave himself as ransom for all (1Tm2: 5-6) and without whom there is no salvation (Ac 4: 12).
If we truly confess Jesus as the Head of the Body, the Church (Col 1: 18), it means we cannot consider the Church as a Church built by some Christians according to their opinions and moods. So, while we keep a genuine openness of heart to all, as the Pope keeps reminding us, a time for pause and discernment should be a time when we strengthen our own Christian identity in depth and understanding. When we say: “I believe in the Catholic Church” we imply to deepen our sense of belonging to the Catholic Church and to grow in communion with all those people with whom we share the same faith received from the Apostles. For this purpose, I will propose, in a separate paper, two means through which the ecumenical spirit may be kept in our communities in this time of discernment. These means are: formation with emphasis on the spirit of ecumenism “ad intra”, that is within our own communities, and an ecumenism of “accompaniment”, which means to strengthen the “art of encountering” people as pastoral approach.
[1]Walter Kasper, “Present and future of the Ecumenical movement: Plenary, November 12-17/2001” in www.vatican.va/2016/10/01.
[2] “Religious composition by country in percentages”, in www.pewformum.org/2012/12/18.
[3] Presently, he is the general vicar of the archdiocese of Freetown. It was during his talk to the conference of major religious superiors at Leicester, Freetown, Sierra Leone on 20th February, 2012. During my stay in the town of Makeni (Northern Province of Sierra Leone, I drew down a list in which most of these churches are present.
[4] Woods M., “Primate meetings: What you need to know about why gay marriage could still split the Church” in www.christiantoday.org/2016/01/19.
The following reflection stems from the context characterized by the increasing number of what Cardinal Walter Kasper calls “mushroom churches”[1]. It’s not fair to continue the journey of ecumenism just in terms of gathering, praying and sharing experiences with Christians of other confessions, as it is usually done in the week of prayer for Christian unity (18-25 January). If we want the experience of ecumenism to be meaningful and fruitful, a time of pause and discernment is needed in order to find out answers to these questions: with whom do we come to dialogue, on what and for which purpose? Furthermore, this pause should be a time of strengthening our own identity as Catholics as well as our sense of belonging to the Catholic Church.
Just to give you an example from Sierra Leone, which has prompted my reflection, in a country where only about 20% are Christians[2], apart from the Catholics, Anglicans, Assemblies of God, Methodists, and Wesleyans, some of the “Christian new churches” present in Freetown and Makeni are as follows:
“New Life Ministries Church of God in Christ International, Evangelical Full Gospel Church of the First Born, Bethel/World Outreach Ministry, Bethel Ministries, Faith Outreach Ministries International, Deeper Life Bible Church, Sanctuary Praise Church, Faith Healing Bible Church, Benthely Deliverance Church, Foursquare Gospel Church, Destiny International Worship Centre (D.I. W.C.), Christ Evangelical International, Winners Chapel International, Our Lord’s Healing and Deliverance Fire for Fire Ministry, Victory Bible Church, Christ Embassy Church, New Life Ministries Church, Fleming Bible Church, The Way of Truth Evangelical Ministry Church, The New Beginnings Baptist Church, Set the Captives Free Evangelical Church of Freedom, New Beginnings Ministry, Holy Ghost Fire International Evangelical Church, Faith Baptist Church, Outreach Ministry International, Door Christian Fellowship, Great Harvest Evangelical, Fire Deliverance Ministry, Pentecostal Evangelical Deliverance Church, The Chapel of Peace, The Rock Church Ministry, Life of Christ Ministries, The Full Gospel Outreach Ministry, The Calvary Charismatic Ministry, The Resurrection Power Ministries Life Church International, Harvest Filed Chapel International, Jesus is Lord Ministry, Christ Revival Evangelical Ministry Sanctuary Praise Church (C.R. E. M. S. P. C.), Mount Aureol Fellowship, Church of the First-born Sierra Leone…”
Even though there are many similarities between these churches and the worldwide movement of the Evangelical and Pentecostal communities, this indicative list of almost 40 churches prepared by Fr. Joseph Tamba Kamanda[3] shows how difficult it is to know the difference among them, if only one considers their names. It is true that all these new religious movements claim to be Christian: they believe in Jesus as their Saviour and profess one baptism. Precisely, on these basic and common notions of Christian faith one needs to reflect and be sure they meet with the Catholic doctrine. For, without a common foundation, the commitment to ecumenism is utterly meaningless. There is nothing of dogmatism in this statement: serious ecumenism for sure cannot tolerate amalgamation, syncretism and indifferentism.
An ecumenical purpose is needed and urgently
In our present time, marked by the spread and multiplication of Christian confessions, the purpose of the ecumenical journey has to be kept alive and continuously reminded. Thus the call for a prudent attitude toward ecumenism, which does not mean immediate unity of all Christians, is still necessary and urgent. The ecumenical movement is a grace of God, given to us as an answer to Jesus’ prayer. (Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism, n°22).
Therefore, the commitment to ecumenism must be carried out always, both in obedience to God’s will, to gather all nations into one family; and as our response to Jesus’ prayer (John 17:20-21). As disciples of Christ we cannot tolerate any act of violence or division for whatever religious reasons, least of all among Christians.
But we are now witnessing the paradox of the Christian need for unity and of the increasing number of new Christian confessions. For example, the risk of schism in the Anglican Communion because of women's ordination to the priesthood and, in some Anglican provinces, also to the episcopacy, the case of gay marriage…are problems which will make the journey to unity with the Catholic church ever more difficult but also within the Anglican Communion itself as her recent Synod has revealed.[4]
In the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism n°61 §a, b, published in 1993, pastoral agents whose task is to help forming a genuine ecumenical attitude among Catholic Christian communities, are asked: first of all, to expound clearly, with charity and due firmness the whole doctrine of the Catholic Church. Secondly, they are advised, when speaking of other Churches and ecclesial communities, to be sure that they present the teaching and doctrine of other Christian confessions correctly and honestly.
However, due to the diversity and the complexity of Christian confessions today, it seems quite impossible to fulfill this orientation from the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. If we must explain to others what our faith is, (surely not without difficulties and uncertainty, as J. Card. Ratzinger reminds us in his Introduction to Christianity, San Francisco, Ignatius Press, p. 42) none of us is able to explain presently, with full clarity, the beliefs of the many Christian confessions around us. We may just repeat what is commonly said: “We are all saved by Jesus!” This lack of knowledge about the faith and doctrine of our fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus calls us Catholics for an urgent need of a new, wise and balanced ecumenical attitude in our promotion for unity among Christians.
Surely, the journey of ecumenism cannot be stopped without betraying our faith in God the Father who has no favourites (Dt 10: 17), in whom there is no partiality (Ac 10: 34; Rm 2: 11), and who wants to save all men and women (1Tm 2: 4). But at the same time, we cannot deny our profession of faith where we confess Jesus Christ as the Unique mediator between God and the human race, who gave himself as ransom for all (1Tm2: 5-6) and without whom there is no salvation (Ac 4: 12).
If we truly confess Jesus as the Head of the Body, the Church (Col 1: 18), it means we cannot consider the Church as a Church built by some Christians according to their opinions and moods. So, while we keep a genuine openness of heart to all, as the Pope keeps reminding us, a time for pause and discernment should be a time when we strengthen our own Christian identity in depth and understanding. When we say: “I believe in the Catholic Church” we imply to deepen our sense of belonging to the Catholic Church and to grow in communion with all those people with whom we share the same faith received from the Apostles. For this purpose, I will propose, in a separate paper, two means through which the ecumenical spirit may be kept in our communities in this time of discernment. These means are: formation with emphasis on the spirit of ecumenism “ad intra”, that is within our own communities, and an ecumenism of “accompaniment”, which means to strengthen the “art of encountering” people as pastoral approach.
[1]Walter Kasper, “Present and future of the Ecumenical movement: Plenary, November 12-17/2001” in www.vatican.va/2016/10/01.
[2] “Religious composition by country in percentages”, in www.pewformum.org/2012/12/18.
[3] Presently, he is the general vicar of the archdiocese of Freetown. It was during his talk to the conference of major religious superiors at Leicester, Freetown, Sierra Leone on 20th February, 2012. During my stay in the town of Makeni (Northern Province of Sierra Leone, I drew down a list in which most of these churches are present.
[4] Woods M., “Primate meetings: What you need to know about why gay marriage could still split the Church” in www.christiantoday.org/2016/01/19.