Christian denominations shouldn’t be in any competition with each other, Fr Brian D’Arcy writes in The Sunday World
The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been a part of the Church’s calendar for more than one hundred years.
According to the Atlas of Religion, Christianity is the world’s largest religion. It has more than 2.1 billion followers. It’s hard to believe though, that there are almost 34,000 Christian denominations in 238 different countries. The vast majority belong to six major Christian traditions, though well over 400 million are affiliated to independent Christian churches.
A sense of unity and community is more crucial than ever.That’s why Christian Unity Week is important. The French theologian Paul Couturier summed up its aim succinctly, “We must pray, not that others may be converted to us, but that we may all be drawn closer to Christ.”
In forty years of ministry, the most hopeful change that has taken place for me is the respect, and understanding, which has grown up among the main Christian Churches. Unity among Christians is both a challenge and a necessity, if our churches are to be relevant in a changing world.
John Wesley who was the founder of the Methodist Movement, visited Ireland 21 times. On one of his last visits, he was so appalled by the hatred that existed between Protestants and Catholics that he wrote a letter to both groups advising that, as Christians, they should take a number of simple steps to improve relations. They should resolve not to hurt one another; to make sure to say nothing harsh or unkind about each other’s beliefs; to harbour no unkind or unfriendly thought towards each other and lastly, “to help each other in whatever way we are agreed leads to the Kingdom of God.”
Bigotry
In that context, I must admit that for many years I thought the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was a waste of time. At best it seemed to me to be little more than window dressing. But I don’t think that way anymore. For the last 22 years my ministry has been in Northern Ireland, and I know how effective Christians working and praying together has been. When Christian leaders first began to work along side each other, there was a silent undercurrent of bigotry, which allowed the sinister elements to run a campaign of hate.
During those years of violence almost 4,000 people lost their lives and countless other thousands were damaged physically and emotionally. Yet in the midst of such strife, Christians came together to pray, to work for justice, and to oppose violence. At first progress was slow, but Christians praying together was a vital element in bringing about an end to violence and beginning a peace process.
I was always encouraged by the martyr, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, who wisely said, that we should be ‘sowers of hope”.
“We plant seeds that will one day grow,” he said. “We lay foundations that will need further development. We are workers, not master builders; we are ministers, not messiahs.We are prophets of a future not our own.”
I believe that Christian Unity is most effective when it’s built on respect – respect for ourselves, respect for others and a healthy respect for difference.
Salvation
Christian Unity isn’t simply about a comfortable notion of friendliness and cooperation. It requires a willingness to dispense with competition. All we have, is gifted to us by Christ and the only true victory is to use our gifts for the glory of God’s Kingdom. There is room for everyone in God’s plan of salvation.