Ecumenism on the gradient

by Bishop Clark, Auxiliary of Northampton
CHURCH Unity Week is long over. There was much abiding communion, a renewal of the spirit and a longing for a faster pace and more venturesome action stirred many to wonder whether anything is really happening.
In fact, not a few are saying that Ecumenism has run out of steam. We are stopped on the gradient. All that we seem to have premanently established are high-level conversations and local fraternals. The early enthusiasts arc rapidly becoming the cynics, and soon will inevitably degenerate into the disinterested.
As always we've made our mistakes and are even now paying the price for them. It is as good a moment as any to disentangle ourselves from the wreckage we have a habit of leaving behind us and plan and plot the way ahead. There can be nothing infallible about this—everything in this area may need radical revision. But we must have a pretty clear idea of what we are doing. Ecumenists, one and all, sin by rashly avoiding any clarity here, content to jog along with amiable sloth or irresponsible impetuosity.
Survival for ecclesiastics
The first bitter pill that we must swallow is that Ecumenism would seem to be becoming the preoccupation of the middle-aged. The growing generation find it far too constricting and prefer to strike more radical and revolutionary attitudes. They would even mock it as the gropings of ecclesiastics concentrating on their own survival.
Were God in His cornpassion to bring all Christians together in full communion and living unity, it is at least probable that the masses of mankind, as well as the committed younger members of society. would find the prospect in no way -conducive to the achievement of their own radical ambition.
Primary act of faith
The second bitterness is to accept the fact that most Christians. not just the young, regard Ecumenism as a fringe activity, not essential to the living of the Gospel. Here the clergy sin more than the laity. But if it is a sin, it can well be argued that it has its excusing circumstances.
For Ecumenism is built on well-defined principles which many, who should know better, have neglected to the peril of the Church. Yes, the Church. No Catholic, whatever his theological perceptions, can risk denying the content of his primary act of faith—that the Roman Catholic Church is the Church founded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
To accept this is not to retreat into what Fr. Bernard Lonergan calls (in another context) "a theological cornerbut to establish a base from which to advance. For to say that the Church of Christ subsists in the Roman Catholic Church is to become aware that all other Christian churches are in a living relationship with the Church.
What has been called— perhaps unwisely—"the Great Church of the future" has on occasion been not more than a thinly disguised version of the old Branch theory, according
to which the Church of Christ is made up of differing Christian bodies in process of developrnent, a development which goes on to the end of time when Christ will come again.
In other words, in this theory, the Church is never a dation, a visible community of salvation which can be recognised and therefore joined, but only a process into which one can in faith immerse oneself. The particular sphere of this process with which one will be associated (i.e. the particular denomination) is not important or at least not of vital importance to the salvation of one's soul. All will he well, it is asserted, if we conscientiously do what we think to be right.
Goodwill of churches
But will we? Can we? Isn't the old head of an ancient heresy vitiating our judgment? It is only by the grace of Christ communicated to us through the Church He founded that right can be Consistently done. Hence it is supremely important to subject oneself to that ministry of Word and Sacrament which is guaranteed to offer us the means of salvation.
This in no way denies, as the Decree on Ecumenism underlines, that those who follow Christ in other Christian churches are not without the means of salvation nor that God is mindful of the goodwill of non-Christian peoples. But the Decree also points to the enormous human difficulties that beset those who do not enjoy the gift of true faith and the living ministry of the true church. The Church is for the gathering together of all, not merely a discretionary option.
Could it be that we are once again confusing sincerity with truth? Are we in effect saying that the Spirit of God acts independently of the visible Church, of which He is the anima", to the extent of being indifferent to its primary Pinetion as the Ark of salvation for all? The idea prospers that the 'world' is an adequate means of salvationl
Unity for which Christ prayed
Once the centrality of the Catholic Church, in its uniqueness, already possessing the unity for which Christ prayed (however paradoxical this may seem at this particular moment of history) is accepted, then it is not only possible but a necesssary consequence of our Christian faith to see that all communities and churches which are built on faith in Christ and the love of God Thus! be related ontologically to the Church.
Furthermore this relationship must be ecclesial—a church relationship, a Chris tian church relationship. However deficient our understanding of the Mystery, we cannot deny what we experience. For we do experience (a datum) a living communion with all who profess the name of Christ and serve Him generously and loyally, and though we can point to the basis of this in baptism, prayer, worship and charity, we do not thereby exhaust the rich reality of this union and communion that already exists and which grows under the Spirit every day that passes.
At one time it was fashionable to portray the rela tionship between the Christian
Churches in the form of concentric circles round a Catholic
centre point. Even if the image were valid, it was highly defective.
The relationships of which we are talking are more accurately described as a series of compenetrating realities. All Christian Churches exist in one another insomuch as they share some of the same fundamental entities of Christian Revelation (cfr. Decree on Ecumenism : Sect. 3). They also co-exist in so far as they share some of the things contrary to the truth of Christ.
The task of reformation is imposed, therefore, on all churches without exception Even though we profess our faith that the primary unity willed by Christ is present in the "Sancta Romana Ecclesia," we do not assert that this unity is a once-for-all-given reality which does not demand endless growth, nor do we deny that in some measure it is shared by all Christian communities. Though this oneness is a meagre reflection of what we should be, we are all One in Christ.
A temptation of the devil
The temptation is to say : let us get on with apostolic work together, these works of charity that always need to be done. In any case, the world, to which We have suddenly adopted a startling subservience as though "it" had the truth of God and man, has no time to bother about such speculations.
This temptation is of the
devil if its ugly inspiration is that Christianity is about caring for your neighbour sine addim. The world—have we forgotten? — is under judgment for having rejected God and His Son. Christ alone can save this world of ours from its sin and its arrogance. Christ alone gives life. Christ alone guarantees the dignity of man.
And Christ speaks magistrally through the Church today as, in person, He spoke with authority 2,000 years ago. The weakness of the Church, even the disunity of Christians, will not confine the grace of the Spirit of Jesus. So let us all be quite clear that without the Church there is no salvation of any kind for the world.
Compromising world One doesn't expect the world to accept this, but through all time Christ will confront this hating world, this ambiguous, compromising world which also compenetrates "the Church."
The Ecumenical programme can, therefore, only take shape if we rest on these solid principles of faith. The best ecumenists are the convinced Christians. Both progressives and "squares" can be such—both are necessary for ecumenical advance, not in the sense of one forcing the pace and the other dragging his heels, but as both legitimate, though limited, interpreters of the mission of the Church itself.
A "companion" article by Fr. Tom Corbishley, Si., will appear next week.