Ecumenism provides trickle-up effect
Episcopal News Service. December 8, 2009 [120809-01]
Pat McCaughan
With church budgets shrinking and issues of justice, poverty and peace looming, mission, in many areas, is becoming the new ecumenism.
When membership at Epiphany Church in Marina, California, dropped from about 200 to five in 1996 "because of a military base closing and internal politics," the Lutheran congregation collaborated with All Saints Episcopal Church of Carmel on a joint ministry.
"We've since become the largest social-service facilitator in the community," said the Rev. Jon Perez, vicar of Epiphany Lutheran and Episcopal Church. "We've had a complete change of who we are; we just became a Jubilee center at the end of last year."
Similar collaborative efforts underway elsewhere are ecumenical and interfaith, local and national, grassroots and institutional, service-oriented and conversational. They also are practical given the economic climate, said Bishop C. Christopher Epting, deputy to the Presiding Bishop for ecumenical and interreligious relations.
"Why start a Lutheran church on one corner and an Episcopal church on the other when you can join forces and cooperate? We have perspectives that are very similar on the mission of the church, and we should be doing more and more of that together," he said. "We've really come a long way from earlier days when we didn't even go into each other's churches and were quite suspicious of each other; there was a lot of ignorance and competition and fear of the other."
Epting reflected about the "long view" of the modern ecumenical movement, which will observe its 100th anniversary next year. From its beginnings in the 1910 World Missionary Conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, it was temporarily derailed during major wars, "blossomed" with the creation of numerous church councils and experienced its "glory days" in the 1960s, post-Vatican II.
The ecumenical and interfaith landscape includes justice and peace advocacy through national councils and the office of the Presiding Bishop, he said, and encompasses a "receptive ecumenism" at the grassroots levels that "helps it live out its mission on the ground."
Next up: Moravian partnership
General Convention's step in July toward full communion with the Moravian Church will become official after approval by the Northern and Southern Provinces of the Moravian Church in 2010.
If adopted as expected, the agreement will permit the same level of shared ministry that exists between the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
Epting recalled the 2001 Call to Common Mission Episcopal-ELCA agreement, which he helped write, as the "result of almost 40 years of conversation and working together."
Today, there are about 50 shared congregational, campus, social service and other ministries, said Perez of Epiphany Church in the Diocese of El Camino Real. Many clergy serve both Lutheran and Episcopal congregations interchangeably.
The Rev. Gary Harke of the Moravian Church said the agreement's success would hinge on local congregations learning to live into it "as if it matters, [which] takes real effort. The real difference [if any] will be … as clergy become comfortable with one another and take steps to engage their congregations in common ministry that forges relationships."
Other full-communion partners include the: Old Catholic Churches of Europe; Philippine Independent Church; and Mar Thoma Syrian Church of Malabar.
The ease with which another resolution sailed through General Convention underscored the church's mission to reach out to people of all faiths via building humanity, said the Rev. Gwynne Guibord, Diocese of Los Angeles ecumenical and interreligious officer.
The resolution endorsed a theological statement on interreligious dialogue and gave dioceses and parishes "support and encouragement" for building relationships with people of other faiths and/or religions without the notion of proselytizing, said Guibord, also a consultant for interfaith relations for the Episcopal Church.
"When you build humanity, when you build relationships, you can get on to feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, bringing our children up in a world where we truly see each other as neighbors," she said.
Engaging Christians and Jews through the North Jersey Christian-Muslim Project heightened her understanding of Islam, said Shaheen Ahmed of Tenafly, New Jersey. "I had to make sure I could answer all the questions they asked."
"The spirit unites us," agreed Angie Rispoli, a parishioner at Church of the Atonement in Tenafly, whose participation in the project was "enriched by experiencing worship in other traditions. It helped me to appreciate my own tradition and … says to me how big God is and gives expression to the mystery of God."
Challenges and commonalities
Bishop John White cited General Theological Seminary Professor Bruce Mullins' analysis of Anglican-Methodist relations in the United States: "He says we're like the two kids in the Parent Trap movie, related to one another but grew up in separate existences."
White, ecumenical bishop for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, was heartened by General Convention's adoption of a resolution reaffirming the church's ongoing dialogue with the United Methodist Church and expanding it to involve historically black churches, including the AME, African Methodist Zion and the Christian Methodist Episcopal churches.
While acknowledging past strains of racism, such separations are "a mustchange," White said. "We can't wait. We've got to help change take place … to realize we all share in the gospel of Jesus Christ together."
Racism must be addressed "openly and honestly … so we [can] move on to the next level, to saying we have much in common, much we can do together," he said.
The Rev. Tom Ferguson, Episcopal Church associate deputy for ecumenical and interreligious relations, agreed. "We like to talk about ministry and sacraments and understanding of the Eucharist and those classic questions that are part of our discussion, but one of the greatest dividing issues has been race and racism. We need to address it."
Some tensions exist in Episcopal-Roman Catholic ongoing dialogues, Epting said. Women's ordination "was a big step for us, and one they are not prepared to take. Things slowed down a bit after that, and our issues wrestling with human sexuality have contributed to it."
Most recently, the Vatican announced that "personal ordinariates" would be created for former Anglicans wishing to enter into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church while "preserving elements of the distinctive Anglican spiritual and liturgical patrimony."
"We have longstanding relationships, through the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission" and other ongoing consultations and "are committed to conversation with one another," Epting said. "The official dialogue is what interests us, not sidebar conversations."
General Convention also adopted an agreement with the Presbyterian Church USA, which allows Episcopalians and Presbyterians to accept eucharistic hospitality offered by both churches and to share resources, and another agreement that authorizes the start of a dialogue with the Church of Sweden.
Other dialogue partners include the: Churches Uniting in Christ; Orthodox Church; Roman Catholic Church; Reformed Episcopal Church; and the Anglican Province of America.
The fruit of such dialogues can be found at the grassroots level.
A focus on service and mission, not identity or proselytizing others, accounted for Epiphany's success, Perez concluded. "We've gotten really good at connecting the dots, to the point that the city has come to realize that, if we weren't around, it would have a significant impact on all its programs. But none of us can do it by ourselves, and part of the problem is congregations try to do it by themselves."