Ecumenism Should Be Put on the Front Burner
Episcopal News Service. June 21, 1990 [90169]
William J. Pugliese, Communications Officer for Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers
Several years ago at the National Workshop on Christian Unity in Atlanta, then-Mayor Andrew Young, himself an ordained minister, observed: "Let's face it. Ecumenism is not on the front burner of anyone's agenda."
Ecumenism was on the front burner of the agenda of those who were present. Yet, the participants understood what the mayor was saying. When AIDS, abortion, poverty, and the like are mentioned, ecumenism is almost an afterthought.
The passing of time and place from Atlanta to Pittsburgh -- the site of last April's workshop -- has not changed people's priorities.
Yet, just as AIDS or abortion only becomes a "real" issue when one is personally affected by the problems -- even with Jesus' mandate "that they all may be one" -- so, too, does ecumenism.
One place where ecumenism hits home is in the problem of Anglican-Roman Catholic marriages. Unless one is in such a marriage, it is difficult to see the problem. But it is real, deep, and difficult.
For Ray and Anne Shaw the problem is all too real. Ray, a pharmacist in the small, rural West Virginia town of Philippi, is an ordained perpetual deacon in the Roman Catholic Church. Anne, the mother of two daughters (baptized Roman Catholic), is the senior warden of her Episcopal parish.
It is difficult, if not impossible, for Ray and Anne to worship together and as a family. When they do, one is canonically not allowed to receive the Eucharist at the other's communion rail. Only the Shaws, and those involved in such marriages, can know and understand the pain that is involved.
Because of families like the Shaws, a joint Episcopal-Roman Catholic diocesan ecumenical officers' committee is currently surveying Anglican-Roman Catholic marriages. It is trying to discover how those involved practice their faith; how their children are educated religiously -- if at all; and how the lack of intercommunion has affected their spiritual lives.
The marriage study is not the only way in which the work of the diocesan ecumenical officers touches people's lives. For the most part, they work quietly on the local level, building up contacts and trust among people of all faiths.
Several years ago the group published a booklet called Models of Ecumenism in which many different examples of ecumenism were illustrated, such as covenant relationships between Episcopal and Roman Catholic dioceses (Chicago), an ecumenical hunger ministry (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania), and issuing joint pastoral letters on peace and on the economy (West Virginia). The Rev. Charles Womelsdorf, rector of St. Michael and All Angels Church in Lake Charles, Louisiana, is president of Episcopal Diocesan Ecumenical Officers.
To be quite honest, even local ecumenism has never been easy. All too often each Communion has been more concerned with personal survival rather than cooperation. We fear sheep stealing rather than working together for the betterment of Christ's whole flock.
At the Pittsburgh workshop, Dr. Avery Post, retired president of the United Church of Christ, noted that ecumenical progress also has been slowed by the lack Of involvement by young people. It must become for them, in Andrew Young's terms, a front-burner agenda item. Until then, we will flounder along making haste very slowly.
Perhaps the answer lies in the realization by the young people that survival -- as a church, as a world, as a nation, as a person -- demands working together. Worshipping together will follow. After that, church unity may follow.