MAY
THEY ALL BE ONE
Martin
Camroux
In 1942 in his enthronement sermon the Archbishop
of Canterbury, William Temple called the Ecumenical Movement
“the great new fact of our era”. Today looking back
at the 20th Century we can see it as one great
movements of the Spirit.
Here in this Church we have been deeply affected
by it. This is a joint United Reformed and Methodist
congregation, everyone who comes into this Church shares in
both our churches. Then also we share in a local ecumenical
project with the Church of England and Sutton Baptist.
So this is vital to our life.
You can measure the effect of the ecumenical
movement in all sorts of ways. Let me tell you a true
story. In 1956 Derek Warlock was private secretary to
the Catholic Archbishop of Westminster. In this capacity
he went to see the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey
Fisher, about an interdenominational meeting which was to
be held in the Albert Hall. Of course he said he knew
there could be no shared act of worship but perhaps the Lord's
Prayer could be said together. But if so what form of
the Lord's Prayer should be used - the one normally used by
Catholics or the one normally used by Anglicans? To
try and solve the dilemma Warlock asked Fisher if it might
be said in silence. Fisher exploded. This was
monstrous. "Haven't you Romans lived in this country
long enough" he demanded "to know that we are the
establishment and you must toe the line." Warlock rose
and asked to withdraw and as he left to go down the Lambeth
Palace stairs he heard Fisher shouting after him. "Aggression.
It's Papal Aggression".
Only 45 years ago. If today that story
is incomprehensible to us that is the result of the ecumenical
movement. In England we are used to united services
to shared membership of council of churches, to ecumenical
clergy fraternals, to united worship and there are hundreds
of united churches such as this one.
Without doubt this is of God. Before Jesus
goes out go to the Garden of Gethsemane and from there to
a cross he prays for those he will soon leave behind.
"May they all be one” he says. What has been going
in the Churches these last 100 years has been a meeting of
that prayer. This morning I want to look at the unity
we share.
Firstly unity is enriching. Two ministers
from very different denominations once found themselves travelling
together on a train to preaching engagements. They sat
staring at each other for a bit. And then one of felt
he ought to break the silence “Since we’re both on the Lord's
business can we share some fellowship together”? The other
drew back and looked at his colleague somewhat uneasily.
"Aye" he said "I suppose we are both on the
Lord's business. You in your way, and I in his".
Few of us I hope would say such a thing today.
Many of our attitudes, however, still witness to an unconscious
arrogance. Brought up as we are on our own traditions
we imagine our own ways of doing things are always better
than any one else’s. But what we have learning is that
the whole truth of God can never be seen from one just standpoint
or expressed in any one tradition. Always we can be
enriched by the experience of others. There is an immense
richness in sharing our traditions with each other.
Take one example from our worship. I remember
some years ago in one of my churches we had a candlelit service
of 9 lessons and carols for the first time. One lady
was deeply upset: "Candles!" she cried in outrage
"this isn't Presbyterianism this is Catholicism".
She was nearly right! The service of 9 Lessons and Carols
isn't Presbyterian or URC or Methodist in origin. It
was first put together by Eric Milner-White and used in King's
College Chapel in Cambridge in 1919. So basically it's
Anglican. Now today we'd all feel something was missing
in Christmas without it. We've all been enriched by
this gift from the Anglican tradition.
Or look at me. Wearing a cassock and a
stole. 100 years ago no Nonconformist minister wore
either. Looking at me they would have said your half
way to Rome. And really the lady was right about the
candles too. It is a Catholic or an Orthodox tradition.
And none the worse for that. Unity is enriching.
Thank God for the way unity enriches all our lives.
Secondly real unity is about accepting and celebrating
diversity. Maybe this is the most important thing
we’ve leant about unity these last few years. What does
it mean to be united? One possibility is this. Unity
means becomes the same. We agree on what we believe
so we all believe the same. We harmonise our worship.
We agree on patterns of ministry. We move as far
as possible into one united Church.
All sorts of people have this idea of unity.
The Roman Catholic Church will not allow Protestants to receive
communion in their churches. Because they would say
until we are agreed about the mass how can we possibly share
it together?
Or a couple of years ago when I was in Birkenhead
a new church was built just along the road from us.
It had no name plaque or notice board outside so I wrote a
letter welcoming them to the area and saying that I hope we
could come to share fellowship together. I got a reply.
"Firstly we already do share fellowship with all real
Christians in this area. Secondly Scripture makes it
clear that we separate ourselves from all evil doers."
Well that put me in my place didn’t it?
Let me give you alternative views. If
unity means holding the same views and worshipping in the
same way it will never happen and it will be a disaster if
it did. The diversity of the Church is what gives
it vitality. The story is told of a Cannibal king
who was asked how he found life now compared with when he
was young. "It's not like it was,” he said.
"Now with the ecumenical movement all the missionaries
taste the same".
Unity is not about reducing diversity but celebrating
it. You may know that at one time it was proposed to
close SBC and Trinity and for the three of us to unite at
Saint Nicholas as one congregation. Rather oddly
it was St Nicholas who voted no. Had I had been here
at the time I should have voted for that myself. Now
I think I’m glad they never did unite our three churches.
Suppose there was one united church here in the centre.
Do you think more people would come to it than to the 3 churches
that now exist? I now believe If you reduce the variety of
congregations you reduce the diversity of worship therefore
you limit the range of people who could find a Christian body
with which they could identify. Sometimes there will
be good reasons why particular denominations should unite.
Quite frequently merging local churches will be sensible.
But unity is not about accepting diversity not reducing it.
As for the idea of Christians ever believing
the same – this is as impractical as it is undesirable.
There have always been different perspectives on the truth
and because the truth is always bigger than any of us there
need to be. Controversy and debate are part of what
keep the church alive.
Unity is not about ending diversity. Unity
is celebrating diversity - accepting as fully Christians those
who take a different view from us. The bottom line is
this - Jesus was not a Methodist, not a Congregationalist,
not a Presbyterian, not a Baptist, not an Anglican, not a
Catholic. And therefore whatever our denomination is
of utterly secondary importance compared to the fact that
we all share his spirit and own him as lord.
And then thirdly unity is not for the church
alone it is there for the world. Sometimes people think
the word ecumenical means Christian unity. Actually
in the Bible the word oikoumene means the inhabited
earth, or the whole world. So the ecumenical movement
is not just about the Church but about uniting the whole world,
all people.
In a sentence heavy with meaning the Gospel
of John declares that Jesus died "not for the nation
alone, but to gather together the scattered children of God".
In a world divided between religions, races,
political opinions and where we hard to live together our
task is not to look for united churches but “bringing together
the scattered children of God”.
So let’s rejoice in the unity we share, let’s
deepen it, let’s celebrate our diversity, and then together
lets look for a unity that will include all of humankind.
Rev'd. Martin Camroux MA
Trinity Church, Sutton
(United Reformed/Methodist)
Cheam Road, Sutton, SM1 1DZ |
