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    Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity
    Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity
    Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity
    Ebook133 pages1 hour

    Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity

    By Steven R. Harmon

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    By all accounts, the modern ecumenical movement is not moving much these days. Despite dramatic breakthroughs in the past few decades, the quest for a visibly united church--in which there is common confession of the apostolic faith, full Eucharistic communion, and mutual recognition of members and ministers--now meets with indifference by many, impatience by some, and outright hostility by others. In part, this is because the movement has not given enough attention to grassroots ecumenical engagement. This book is written to convince ordinary Christians, especially young Christian adults, that they too have a stake in the future of the ecumenical movement as its most indispensable participants.

    Ecumenism Means You, Too draws on the music of Irish rock band U2 to cast artistic light on various aspects of the quest for Christian unity. Whether one is a U2 fan or not, and whether one thinks the ecumenical movement is a good thing or a bad thing for the church, everyone who reads this book will learn something about the Christian theological framework apart from which neither the modern ecumenical movement nor the meaning of U2's music can be understood. The book includes an annotated bibliography of resources for ecumenical engagement and a glossary of key ecumenical terms for readers who want to learn more about the Christian practice of seeking the unity of the church.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCascade Books
    Release dateMar 15, 2010
    ISBN9781621892779
    Ecumenism Means You, Too: Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity
    Author

    Steven R. Harmon

    Steven R. Harmon is Professor of Historical Theology at Gardner-Webb University School of Divinity in Boiling Springs, North Carolina, USA.

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      This ecumenical hope of his is quite literally of "The Spirit". ..now don't get too excited bc by spirit I mean the Spirit of the anti Christ as if it couldn't be more evident. If you're interested in a single united Apostolic faith in full Eucharistic communion try the one that exists and has existed for the past 2 millennia it's called Orthodoxy or eastern Orthodox and is The one Holy Catholic Apostolic Church the only Church with Apostolic succession which can be demonstrated tracing back from current bishops all the way back 2000+ years to one of the Apostles. Read the Didache and the earliest writings of the Church and compare it to protestant Roman Catholic *churches" who vary and change over time and eventually reach a point of history when it didn't exist as an entity. Prots can't make it further back than the reformation and the papacy was born in 1054. This leaves only one option when one is seeking the True Faith and it is orthodoxy who passed the test and is compatible without exception to the Church being described by the early father's. The Apostolic Father's writings still exist and they were disciples of one of the Apostles themselves which logically should be pure and untainted from centuries of potential loss of accuracy being the first full generation since Christ was crucified for us men and our salvation and descended into Hades so that we can achieve eternal life via theosis God willing do your due diligence and research your history read the early father's it's free just give it a Google and see how decieved we all are in the West!

    Book preview

    Ecumenism Means You, Too - Steven R. Harmon

    Ecumenism Means You, Too

    Ordinary Christians and the Quest

    for Christian Unity

    Steven R. Harmon

    2008.Cascade_logo.pdf

    ECUMENISM MEANS YOU, TOO

    Ordinary Christians and the Quest for Christian Unity

    Copyright © 2010 Steven R. Harmon. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

    Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

    Cascade Books

    An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

    199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

    Eugene, OR 97401

    www.wipfandstock.com

    isbn 13: 978-1-60608-865-4

    Cataloging-in-Publication data:

    Harmon, Steven R.

    Ecumenism means you, too : ordinary Christians and the quest for Christian unity / Steven R. Harmon.

    xii + 120 p. ; 23 cm.

    isbn 13: 978-1-60608-865-4

    1. Church — Catholicity. 2. Ecumenical movement. 3. Church — Unity. 4. U2 (Musical group). I. Title.

    bx1785 .h37 2010

    Manufactured in the U.S.A.

    For Timothy

    I am grateful to God . . . when I remember you

    constantly in my prayers night and day.

    —2 Timothy 1:3 NRSV

    Acknowledgments

    This book is a revision and expansion of a series of lectures on the theme Ecumenism Re-emerging: Christian Young Adults and the Quest for Christian Unity, which I presented as the invited lecturer for the Staley Distinguished Christian Scholar Program at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina, March 24–26, 2008. I wish to thank the trustees of the Thomas F. Staley Foundation of Larchmont, New York, for providing funding for this program that annually brings distinguished Christian lecturers to Campbell University and numerous other colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. I am grateful also to the members of the administration and faculty of Campbell University responsible for issuing the gracious invitation to deliver these lectures, in particular Jerry M. Wallace, President; M. Dwaine Greene, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs; and the members of the lecture series committee that coordinated the Staley Lectures with lectureships sponsored by the Campbell University Divinity School and Department of Religion and Philosophy: Faithe Beam, Campus Minister; Michael G. Cogdill, Dean of the Divinity School; Barry A. Jones, Associate Dean of the Divinity School; W. Glenn Jonas Jr., Chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy; and Lydia H. Hoyle, Associate Professor of Church History and Baptist Heritage. To be invited to deliver these lectures by the institution that shaped me into the ecumenical

    theologian I have become was one of the greatest honors ever bestowed on me.

    An earlier version of chapter 5 was presented to the Campbell University Baptist Student Union as U2 and the Eschatology of Ecumenism on April 3, 2008. Adaptations of chapter 4 have been presented as a workshop session for Beeson Pastors School, Beeson Divinity School, Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, July 22–25, 2008, and as a workshop session for the General Assembly of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Houston, Texas, July 1–3, 2009. The perceptive questions and comments of those who participated in these sessions have helped me clarify my own thinking about the quest to embody the unity of the church.

    Thanks are also due to the members of a course on Theology and the Quest for Christian Unity that I taught at Campbell University Divinity School in the Summer 2007 term: Linda Branscome, Scott Fitzgerald, Rebecca Frederick, Cliff Hobbs, Lisa Koch, Bill Peery, Viveca Pankey, Mark Powell, Laura Reich, Luis Rivas, Lance Rogerson, Joshua Trahan, David Wilson, and Ramona Worsley. Much of the content of this book was hammered out aloud in dialogue with these students that summer, and I am grateful for the way they shaped my thinking about these matters through their thoughtful insights, stimulating questions, and insistence that we keep returning to the practical question of what all of this means for how they will do ministry in local church settings.

    This book owes its publication in part to my friend Derek K. Hogan, Theological Reference Librarian and Assistant Professor of New Testament at Campbell Univer-sity Divinity School. It was Derek who first suggested that I should consider publishing my Staley Lectures in some form, and I am thankful for the support and encouragement he has long lent to my writing projects.

    Dean Timothy F. George and Associate Dean Paul R. House of Samford University’s Beeson Divinity School have fostered an institutional climate conducive to productivity in writing for publication that made it possible to prepare this book in the midst of several other research projects and teaching responsibilities. My graduate assistant Robbie Crouse proofread the manuscript with a keen eye and made numerous suggestions for rewording that I trust have helped me communicate more effectively to the readers of this book.

    The quotations from The Message (Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002) that preface each chapter are used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. The Message is a version favored both by Bono and by many among the ordinary Christians I hope will read this book, hence its use for this purpose. All other biblical quotations in the text of this book are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible (copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America) and are also used by permission. The brief quoted excerpts from the music and lyrics of U2 are published by Blue Mountain Music Ltd (for the UK), Mother Music Ltd (for the Republic Of Ireland), PolyGram International Music, Publishing BV (for The Rest Of The World), and U2 Recordings owned by Universal International Music B.V. exclusively licensed to Island Records (ROW) and Interscope Records (USA).

    This book is dedicated to my son Timothy, whose third birthday on May 31, 2009, coincided with Pentecost Sunday and the final few days devoted to this book’s preparation for publication (and who has already declared, Timothy is a U2 fan!). The dedication of this book to Timothy is especially appropriate, for he spent portions of his first few days in our household strapped to my chest in a carrying sling while I read documents from the Second Vatican Council and typed away at the manuscript for a paper presentation for a bilateral dialogue between the Baptist World Alliance and the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Ecumenism and Timothy have been inextricably linked for me ever since. It is my prayer that he will embody the meaning of his name and honor God by one day taking up this book’s invitation to seek, in his own way, the unity of the church that is the gift of the one Spirit of Pentecost. My work as an ecumenical theologian has meant that Timothy and my wife Kheresa have had to bear the brunt of my occasional time away from home for participation in ecumenical conferences, not to mention the disruption of a professional relocation during the time this book took shape. I am grateful to them beyond words for the experience of their love in the church in miniature that is our family.

    Birmingham, Alabama

    Pentecost 2009

    1

    Here to Play Jesus

    Why Ecumenism Isn’t Dead

    Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life

    That you conferred as a gift through me,

    So they can be one heart and mind

    As we are one heart and mind.

    As long as I was with them, I guarded them

    In the pursuit of the life you gave through me;

    I even posted a night watch.

    And not one of them got away,

    Except for the rebel bent on destruction

    (the exception that proved the rule of Scripture).

    Now I’m returning to you.

    I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing

    So my people can experience

    My joy completed in them.

    I gave them your word;

    The godless world hated them because of it,

    Because they didn’t join the world’s ways,

    Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.

    I’m not asking that you take them out of the world

    But that you guard them from the Evil One.

    They are no more defined by the world

    Than I am defined by the world.

    Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;

    Your word is consecrating truth.

    In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,

    I give them a mission in the world.

    I’m consecrating myself for their sakes

    So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission.

    I’m praying not only for them

    But also for those who will believe in me

    Because of them and their witness about me.

    The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—

    Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,

    So they might be one heart and mind with us.

    Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.

    The same glory you gave me, I gave them,

    So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—

    I in them and you in me.

    Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,

    And give the godless world evidence

    That you’ve sent me and loved them

    In the same way you’ve loved me.

    —John 17:11–23, The Message

    A couple of years ago I e-mailed my associate dean at Campbell University Divinity School to propose teaching a divinity school summer-term course on ecumenism, which is theologian-speak for the quest for Christian unity. His reply kindly commended the proposed course and concluded with the observation, After all, as U2 said, ‘We’re one, but we’re not the same.’ That line from the band’s song One (Achtung Baby, 1991)

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