"A Way of Being Christian"

My mom died on September 30 at the age of 93. Although I’m writing a lot about her in private I’m not ready to post very much. Our relationship had annoying aspects (does any parent-child relationship not have complications, mental “tapes” that the child relives throughout adulthood?) but it was close. We could talk about problems in a way neither of us could with stubborn Dad.

I’m making all kinds of associations these days, and probably a lot of my upcoming posts will involve family memories. For instance, when she and Dad and I took vacations, it was always on the road at Dad’s insistence. A major, aggravating memory for me!  But while we were on the road, we visited churches on Sunday morning, and that was a lovely thing. I was keen on having perfect Sunday school attendance, or at least as close as I could come, given my so-so health as a child. So we’d look for churches to visit. Our denomination was Disciples of Christ, but on the road, that didn’t really matter.  I remember that we stopped by a Church of the Nazarene somewhere in Missouri or Kansas, and a Baptist church during another trip, a Methodist church in yet another year. While Dad sat in the car, reading Westerns, Mom and I were ecumenical---at least a little bit----without knowing the word!

These family memories brought to mind a research project for which I was hired to do in the 1990s. It was a history of the Kentucky Council of Churches, which had its 50th anniversary in 1997. My work resulted in a commemorative booklet, provided to members at the time. To my chagrin, the larger manuscript was never published, and so I asked permission to give a copy of the manuscript to the Filson Club in Louisville, Kentucky, where many of the council’s papers and documents already resided.

Ecumenical and also interfaith work are things I’ve always enjoyed. A scriptural impetus for ecumenism has always been John 17:21 in Jesus’s “high priestly prayer,” Christ’s hope that his disciples could be one. Interfaith work takes that attitude a little further and creates camaraderie and discussions among persons of different religion. Regarding ecumenism, I summarized in the manuscript's introduction some of the research of Kinnamon and Cope:

“After centuries of separation and hostility, Christians have begun to recapture ‘the simple biblical truth that the church as the people of God and the body of Christ must exemplify in this world how God gathers [people] together from the ends of the earth in order to live as a new humanity’. Churches representing over a billion and a half members are now engaged with one another in councils of churches, theological dialogues, various forms of collaborative mission, common prayer, and other expressions of ecumenical life.” (Michael Kinnamon and Brian E. Cope, eds., The Ecumenical Movement: An Anthology of Key Texts and Voices. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997, page 1).

I also found a wonderful quotation for the introduction. I wrote: “Joan Brown Campbell of the National Council of Churches has stated that ‘In [the] early days [of the ecumenical movement], when relationships were beginning and walls were being broken down, there was a sense of excitement and a sense of accomplishment.’ But Campbell believes that ‘A lot of strength is now in local ecumenical bodies, particularly those in which committed Christians and congregations come together... As I see it, ecumenism lives in your heart, is acted out in your life and shapes how you organize. In short, being ecumenical is a way of being Christian. From that point of view, the ecumenical movement is alive and well and very widespread’.” (Quote from Christian Century magazine, Nov. 8, 1995, p. 1048, used in my original text with permission.)

I love that idea: ecumenism is a way of being Christian!

I know I’m on a hobby horse these days about the bitterness of our politics these days. (Here’s a good article:
http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/11/barack-obamas-re-election) We've turned important policy arguments into ideological caricatures of politicians (and other voters) with whom we disagree---that they’re out to destroy the country. “America, don’t lose heart,” proclaimed a political leader recently about Obama’s reelection, implying that the millions of people who voted for Obama are not Americans.

It occurs to me that some of the spirit of good will and mutual service that has so long characterized ecumenical effort----cooperation that acknowledges differences and expresses concerns but does not stigmatize----could be adopted by us Christians in our attitudes, work, and words about politics.  This, too, is an aspect of the "simple biblical truth" of which Kinnamon and Cope writes.