Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2010

In the past few days, I have read assessments from experts which are depressingly realistic about the prospects for Christian Unity. This is the winter of ecumenism and no sign of spring either, one veteran ecumenical pioneer remarks. Another speaks more prosaically of an ecumenical slump. Cardinal Walter Kasper, the head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity in Rome, with more delicacy perhaps, describes the present time as a “transitional period” along the ecumenical journey. What these voices are all referring to is the near demise of early hope that the churches would very soon celebrate a deeper kind of unity of faith and sacrament and ministry, the kind of unity which was once called organic. Instead, people are asking, what do we do in the present situation when organic unity, that deeper unity, seems as far away as ever?

Into this situation comes our annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to remind us that the Church belongs to Christ and unity will be the gift of the risen Lord, for which we must pray. And this is the first thing that we have to do: pray. Prayer expresses our radical dependence on God, reinforces our hope in God’s goodness and providence, and transforms our scepticism and disappointment into thanksgiving and vision. “May they all be one” has to accompany the search for Christian unity from the beginning of the journey at the foot of the cross to its end in the new Jerusalem. Prayer is something that we can all do at any time and stage of the journey, whether progress is fast or slow. And so tonight, we pray.

Towards the end of the long passage we heard proclaimed this evening from the Gospel according to Luke, the passage designated for this year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, the risen Jesus gives his last instructions to the Apostles: “So you see how it is written that the Christ would suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that in his name, repentance for the forgiveness of sins would be preached to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses to this.” Here is the second thing we can do: be witnesses. Throughout that same passage, the women at the empty tomb encountered and recognised the risen Lord. The disciples on the road to Emmaus recognised the risen Jesus at the breaking of the bread. And hesitantly at first but then with mounting joy and excitement, the apostles themselves recognised Jesus as the risen Lord. They came to the astonishing realisation that the same Jesus who had died on the cross was now alive and was among them. All these disciples came to realise that the witness they are called to give is to the Risen One. We too have one thing or one person to witness to: the Risen One. Christians today may well yet not agree on how to speak about all things connected with the Risen One and they may not yet be able to share everything connected with the Risen One, but we can all witness to the risen Jesus who is Lord in our lives, who is Lord in our churches, and who is Lord of the world.

Later this year, celebrations will be held in Edinburgh to mark the centenary of the First Missionary Conference which took place in Edinburgh in 1910 and which is sometimes regarded as the beginning of the ecumenical movement as we know it today. The 1910 Conference was a gathering of Protestant churches to discuss their missionary endeavours, especially in Africa. It was in that context that they recognised that unity was necessary for mission. They realised that the different churches could be seen as an obstacle to unity among peoples who had not been part of the disturbing story of disunity and fragmentation among European Christians, and so they realised that Christians must search for unity not just for themselves, but for their mission to others, for the good of the spread of the gospel. The full text of Jesus prayer for his disciples already gives voice to the evangelizing power of unity: “May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.” And we are back to prayer….and mission. And when the centenary of the Edinburgh Mission Conference is marked in June of this year, the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Churches will also be represented, as will newer and younger communities and ecclesial bodies. More than ever, unity will be highlighted as a prerequisite for mission and witness. And so will prayer.

This year too, 2010, marks the 450th Anniversary of the Reformation in Scotland. At the Reformation, obviously, the Catholic Church in Scotland was suppressed and almost eradicated. Nonetheless, having survived and to some extent revived, Catholics can appreciate that the Reformation means a great deal to Scottish Protestants. Despite our regret that the Reformation caused a schism in western Christianity, a schism which endures to this day in the shape of disunited ecclesial bodies, one thing that Catholics can easily understand about the Reformation is that the reformers wanted to renew the Church through the Word of God and so they made the Bible the focus of faith and worship. And we are all called to be constantly renewed by Word of God. The hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus burned as Jesus explained the Scriptures to them. They were led through the Scriptures to recognise Jesus as the Risen Lord at the breaking of bread. There is a TV advert for a bank which claims to be there “for the journey”. There is a lot of irony in that, I would suggest. But I think we can safely say the Word of God, the Scriptures, the Bible is there for our journey, so that we can witness to the Risen One.

And finally, none of us can fail to have been moved at the misery and devastation caused by the recent earthquake in Haiti in which tens of thousands may have lost their lives and many more have been injured and left homeless. Thankfully relief is now beginning to get through, even if somewhat slowly. Nonetheless, I fear these poor people still have much suffering to endure. I have suggested that we take up a collection at this prayer service for the earthquake victims. We will make sure that it reaches one or more of the relief organizations actually on the ground in Haiti. We can in this way give some practical expression to our baptismal unity. Even in a time of ecumenical winter we can do much: pray, witness, and join together in a common act of charity and love for our needy brothers and sisters. And one last thing about prayer: far from being the last refuge of the desperate soul, prayer puts everything in God’s hands and opens us up to the unexpected which sometimes surpasses our best assessments and guesses. Pray and anything can happen. Pray and be surprised by God!

St. Mary’s, Greenock, 18th January 2010

St. Mirin’s Cathedral, Paisley, 21st January 2010