Hobnobbing, Snubbing, or Blissfully Ignorant

I was pleased to see our own prodigious church planter Sam Desocio write a little something about being ecumenical over at his blog.

He summarizes the problem,

Add to this the postmodern view of personal truth and we seem to have come upon quite a challenge for the people of God. On a continental level this leaves us glad-handing with other Christians, while crossing our fingers as they speak about unity. On a local level it leaves many Christians one or two topics away from yet again moving churches.

People talk about the American church, but at what point do we reach a critical turn where the universal nature of the church is so neglected that it becomes almost impossible to interact with any group larger than a few dozen. Is Protestant ecumenism little more than the admittance that other traditions might be part of the True Church?

This is a topic that every minister has to address. So I’m curious what you, our Vintage 73 readers, have done to foster ecumenical relationships in your towns and cities.

Are you a part of a minister’s association? Why or why not?
With whom would you do a pulpit swap?
Do you participate in community wide “religious” services or events?
Are there any cross-denominational friendships that you prize?

Rberman

Good topic, and one that came up at our most recent Session meeting. In my rural county, we are the only only conservative Prebyterian church. The churches most aligned to my church’s view on Scripture are Baptist churches who have their own ministerial associations which only admit their own flavor of Baptist. Our pastor is on friendly terms with a couple of the Baptist pastors and is not on unfriendly terms with anyone else. There is a ministerial association that admits everyone, but it’s moribund and hasn’t sponsored any events in quite a while. We have a quarterly joint service with the OPC and PCA churches of the adjacent county, and we do significant work with our Presbytery and General Assembly. Cross-denominational ecumenism is not a priority in terms of meetings and events, but that doesn’t mean we disdain the other churches of our community.
http://twitter.com/KnowTea John Allen

I don’t go to Ministerial Associaton meetings because they’re always at 7:30 a.m. and I have a child who has to be at school at that very hour, plus five more at home, some of whom I help get fed and clothed in the morning before I go to work. In years past I was a part of a weekly lectionary study group that included myself, a PC(USA) minister, an Episcopal priest, a Franciscan, a Lutheran pastor (Missouri Synod), a Baptist minister (CBF), and a UMC minister. Sometimes the Reform rabbi sat in to give her thoughts on the Hebrew Bible lesson for the week. I loved that group. We all learned a great deal from one another.

Written by Joe Holland

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