Be one!


This posting kicks off a new blog to promote unity among all the Christian faithful, regardless of our differing church denominations. The times call for unity. We cannot delay further. The world is changing. In the West there previously was an underlying pro-Christian tone in politics and culture; that is evaporating. In many other parts of the world, hostility against Christians is openly shown. Nearly anywhere, you can hear people speak all manner of evil against Christians, falsely for the most part.

If we stand together, it will be a better and stronger testimony before those who imagine themselves our enemies. What has gone wrong with the West is that it has lost its former regard for the gospel. The rest of the world never had regard for it. The cultural tone in very many places is one of arrogant contempt for truth: Might makes right, and the narrow interests of my particular tribe or sect define right action. Whatever we Christians do to make our central message clearer and more convincing to unbelievers can only help them, as well as us.

Elsewhere on this site I have described, in more detail than most readers will want or need, a strategy for drawing  the faithful together in something like a united public front. In brief: We need to keep our doctrinal differences out of the public eye. When we discuss differences in church doctrines, we must do so only among believers and only with the mutual care and regard saved people owe to each other. When we preach or witness before the unsaved, we should "know nothing but Christ and him crucified," speaking the kerygmatic truth from which all Christianity proceeds and upon which Christians everywhere are in broad agreement.

Doing those things does not amount to the full spiritual unity our Lord prayed we would have, and it does not fulfill the desires of the churchmen for sacramental full communion. The ideas I propose are no more than a start on our long road to those things. We need to start somewhere. We need to start now.


Comments

  1. liturgyJanuary 23, 2013 at 6:22 PM

    Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - did you know that Catholics and Anglicans pray the same collects for about half the year? Please pass this on: http://liturgy.co.nz/book-of-prayers-in-common-2013/13256

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    Replies
    1. Kendal BlackJanuary 23, 2013 at 11:05 PM

      There are interesting things going on between Roman Catholicism and traditionally minded Anglicans, on several fronts. Thanks for the link. I think your efforts on the BPC can only help people who are involved in pointing out that there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

      I think some of these great old prayers will also resonate with less liturgical churches. Sometimes an old prayer already captures what moderns are groping to say.

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