LETTER FROM THE ECUMENICAL MODERATOR
organic unity
MURDOCH MACKENZIE
april 2002
Dear Friends,
Organic unity like organic vegetables needs to be home grown. We are talking about growth at the grass roots and not about some grand scheme cobbled together in the clouds. But we are talking about real growth in love, the kind of growth which can only happen when we deny ourselves, including our attachment to partial images of what it means to be church as mirrored in our denominations, the kind of growth which happens when we make a fresh start in following Jesus who said: ' Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. ' (John 12:45) Ian Fraser of Iona wrote the following prayer: ' Lord, whose son was content to die to bring new life, have mercy on your church which will do anything you ask, anything at all, except die and be reborn. '
Many people are so wrapped up in being Baptist or Anglican or Methodist or Catholic or URC that they miss the kingdom goal. Indeed it has often been said that Jesus preached the Kingdom and all that happened was the church, to which we have given a capital 'C' pretending that our small corner of God's large vineyard is the be all and end all of salvation and forgetting that the love of God is broader than the measures of man's mind and the heart of the eternal is most wonderfully kind. This week I received a letter from a priest who left Milton Keynes two or three years ago in which he said: ' It was only on leaving Milton Keynes that I fully came to realise the value of what we had. Here where I am now, ecumenical work seems to consist of a couple of social events each year and the odd march of witness. Apart from that we all stay securely behind our denominational barricades! For Milton Keynes we continue to pray " that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ." ' This reminded me of the words attributed to Spurgeon:
'To dwell above with saints we love,
Ah, that indeed is glory.
To dwell below with saints we know
That's quite another story. '
I was also reminded of the question raised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, when he addressed us in the Church of Christ the Cornerstone in March 1999 when he pointed out that there were over 300 churches in the World Council of Churches and asked how we could square that with Christ's high priestly prayer ' that they all may be one. ' He went on to say that we value our own churches more than the Gospel itself and that each denomination believes that Jesus belongs peculiarly to it.
In section 20 of UT UNUM SINT Pope John Paul II says: ' It is absolutely clear that ecumenism, the movement promoting Christian unity, is not just some sort of "appendix" which is added to the Church's traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work, and consequently must pervade all that she is and does; it must be like the fruit borne by a healthy and flourishing tree which grows to its full stature. ' Thus organic unity is of the essence of what it means to be the body of Christ and to slightly adapt Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's words about ecumenism: 'It happens where it happens' which means at the grassroots where people grow together in love and understanding. But it will only happen if people abandon the false security of their isolationist denominationalism and actually meet each other. Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines-Brussels left these words as his testament in 1926: 'In order to unite we must love one another; in order to love one another, we must know one another; in order to know one another, we must go and meet one another.'
Thus having put our hands to the ecumenical plough in Milton Keynes we must not look back otherwise we will not be fit for the Kingdom. Whilst organic unity does not lead to uniformity it does lead to one visible, holy, catholic and apostolic church and not to the myriad of separatist movements which we still find in Milton Keynes today. Such separatism is anathema to the Holy Spirit who is eager to maintain our unity in one body and one Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3-4) So let us not be disobedient to the heavenly vision, being seduced by vague talk about unity and diversity, but let us grow together in that love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:14) In that Spirit may we all be inspired by the words of the prayer attributed to Sir Francis Drake:
' O Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth true glory. '
Let us keep on dying for Christ's sake !
Murdoch MacKenzie
Organic unity like organic vegetables needs to be home grown. We are talking about growth at the grass roots and not about some grand scheme cobbled together in the clouds. But we are talking about real growth in love, the kind of growth which can only happen when we deny ourselves, including our attachment to partial images of what it means to be church as mirrored in our denominations, the kind of growth which happens when we make a fresh start in following Jesus who said: ' Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it remains alone, but if it dies it bears much fruit. ' (John 12:45) Ian Fraser of Iona wrote the following prayer: ' Lord, whose son was content to die to bring new life, have mercy on your church which will do anything you ask, anything at all, except die and be reborn. '
Many people are so wrapped up in being Baptist or Anglican or Methodist or Catholic or URC that they miss the kingdom goal. Indeed it has often been said that Jesus preached the Kingdom and all that happened was the church, to which we have given a capital 'C' pretending that our small corner of God's large vineyard is the be all and end all of salvation and forgetting that the love of God is broader than the measures of man's mind and the heart of the eternal is most wonderfully kind. This week I received a letter from a priest who left Milton Keynes two or three years ago in which he said: ' It was only on leaving Milton Keynes that I fully came to realise the value of what we had. Here where I am now, ecumenical work seems to consist of a couple of social events each year and the odd march of witness. Apart from that we all stay securely behind our denominational barricades! For Milton Keynes we continue to pray " that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ." ' This reminded me of the words attributed to Spurgeon:
'To dwell above with saints we love,
Ah, that indeed is glory.
To dwell below with saints we know
That's quite another story. '
I was also reminded of the question raised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr George Carey, when he addressed us in the Church of Christ the Cornerstone in March 1999 when he pointed out that there were over 300 churches in the World Council of Churches and asked how we could square that with Christ's high priestly prayer ' that they all may be one. ' He went on to say that we value our own churches more than the Gospel itself and that each denomination believes that Jesus belongs peculiarly to it.
In section 20 of UT UNUM SINT Pope John Paul II says: ' It is absolutely clear that ecumenism, the movement promoting Christian unity, is not just some sort of "appendix" which is added to the Church's traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work, and consequently must pervade all that she is and does; it must be like the fruit borne by a healthy and flourishing tree which grows to its full stature. ' Thus organic unity is of the essence of what it means to be the body of Christ and to slightly adapt Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor's words about ecumenism: 'It happens where it happens' which means at the grassroots where people grow together in love and understanding. But it will only happen if people abandon the false security of their isolationist denominationalism and actually meet each other. Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines-Brussels left these words as his testament in 1926: 'In order to unite we must love one another; in order to love one another, we must know one another; in order to know one another, we must go and meet one another.'
Thus having put our hands to the ecumenical plough in Milton Keynes we must not look back otherwise we will not be fit for the Kingdom. Whilst organic unity does not lead to uniformity it does lead to one visible, holy, catholic and apostolic church and not to the myriad of separatist movements which we still find in Milton Keynes today. Such separatism is anathema to the Holy Spirit who is eager to maintain our unity in one body and one Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:3-4) So let us not be disobedient to the heavenly vision, being seduced by vague talk about unity and diversity, but let us grow together in that love which binds everything together in perfect harmony. (Colossians 3:14) In that Spirit may we all be inspired by the words of the prayer attributed to Sir Francis Drake:
' O Lord God, when thou givest to thy servants to endeavour any great matter, grant us to know that it is not the beginning but the continuing of the same, until it be thoroughly finished, which yieldeth true glory. '
Let us keep on dying for Christ's sake !
Murdoch MacKenzie
