Working toward Christian unity ‘a pressing duty of the Archdiocese’

Continued divisions between Christians constitute a scandal, Archbishop J. Michael Miller said during an ecumenical service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 

“We are thus called to repent of our disunity and work together for reconciliation among all peoples and not just among Christians,” he said to staff of the John Paul II Pastoral Centre as well as Dr. David Koop, Senior Pastor at Coastal Church, Vancouver, and Pastor Eric Krushel of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Coquitlam.

The archbishop noted that by praying together “we become more aware of our close relationship, even if we are still not yet fully united in every way. Moreover, it is in prayer that we learn to listen better to the Lord, because only by listening to him and following his voice can we find our way to unity.”

Following is an excerpt of his remarks.

For more than a century now, this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity has been a providential occasion for imploring the Lord in an intense and intentional way for the gift of full communion among all those baptized into the Body of Christ. This week reminds us of the duty to pray and work to overcome every division among Christians in response to Christ’s desire that we may all be one, so that the world might believe (cf. Jn 17:21). As Benedict XVI said of the ecumenical movement: “we hope [it] will soon lead Christ’s disciples to the common celebration of the Eucharist, [as] a manifestation of their unity. . . The Church’s evangelizing mission thus passes along the ecumenical road, the journey of unity of faith, Gospel witness and genuine brotherhood.”

Despite the changing situation of Christianity in the world, reflected at least in the West as a period of numerical decline though perhaps not of evangelical fervour, “the goal of the ecumenical movement has stayed the same: the visible unity of the Church. As is well known [among Catholics], the Second Vatican Council considered the restoration of full unity among all Christians as one of its principal aims.

Since the Church is summoned to be the sign and instrument of the unity God desires for the whole of humanity, the continued divisions between Christians constitute a scandal. We are thus called to repent of our disunity and work together for reconciliation among all peoples and not just among Christians. 

This Week of Prayer is a perfect time for Christians to recognize that the divisions between us can’t be separated from the divisions within the wider human family. The unity of Christians should be a sign and foretaste of the reconciled unity of the entire creation. Sadly, disunity among us weakens the force of that sign, serving to reinforce divisions rather than healing the world’s brokenness, which is the Church’s mission.

As Christians, and this is what constitutes our specific identity among all the world’s religions, we believe that at the centre of Christianity is a person, indeed a living person: Jesus Christ. Benedict XVI’s writings and preaching were strongly centred on the person of Jesus and of friendship with him.  

Allow me, then, to cite the words of the introduction to his first Encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, “God Is Love”: “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.”

It is therefore our aim as Catholics in the Archdiocese of Vancouver to support all initiatives with our brothers and sisters who profess the same faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour – whether these initiatives are in prayer, service and justice, or theological dialogue. Undertaken together, these are ways of working to rebuild the full and visible unity of all Christ’s followers. I regard this as a pressing duty of the Archdiocese. To paraphrase the Apostle Paul: “Woe to us, if we do not foster ecumenism!” (cf. 1 Cor 9:16).

Praying and working together with other Christians, then, “is not just some sort of ‘appendix’ which is added to the [Catholic] Church’s traditional activity. Rather, ecumenism is an organic part of her life and work,” said St. John Paul II in Ut Unum Sint.

An essential dimension of our journeying together is what we can call “practical ecumenism,” which flows from the spiritual ecumenism that prompts us to prayer and conversion. Already there are countless ways in which Christians work together to foster the works of mercy that are enumerated in today’s Gospel. But we can work even more zealously to affirm the bond of charity between us.

Matthew’s images are simple. His language is concrete, and his message is critically important for all Christians. The parable unveils for us the ultimate criterion on which our final destiny will rest. “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was in prison and you visited me.” (Mt 25:35-36).  Were Jesus alive today, he would undoubtedly have expanded this list to include the drug addicts, the homeless, the refugees and migrants, the women and children who are trafficked, those who have been abused, young people on the streets and many others.

Yes, at Judgment, division will remain. But it will not be that of different churches or communities, for the criterion for judgment will be: How did you treat Jesus when he was hungry, or thirsty, a stranger or naked, sick or in prison?

This means that here in the Lower Mainland we need to cooperate more visibly and more effectively in providing relief to the afflicted, hope to the discouraged, welcome to the displaced, rest to the burdened, and commitment to building a more just society where we are all brothers and sisters, “fratelli tutti.” Many initiatives await to be jointly developed, especially in the Downtown Eastside of our city. Nothing should impede our collaboration in such works of practical ecumenism.

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