Ecumenical Act of Prayer for Christian Unity

1. My dear brothers and sisters, as Christians we hold in common for all our brothers and sisters in the human family a profound and wonderful mystery. It is the mystery of the gracious self-communication and self-giving of God to the world. There is hardly a better summary of this mystery that the words we have heard this evening from the First Letter of St. John: “God’s love for us was revealed when God sent into the world his only Son so that we could have life through him; this is the love I mean; not our love for God, but God’s love for us when he sent his Son to be sacrifice that takes our sins away.”  This mystery of God’s love for us made visible in Jesus Christ and embedded in us by the action of the Holy Spirit, this is what nourishes us in Christian living and what inspires us to Christian witness and mission. We gather here this evening to pray for Christian Unity. The way to Christian Unity must pass through a spiritual renewal, the heart of which is this mystery of God in Christ. The indispensable accompaniment on the way to Christian unity is a renewal of faith in the Christ of the Gospels. It is a mistake to think we can manufacture Christian unity by clever negotiation or by managerial means. We cannot increase unity within denominations never mind between denominations by skilful arrangements only. Christian unity will only come from faith and from prayer and from obedience to the Lord, because the closer we draw to Christ, the closer we become to one another. So our ecumenical act of prayer this evening between Christians of different churches and communities assumes a huge symbolic importance, as we identify ourselves with the words of this evening’s reading from the Word of God: “We ourselves saw and we testify that the Father sent his Son as saviour of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.”

2. Some Christian Churches and communities declare themselves to be committed to the goal of full visible unity, also known sometimes as organic unity, which would be characterised by unity in faith, ministry and sacraments. There was a time in the last 40 years when some Christians were so enthused by this noble project that they hoped that such a fulsome Christian unity was just round the corner. So far this full visible unity of the Church of Christ has eluded us and does not seem to be imminent. Because of difficulties and disappointments, some communities have even pulled away from seeking this form of unity and perhaps we have seen a kind of ecumenical fatigue or even discouragement. What is to be said about this? Well we need to remember that what counts is not “our love for God”, but “God’s love for us”. God’s “yes” is always stronger than our “no”. The Church belongs to God. Unity is his gift, which is why we must pray for unity and seek his unity. God is the Lord of history and we cannot second-guess him. Some of the most unexpected, unforeseen and rapid changes in recent history were perhaps those associated with the collapse of the soviet empire. The future is in God’s hands, and so we must continue to pray and to do all we can to seek Christian unity.

3. And as we do so, we can be inspired by words we have heard already this evening from the First Letter of St. John: “My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another.” We need to seek and practice the ecumenism of love and friendship. This is how Christians should behave. It is an antidote to the legacy of all that bitterness, discord, and prejudice which has been the scourge of many places and communities in Scotland over many decades and which we like to think has almost been overcome, but not quite. It also prepares our hearts for the time when the Lord invites us to seek that deeper more visible Church unity which is surely his will and his prayer for his disciples.

4. St. John goes on: “God will live in us and his love will be complete in us. We can know that we are living in him and he is living in us because he lets us share his Spirit.” It is the Spirit of the Lord who spurs us to witness and to mission. It is not enough then simply to have an ecumenism of friendship between ourselves. The Spirit invites us to fill the world with the love of God and renew the face of the earth. We can do much together to diminish poverty, to strive against suffering in the world, to lay a sure foundation for peace, and to make this world a better place for human beings to live and inhabit.

5. So this evening I encourage you to engage together as Christians in this area in common prayer, in respectful dialogue, in sincere friendship, and in common witness. Such a programme, at once realistic and potentially effective, is surely what the Lord wants of us and what the world expects and needs. And it prepares us for the day when the Lord will invite to make an even deeper commitment into the unity for which he himself prayed: “May they 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.”

St. Mary’s, Greenock

18^th January 2007