Ecumenism Is Not Oneness, But Wholeness
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Hi Friends —
Here is a paper I wrote for the class in Ecumenism, offered by The St. Mary Seminary Ecumenical Institute in the Summer of 2024.
Sunday, July 21, 2024
Mark Hicks
ES740 Ecumenism Ecumenical Position Paper
August 13, 2024
Wholeness, not Oneness. The ecumenical movement has a mistaken understanding of unity. Unity, as understood by the ecumenical movement, has stressed ecumenical oneness. That is understandable. The early church declared one body and one Spirit ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism. St. Paul declared the Gospel made Jews and Gentiles one, removing the dividing wall of hostility. The mistaken notion of unity is also understandable, given the origin of the ecumenical movement in world mission work. 19th-century evangelists were highly effective, and their success was understood as a sign of God’s blessing. They sought further success for their mission. They knew, as we know today, that the best message for any marketing effort–spiritual or secular–is a “unified message,” clearly defined and of one voice.
However, unity can also refer to an “internal quality” of wholeness. Such wholeness refers to a system or organism that operates with perfect internal harmony. Glenn Clark, an immensely successful theological writer (and ecumenist), has likened perfect internal harmony to the metaphor of “hind’s feet” in Psalm 118.1 [Note: all URLs in footnotes are clickable hotlinks.] Clark describes the near super-human capacity one has when the entire human mind is as free from all discord as the movement of a deer jumping a fence. In my opinion, this metaphor is as good as it gets in metaphysical writing. Wholeness is, theologically, a state of perfection. So, the ecumenical unity I am talking about–the internal quality of completeness–is not oneness but wholeness.
Any body–human or ecclesiastical–can be one but far from whole. Organisms that suffer from great internal disharmony are one organism, but also sick. They live, but not fully. They function, but not in the way God has designed. They may see, but not with a single eye. Regardless of their condition, we wish them to “be made whole.”
The Hollowing Out of Religious Commitment. David Yeago’s article, The Ecclesial Context of Ecumenical Reception: A Case Study, is proof positive that the mainline church in Europe and North America is not well. Before it can be made one, it needs to be made whole.
Yeago declares the mainstream church incapable of receiving the spirit of ecumenism. He describes the “rapid and consequential thinning-out of the communal density” of the churches. The communal density he describes is the desire to convey the Gospel message. That desire has been replaced by a demand for pastoral ministry for its membership. In essence, the mission of the mainstream church has shifted from an outward focus on mission and world service to an inward focus on the pastoral care of its membership.
What Yeago does not stress is why this shift has occurred. He alludes to “the confusing interaction of theological tradition and cultural modernity in the formation of denominational identity; ... and above all, the looming doubt that mainline denominations any longer have the capacity to sustain commitment to any common rule of faith and life whatsoever.”
Rephrasing Yeago’s statement, we can say that because of the “confusing interaction of [theology] and [modern culture], the mainline churches are not capable of receiving or committing to the vision of ecumenism–regardless of how theologians convey the vision.
This means that the solution to uniting and making whole a divided church will not be found solely in theology. Put another way, we must question Nelson-Raith’s statement, “We are interested not in the different personalities and inclinations and offices and gifts that mark the church, but rather and inevitably in doctrinal divergences that are ancient and deep, and that have given rise to ongoing disputes among the different churches.” (p. 105, my emphasis). Overcoming basic differences in Christian theology will be helpful, perhaps essential, to achieving the ecumenical imperative. However, theology is a lens that brings spiritual truth into focus, not a cure for illness.
Spiritual Ecumenism. So what will make whole a divided church? How can that lead to one flock, one shepherd? What is the solution for the ecumenical imperative? We must begin with a spiritual answer and then look for practical applications (which I will describe in the next section). I find the spiritual answer put forth very succinctly in Walter Cardinal Kasper’s Spiritual Ecumenism:2
It is significant that Jesus did not primarily express his desire for unity in a teaching or in a commandment to his disciples, but in a prayer to his Father. Unity is a gift from above, stemming from and growing toward loving communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. (4) ... Spiritual ecumenism finds its expression in “public and private prayer for the unity of Christians.” (5) ... Spiritual ecumenism also requires a “change of heart and holiness of life,” arising from Jesus’call to conversion. (6)
I find no imperative here for the working out of doctrinal divergences, at least in the work of spiritual ecumenism. Such theological work may eventually be necessary, but it is not the heart of ecumenism. As Cardinal Kasper says, “This book offers practical solutions aimed at implementing and strengthening that spiritual ecumenism which is the heart of all efforts to bring divided Christians together again in unity.” (1).
What this means to me, and a central point I wish to make, is that theological inquiry and the working out doctrinal divergences should not be carried out without significant public and private prayer and a change of heart and holiness of life arising from Jesus’ call to conversion. Unity is, as Cardinal Kasper writes, “a gift from above, stemming from communion with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”
Further, Nelson-Raith and other ecumenists risk getting ahead of the Holy Spirit. Getting ahead of the Holy Spirit leads to premature judgments and unnecessary mistakes, as I will explain further. We all too often want to be “one” before we are “whole.” The pathway to Christian unity is wholeness through communion with God in public and private prayer, a change of heart, and holiness of life.
Practical Ecumenism. A practical application of spiritual ecumenism can be found in the life work of Glenn Clark, mentioned above for his metaphor of the “hind’s feet” to illustrate the power of internal harmony. He describes his ecumenical work as an extension of the work of Jesus:
“’I came to make men whole,’ said Jesus, and He was able to do this because His Love was whole. Even virtue can assume the likeness of evil when it is broken into fragments, becomes fanatic, morbid, or captive to some fragmentary conception of itself. This Wholeness of Love, on the other hand, is always healing, strengthening, contagious, irresistible, and wonderful.”3
What makes Glenn Clark’s work so pertinent for ecumenism is the combination of three elements: world mission and evangelism, promotion of faith and order, and a radical commitment to peace and justice. These three elements appear time and again in reflections of ecumenical studies. They take form and harmonious expression in the work of Glenn Clark. To push the analogy, we can say that by a practical example of combining evangelical mission, faith and order, and life and work, Glenn Clark brings wholeness to the work of ecumenism.
Baltimore residents may not be aware of Glenn Clark’s world mission, which launched New Year’s Day in 1952, from Koinonia Estate, located in Stevenson, Maryland, north of Baltimore.4 The work he and others established there and his 1952 world mission contributed to the development of the Peace Corps.5 Clark writes: “New Year’s Day I spent at Koinonia Estate just outside of Baltimore meeting in discussion and prayer with twelve men of God. The day following, January 2, I boarded a plane at the International Airport and my journey around the world began.”6 We have, seven miles north of 5400 Roland Avenue, a prime candidate for an academic study in practical ecumenism. (The current owner and I will happily arrange a tour.)
Clark’s mission was world peace and it’s method was the establishement of prayer groups. From the inside cover flap:
On January 2, 1954 Glenn Clark and the Reverend and Mrs. Roland Brown boarded a plane at New York’s International Airport and not many hours later they were passing over the green carpet of Ireland to land in London. This was the beginning of a global journey to meet with praying people and prayer groups and to establish, in the words of the author, “a belt of prayer around the world.” He met and shared the simple aspirations of good people the world over; some of them internationally famous such as a former queen, and some of them unknown, such as a leper on the Island of Formosa.
But the mission also brought Fundamentalists and liberals together. Clark quotes a participant: “’Some say Glenn Clark is a liberal, but if he is, I am liberal, too.’ These missionaries are all conservative but their fundamentalism is like ours and centers around the fundamentals of Jesus. It is not the fundamentalism which gets preoccupied with fighting about rituals and creeds.”
Is It the Fringe or the Frontier? Clark could put spiritual ecumenism into practical form because he stood outside of denominational boundaries. Clark shares his experience:
And above all, I found that God had especially given me the gift and the training to be used as an instrument of His Love for breaking down barriers between all forms of religious thought and religious thinkers, and bring them into harmony and understanding. It became a passion of mine to make the whole army of Christ of one mind and one blood. For instance, while I was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, I taught a Bible Class in a Congregational church and spoke from pulpits of Methodist, Baptist, and Friend groups all over the land. While I had attended Catholic services only three or four times in my life a leading Catholic priest reviewed The Soul’s Sincere Desire in a distinguished Catholic magazine, closing with the words, ''While the author is one of our estranged brethren, there is nothing in this book that will hurt the devout Catholic; it breathes the spirit of Brother Lawrence and St. Francis of Assisi.”7
That is the frontier of ecumenism. It is, in my opinion, outside of denominational boundaries, and it just may be the place where God provides the gift and training “to be used as an instrument of [God’s] Love for breaking down barriers between all forms of religious thought and religious thinkers, and bring them into harmony and understanding.”
Hitting closer to home (for me) is Clark’s reflection on how the denominations considered my tradition:
There have been efforts to put vitality into the church from time to time that deserve thoughtful attention. One was the Unity Movement, started by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, with the purpose of putting into the orthodox churches the faith in healing of the Christian Scientist Church without forcing anyone to leave the church. They started as Monday night groups, as an aid and adjunct to the regular church, not as a substitution, but the church spurned them, criticized them, refused to co-operate or let them co-operate with them, so they were finally forced to set up separate churches of their own.8
Clark refers to the Unity Movement as something that is also outside of denominational boundaries. As Clark said, they did not get there by choice. They got there because theologians all too often declared them the fringe. When applied to an object, fringe refers to the outer edges; when applied to a social group, fringe is a derogatory term, such as “The lunatic fringe of a strong political party.” The use of the term for social groups is regrettable.
Unity today is overrun by people who have left orthodox Christianity. John Shelby Spong, another “fringe” Christian, observed that they come because “You have a lot of broken [Christian] people that come into Unity to be healed. They might not stay. They might get healed and go back home. And that will happen. You ought to rejoice in that. That’s a part of your ministry.”9
Healing broken people who have left mainstream Christianity is my ministry. Learning how to communicate with them so that they may overcome their rejection of the Christian faith is why I study at the Ecumenical Institute. Our founders were faith healers. People came to them because their bodies were sick and their church delared that some spiritual gifts, such spiritual healing, ceased with the end of the Apostolic Age. That may no longer be the fringe or frontier, but it was not long ago.
Conclusion. I asserted above, “Getting ahead of the Holy Spirit leads to premature judgments and unnecessary mistakes.” That is so because a significant amount of religious innovation emerges from what some may refer to as the fringe but is actually the frontier. Regardless of how a movement is classified, doctrinal definitions often lead to rejection of both frontier and fringe in ecumenical endeavor. Jesus declared, “By their fruits, you will know them,” St. Paul asserted that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” We have indeed found ourselves in an ecumenical winter. We have got there by getting ahead of the Holy Spirit.
- Glenn Clark. I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes. New York and London, Harper & brothers. 1937, p9. https:// archive.org/details/iwillliftupminee00clar/page/n5/mode/2up
- Kasper, Walter, A Handbook of Spiritual Ecumenism (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2007). https://cte.org.uk/app/uploads/2021/08/A-Handbook-of-Spiritual-Ecumenism-English-and-Welsh-Arc-2006.pdf
- Glenn Clark. Two or Three Gathered Together. New York, Harper Brothers, 1942. p.21
- Glenn Clark, On Wings of Prayer, Macalester Park Publishing Company, Saint Paul, 1955. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/etov1q55manyqmy547vmc/glenn-clark-on-wings-of-prayer.pdf?rlkey=b9vsdk69keep6jwdmxr76xvhx&dl=0
- Gramercy Mansion, A Little Known Koinonia History: https://www.gramercymansion.com/blog/aboutus/a-little-koinonia-history/
- On Wings of Prayer, p.14
- Two or Three Gathered Together, p. 30
- Ibid. pp. 32-3
- Contact magazine, an internal Unity publication. 2008. https://www.truthunity.net/people/john-shelby-spong
