New Partnership
You are welcome to reproduce the article below in full, as long as you cite the author, this website and any other place it was previously published. If you wish to shorten it, please seek the permission of the author, using the Contact Us button. Back to top
New Partnership: a vision of mission and ecumenism
By Mike HaslamEcumenical Officer for Swindon and North Wiltshire
2005
Note
This paper is just a beginning, an attempt to draw some notes, ideas and experience together. As such it does not in any way claim to be a finished article. The vast majority of it is anecdotal, a collection of experiences and conversations held over the past five years with a very broad range of people. But it is, I hope, a starter for ten, with the hope that it might develop in due course.
Unity and Mission. A biblical context
In services for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2005 I used not the ?classic? ecumenical verse, John 17: 21-22, but what are perhaps three of the great ?mission statements? of Jesus: Christ?s call to go and make disciples of all nations [Matthew 28], Christ?s call to bring good news to the poor [Luke 4] and Christs promise that he has come to bring us abundant life [John 10].
I used these verses in part to give a mission focused urgency to the week of prayer, for the classic ecumenical prayer of Jesus that we may be one is so commonly quoted that it?s now often ignored. I also used them to stress the second half of the passage that our unity is not for its own sake, but is a unity in God, and exists so that, in and through the power of God, we can, make disciples of all nations.
Mission and Ecumenism on the ground
The general perception of ecumenism from inside and from outside, is still, I believe, too narrow. I can feel the shock waves when I ask the question in some forums, ?What use is the visible unity of the church [the traditional goal of the ecumenist] if the church is invisible??.
And even if the full visible unity of the church should remain our long-term aim [an aim that I would question if not dismiss] our current means of achieving it needs to be reviewed. Our vision of ecumenism and the unity of the church is bound by our concept of denomination. Many young Christians, barely know what denominations are. When they move to a new community, they look for a ?good? church, and define that principally by worship, teaching, fellowship and outreach, rather by Anglican, Baptist or Pentecostal labels.
And students and other young people with whom I have worked who are not members of any faith often struggle to comprehend even that there is more than one faith. The idea that the faiths are then subdivided into traditions and denominations is beyond them ? it is irrelevant as well as bizarre.
Denominations, like political parties, are becoming less significant as people are attracted not to complex organisations with a diversity of aims but to single-issue campaigns, often, ironically, organised by a broad coalition of complex organisations. These can be national or international in scale [Make Poverty History] or very local [a campaign to save a school or stop a new housing development].
We ask for clarity of aims and visions from such campaigns, but alongside that, also for people who are prepared to work together and welcome all who share their aims. We ask for distinctiveness and inclusiveness. We do not want fudge or complexity or overbearing structures. And neither do we want preciousness, or groups who are so certain that they alone are right that they defend the purity of their positions and allow no one else to join them, for fear that the message will be diluted or changed.
Together we?re stronger
One of the slogans of Unison, the public services union is: ?together we?re stronger?. There is common ground between the churches and Unison. Together we are indeed stronger, we have greater resources, and not just because our combined resources are shared, but also because together we can create more.
But for the churches this is not just about institutional power or resources. When we come together as a community of faith in God, we share fellowship, prayer, worship and theology that equip us to go out and share the gospel in a way that all of the financial or physical resources in the world could not.
Together we create not just community but communitas, and in the power of God, we are stronger.
Beyond structures
The Anglican Methodist Covenant was strong on structures and in this it reflected the general mood of ecumenism and indeed the churches. If you ask a number of organisations, many of which rely heavily on structures and order, to work together, it?s hardly surprising that they should create something ? ecumenism ? that is even more dominated by structures. There is a clear need for structures to guide and protect, particularly within the current legislative framework. But they are also symptomatic of our fundamental lack of trust within and between denominations. The ecumenism that we have created is simply a reflection of the participating churches.
Ecumenism works well when it becomes more organic and more local; when it is founded on the common trust within a local community who get on with working with each other in their mission and ministry to the community. There are wonderful examples of this, in Swindon and Wiltshire and around the country.
One in which I have worked was at Newcastle University. The LEP that I led never really worked, but a partnership of the Catholic Chaplaincy, the Christian Union, Agape, and myself as University Chaplain was able to do good and creative work: big evangelistic projects and ongoing ministry, worship and prayer. We trusted each other, recognised that what we agreed on was infinitely greater and more important than what we disagreed on, and we got on with it.
newpartnership
It is interesting that what I believe to be two of the most ecumenical and successful projects in the life of the church in the UK over the past decade have never used the word ?ecumenical?. Jubilee 2000 and Make Poverty History are made up of enormous coalitions of churches [national and local], para-church organisations, aid agencies, trades unions and other individuals and organisations.
Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam and Save the Children haven?t seen the need to dissolve themselves to work together on such campaigns, any more than the denominations, faiths, musicians, actors or trades unions have. Neither have they felt that by joining up they will loose their identity or be threatened by others with whom they will not agree of everything. But they have recognised that the broader the coalition, the greater the power, to transform as well as to campaign.
With government asking the voluntary and community sector to take on more and more responsibility for education, community development and social and pastoral care, I believe that this is a model that we should look to, on a local as well as a national level. Faithworks has already done this and there are many examples of good practice from around the country.
With the opportunities of the strategic planning processes, the enormous needs in our communities and the call for more of them to be met from within the community, and the significant current position of the churches [see the Daily Service report and many other studies], we are well placed to be part of, and indeed lead, a partnership that will regenerate our communities and take us back into their heart. This will not just be a partnership of churches or faiths but will include the rest of the voluntary and community sector, social enterprise, business, local government and statutory agencies [LEA?s and NHS trusts etc].
However, before we can do this, we need to learn to be both more distinctive and more inclusive. We need to be clearer about what we believe and why we are working, worshipping and praying in our communities, and be ready to work with anyone who can help, even if we don?t always agree on everything.
If we are willing to get involved, to be inclusive and distinctive, to share the Story of God, to listen to the story of the community, and say, when asked, why we are doing what we are doing, and how the story of the community can be transformed and transfigured by God, then amazing things can happen.
A vision beyond ecumenism
I believe that we must go way beyond denomination as we currently understand it ? which in turn means that we must go way beyond ecumenism. In response to the challenges to care for our communities and to transform them with the Story of God ? I believe that we must be at the vanguard of a community partnership.
To do this we will need to be less about talk and more about action; less about structures and more about passionate people coming together across barriers that have previously divided them, so that they can share the Gospel. And if we are to achieve this we will need to do the prayer, the fellowship, the action and the theology that will take us beyond our individual sanctuaries and into a Christian community that is together in the power of God. Back to top