From
Living Theology in the Metropolitan Chicago Synod
Evangelical Lutheran Church In America
Volume 1, Number 2
Easter 1996
Ecumenism
Ecumenism at the grassroots is largely
biographical. Much of what happens in our communities ecumenically depends not
on the mood or progress of denominational dialogues but on who the pastors are of the local congregations. In every community
there are pastors and lay leaders who are committed to ecumenical mission and
those who are absent from such conversation since it all seems vague and
irrelevant to their ministry.
In my former parish in Saluda County,
South Carolina, I definitely fell into the latter category. Ministering in a
rural, relatively homogenous community, I was simply grateful to get together
with my Lutheran colleagues, who were living within a 30 mile radius, once a
month. I did not know or even meet a pastor from any of the other Protestant
churches [there were no Catholic churches] during the five years I was there.
Frankly, our lives and ministries just did not intersect in any meaningful way.
Ecumenism at the grassroots is biographical because if I or some other local
clergyperson had an interest in such things, we could have rallied folks
together for conversation and dialog. But nobody did at that time, in that
place.
The biographical bias is not simply
about the who--the personalities or
personal interest--it's also about the where
of it all. Now I am in ministry in Evanston, Illinois which boasts of 90 plus
Christian congregations which meet in our eight square miles alone. We are
surrounded by a variety of Christian denominations, Jewish synagogues, and a
host of home-grown spiritualities. I, who would have listed
"ecumenism" at the bottom of my priority list 15 years ago, now serve
as the co-president of the Evanston Ecumenical Action Council. EEAC is a
council of nearly 50 congregations and institutions which have been doing
ministry together for 25 years. I am co-president along with one of the
Catholic priests down the road who is becoming one of my most supportive
colleagues and friends. This council does many things together. It provides
various shelter programs for the homeless, runs several soup kitchens around
town, coordinates racism healing workshops, provides ecumenical worship
services at Thanksgiving and Pentecost, and provides a voice for the churches
in our city government.
EEAC, its current co-presidents
notwithstanding, is largely run by the laity. Biographically speaking, the
clergy come and go. Some who come to town are interested in things ecumenical,
and others are not. But our dedicated lay people are the ones who stick by the
organization and make it work.
From my observations, it is often the
clergy who are more educated on the status of doctrinal discussions and
ecumenical progress. Clergy may be interested in reading about a meeting
between Bishop Anderson and the Pope, while the laity, perhaps unaware of such
a meeting, are busy coordinating a hike for the homeless to bring Lutherans and
Catholics together. It's not that our laity aren't interested in the doctrinal or
eccesial issues. Many do keep abreast of these things. The perception I have
though is that as much as lay folks love their clergy people, they sometimes
feel that clergy and the institutional church they represent make the
differences among us more divisive than they need to be. Many people do take
that theologically naive stance: "We all believe in the same God
anyway."
Those who know their church history
and their theology are aware that this statement in many ways is false. But the
perception from the grassroots seems to be that if we keep saying this creed
out loud for long enough, it just might become true.
Is it working? Now we might not mind
it when Baptists, Catholics, and Lutherans are chanting this together, but we
need to also be aware that many are confessing this credo with Jews,
Christians, Unitarians, and Muslims in mind.
Ecumenical groups like our EEAC don't
often spend a lot of their time in theological conversation. We often band
together to do some social ministry projects that many of us could not do
alone, such as operate warming centers and soup kitchens for the hungry and
homeless. There is very little biblical interpretation, theology, or church
practice that stands between our particularity and serving the poor.
However, here in Evanston, we also
engage in joint ventures that often make our particularities flare to the point
of embarrassment. While the creed, "We all believe in the same God,
anyway," works around the soup kitchen table, it does not work about the
table where bread and wine are on the menu. In my experience, (it's still
biographical), ecumenical worship is the most difficult thing I have ever tried
to do in ministry. Frankly, we don't even mention celebrating the Eucharist
together. We all seem to be ecumenically savvy enough not to even suggest it.
Even with that "wonderful symbol
of unity/terrible stumbling block" removed, worship is still difficult. We
still find ourselves liturgically divided, and this division, in our community
at least, also slices us along racial lines. We clearly have two styles of
worship in town: the African-American way and the white way. Though we've tried
to fight it and re-organize it, the bottom line in our city is that we have two
separate ecumenical clergy groups: The African-American Ministerial Alliance
and The Evanston Clergy Association. There is a need in Evanston for the
African-American clergy to have their own organization and there is an equal
need for ecumenical worship to follow the African-American style of worship.
Somehow our attempts to honor these
needs, such as making sure that ecumenical worship is largely in this style,
have proved to be sorely problematic. Despite our efforts the white folks are
now saying, "I'm tired of this kind of worship every time," and the
African-American clergy are simultaneously saying, "If we don't make these
services more in our style, we'll just have our separate services."
Obviously there's more going on than bickering over hymn selection. There's
racism going on that hasn't been addressed, named, or healed. At points like
this, the true believers in the "same God" credo have their faith
seriously shaken. They can't understand why this same God can't be worshipped
by everyone equally. After a few bad Community Thanksgiving services, the
faithful begin to wake up from their dream of "one Lord, one faith, one
baptism" and sadly acknowledge that sin is alive and well. How painful it
is when one discovers this ugly truth in worship, around the cross, when the
day before we had been happily hiking for the homeless.
We at the grassroots have plumbed some
of these depths of ecumenical ministry that have not been explored on the
denominational level. Locally we have worked at worship where the best gifts of
many denominations may come together. But how do we appreciate what Quakers
have discovered about the place of silence and prayer while simultaneously
honoring the AME's need for robust celebration of God's mighty acts?
We are living, worshipping, and
serving where the rubber hits the road. It's so difficult and painful sometimes
that we are tempted to abandon our efforts and go our separate ways. We at the
grassroots who have been in dialog with a broader spectrum of the Christian
Church than those who carry out these ministries on behalf of denominations,
can share our personal experiences of some of the difficulties that are lurking
in the closets of Christ's mansion in which we live. People involved in
ecumenical efforts must be sensitive to issues of worship and they must be
prepared for the surprising roadblocks to unity they will encounter, especially
racism and sexism.
At the local level we continue to
press on with our ecumenical efforts even when we think we don't have time for
it. We press on not simply because it's practical for doing social ministry. We
press on because we believe Jesus wants us to keep working on it. If there are
challenges to mission, we believe our Lord will give us the ability and the
will to meet them. The faithfulness of our people here has been a wonderful
witness!
Ecumenism at the grassroots is also
biographical because of the many pastoral concerns that often drive us to the
boundaries of our particularity. Given the demographics of an area like
ChicagoLand, I'm sure every Lutheran pastor around has a story to tell about a
couple in love who came to the doorstep looking for someone to preside at their
wedding. My latest story [we're still biographical here!] goes something like
this: Jim and Gloria are devout Roman Catholics. They are engaged. Gloria has been
married twice before. One marriage has already been annulled by the Catholic
church, but the second one seems to be hung up. It's been a year of red tape.
They have finally set a date in October, but are becoming frantic that the
annulment won't come through in time.
Their parish priest says he'd like to help but has his hands tied.
Without the annulment Jim and Gloria would be committing adultery and would be
excommunicated. They're desperate. Gloria hears that a Lutheran pastor would
probably help. She calls the local one in the phone book. She makes it clear
that she's simply looking for someone to perform the ceremony. The Lutheran
pastor makes it clear to her that unless she and her new hubby plan to join his
congregation, he doesn't have the time. Eventually they end up in my office
desperately seeking church and clergy for the wedding.
Because I think more ecumenically
these days, I agree to work with them. First of all, I don't understand all
this annulment and excommunication stuff. I also don't like the rumors I hear
about the politics and complications of
the annulment process. But I
also know from my Catholic colleagues in ministry that they too are concerned and
are working for change. But church policies are slow to change, so in the meantime
our Catholic colleagues have their hands tied. Currently, my hands are
relatively free on these issues. I'll perform the ceremony in our church. I'll
help this couple not only with their wedding but with the spiritual crisis they
are experiencing because they have approached both Catholic and Protestant
clergy and felt they were not understood or loved as they had hoped. I'll cooperate with their priest who is
sympathetic but feels unable to help them. And in the end, I'll encourage Jim
and Gloria to return to their parish as husband and wife and to be the best
members of that parish they can be. That's all they want to do anyway.
Because we are Christians under one
roof, because we are ecumenical, our common goal is to make disciples for
Christ, not members for our congregation. Ecumenism helps us move beyond
membership to discipleship.
These are the kind of stories that
drive much of local ecumenism. In my estimation, because we live and breath these
experiences so frequently, ecumenism at the grassroots is more advanced and
inclusive than it is at churchwide levels. This is hardly a radical statement,
but if local work filters up the eccesial ladder one has to wonder what's next.
From the viewpoint of local ecumenism, our up-coming ecumenical agreements seem
to be positive steps but woefully behind the times. We have built so many
bridges with other Protestant churches and with Catholic parishes, that to
speak of now being officially in partnership is hardly news.
At the grassroots there are new
cutting edges that our denominations, which move more slowly, have scarcely
begun to tackle. The grassroots are now dealing seriously with inter-faith
issues. Of special interest in our area is the cooperation of Jews and
Christians. This is a hot topic among us. And why are we climbing this new
mountain? Just to have other congregations to serve in the soup kitchens? No,
the answer again is biographical. Among us Christians in Evanston, there is
scarcely a one of us that does not know and love someone from another faith.
The number of Jewish-Christian couples in our congregations is growing. We have
concerns about wedding services, finding a fitting place for the Jewish father
of a baby brought to the baptismal font. Once again our stories and our
experiences are driving us to our sacred scriptures, to an examination of our
traditions, and to serious conversations in small groups about our faith and
our future. We are preaching in each other's pulpits, supporting each other's
causes, caring for each other's members, discussing rituals, sharing
educational events, and of course, serving in the same soup kitchen line. We
are the pulse of the people of God.
Mary Williams Anderson
Pastor,
St. Paul’s, Evanston