when the holy spirit comes upon you you will be filled with power , and you will be witnesses for me in jerusalem, in all of judea and samaria
and to the ends of the earth... ACTS 1:8
From humble beginnings on the Day of Pentecost in Jerusalem the early disciples - uneducated and ordinary men and women - shared the Gospel message of salvtion, initially in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and then, with the conversion of St Paul, all around the known world. The New Testament is replete with their early adventures. Their successors, and their successors in turn through the centuries carried on the work all over Europe, across North Africa and the Middle East. To the present day Christianity is the predominant faith in Europe, the Americas, Sub Saharan Africa, Oceania and the Philippines. Christians make up the majority of the population in 158 countries, and Christianity is the most geograpically spread of all religions, having a presence in virtually every country and territory on the planet, and even in countries where its practice is illegal. (1) While this achievement is a great glory, the task of the Church is incomplete according to the Scripture until every language, nation and tongue has heard the Good News of Jesus Christ. ( Revelation 7:9-10)
The Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre Paris 1572 leading to slaughter of 5,000 to 30,000 French Huguenots. Painting by Dubois.( Public Domain)
Sadly, not all Christian history is glorious, and even in the New Testament there are betrayals and splits seeking to twarth the spread of faith. One of the biggest hinderances to this task in the last 500 years has been the disunity of the people of God. In particular, in the West, we have suffered from the effects of the 16th century church schism and the recriminations, division and hatred and indeed wars which followed it. After the Colloquy in 1561 at Poissy in France - between the French Refomers and the Catholic Church - and the Colloquy at Regensburg in Germany in 1561 - which brought together leaders of the Reform Melanchthon, Bucer and Calvin with Cardinal Contrarini - there were no further major attempts to heal the Reformation division that happened at Augsburg until the 20th century. While the Council of Trent instigated many reforms in the Catholic Church, none of the Reformers were present or able to contribute to any of its sessions. The church remained broken. While there have always been individual witnesses striving for church unity since the time of the Reformation, lack of theologians of any stature or political figures with a passion for unity have hindered any progress. One attempt in Poissy mentioned above was such a failure that it opened the door for Catherine de Medici to change policy with force, leading to the terrible slaughter of French Calvinist Huguenots by the French Government at the St Batholomew's Day Massacre of 1572.
the slow path back to christian unity
Count von Zinzendorf ( 1700-1760) - founder of the Missionary Moravian Brethern
One of the great advocates for unity in the 18th century was Count von Zinzendorf (1700-1760) from Herrnhut in Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire. He was a follower of the Pietist spirituality of Philipp Spener and others which concentrated more on the conversion of the individual heart and true personal spiritual devotion. He hoped his Moravian brethren would be a 'leaven' bringing the Churches back into commuion with each other. (see Buttons below on their work)
This same pietist movement left its mark on evangelical revivalists such as John Wesley with their emphasis on interior conversion and missionary endeavor. The experience then of missionaries across the globe saw the need for a common gospel which was not divided by denominationalism. They saw that much of the differences between the 'faiths' rested on ignorance and genuine misunderstanding while other differences had other deeper roots which were local social and political.
This same pietist movement left its mark on evangelical revivalists such as John Wesley with their emphasis on interior conversion and missionary endeavor. The experience then of missionaries across the globe saw the need for a common gospel which was not divided by denominationalism. They saw that much of the differences between the 'faiths' rested on ignorance and genuine misunderstanding while other differences had other deeper roots which were local social and political.
A Catholic Bishop Rev. James Doyle, the Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin in Ireland echoed similar sentiments in a book he wrote in 1824. As a boy the Bishop had witnessed inter-religious strife and slaughter, when Catholics and other religious minorities sought equal political rights in the 1798 uprising.
'Conversations between Anglicans and Catholics are a necessity. The present divergence of views is due in most cases to divergent ways of speaking that can in be satifactorily explained, or to ignorance and misunderstandings which have been brought about by ancient prejudices and ill will but which can be overcome. It is pride and points of honor that keep us apart in many areas, and not the love of Christian humility.' (2)
The Bishop, who was a great advocate for equal Catholics emancipation in Ireland, offered to give up his Episcopal see and salary and any other benefits, including a pension if this could help to bring about the healing and union of the Church.
'Conversations between Anglicans and Catholics are a necessity. The present divergence of views is due in most cases to divergent ways of speaking that can in be satifactorily explained, or to ignorance and misunderstandings which have been brought about by ancient prejudices and ill will but which can be overcome. It is pride and points of honor that keep us apart in many areas, and not the love of Christian humility.' (2)
The Bishop, who was a great advocate for equal Catholics emancipation in Ireland, offered to give up his Episcopal see and salary and any other benefits, including a pension if this could help to bring about the healing and union of the Church.
unifying churches in the 19th century
Various unifying associations and alliances of individual Christians grew in the 19th century including the World Evangelical Alliance (1846), the YMCA (1878) and later, the YWCA (1894). These associations were evangelical, interconfessional and geared to mission. A statement made in Paris summarizes the aim of the YMCA: 'The YMCA seeks to unite young men, who regarding Jesus Christ as their God and Savior according to the Holy Scriptures, desire to be his disciples in doctrine and in their life, and to associate their efforts for the extension of the Kingdom among young men. ' (3) The statement in turn became the formula for the Faith and Order Movement and later the World Council of Churches. While all these efforts had the impact of joining Christians from all different traditions, they didn't further the relationships between the institutional Churches themselves. It did however help all Christians to realize the gift that each church had to offer and it helped to further the idea that Churches needed to seek unity together.
Thus the first Conference of the Anglican Church from across the world took place in 1867 in Lambeth in London. Meeting then every ten years, the thirty fourth resolution of the 1897 meeting 'resolved to use every opportunity to emphasize the Divine purpose of visible unity among Christians as a fact of revelation'. (4) The Lutherans too were seeking to form an alliance, and in 1868 saw the birth of what would later become the Lutheran World Federation. The Calvinists followed in 1875 with an Alliance of Reformed Churches. In 1881, twenty eight churches gathered for the first meeting of the World Methodist Council. An Alliance of Old Catholic Churches formed in 1891 and the Baptist World Alliance formed in 1905. Similar developments happened in France with a Federation of Protestant groups across a wide specter including Lutherans, Reformed and Baptists. It was a little like the limbs and legs of the body were being revived before the eyes of the world and were starting to constitute a part of the visible body of Christ.
Thus the first Conference of the Anglican Church from across the world took place in 1867 in Lambeth in London. Meeting then every ten years, the thirty fourth resolution of the 1897 meeting 'resolved to use every opportunity to emphasize the Divine purpose of visible unity among Christians as a fact of revelation'. (4) The Lutherans too were seeking to form an alliance, and in 1868 saw the birth of what would later become the Lutheran World Federation. The Calvinists followed in 1875 with an Alliance of Reformed Churches. In 1881, twenty eight churches gathered for the first meeting of the World Methodist Council. An Alliance of Old Catholic Churches formed in 1891 and the Baptist World Alliance formed in 1905. Similar developments happened in France with a Federation of Protestant groups across a wide specter including Lutherans, Reformed and Baptists. It was a little like the limbs and legs of the body were being revived before the eyes of the world and were starting to constitute a part of the visible body of Christ.
the edinburgh missionary conference 1910.
Chinese Pastor Chêng Ching-yi (1881-1939) Leader of the Unified Chinese Christian Churh converted by the London Missionary Society
The event one could say started to see the 'resurrection' of the Protestant part of the Great Schism happened in Edinburgh in 1910. The Edinburgh Missionary Conference brought together 1,200 delegates from across the entire world for a time of sharing and unification of their missionary efforts. A delegate from China, Chêng Ching-yi gave the following challenge to the delegates:
'You have sent us missionaries who gave us the knowledge of Jesus Christ and for that we are profoundly grateful. But you have also brought us your division. We ask you therefore to preach only the Gospel to us and to allow Jesus Christ himself to raise up among our peoples through the action of the Spirit that meets His norms and that is also in keeping with the character of our race: A Church that will be the Church of Christ in Japan, the Church of Christ in China, in India and so on. But deliver us from all the 'isms' which you attach to the preaching of the Gospel among us'. (5)
'You have sent us missionaries who gave us the knowledge of Jesus Christ and for that we are profoundly grateful. But you have also brought us your division. We ask you therefore to preach only the Gospel to us and to allow Jesus Christ himself to raise up among our peoples through the action of the Spirit that meets His norms and that is also in keeping with the character of our race: A Church that will be the Church of Christ in Japan, the Church of Christ in China, in India and so on. But deliver us from all the 'isms' which you attach to the preaching of the Gospel among us'. (5)
the catholic church enters the ecumenical dialogue - the malines conversations
While the Protestant churches were experimenting with different ecumenical endeavors such as the Swedish 'Life and Work' movement in Stockholm and the Swiss 'Faith and Order' movement in Lausanne, Catholics were prohibited from any such involvment. In 1928 Pope Pius XI issued an encyclical 'Mortalium animos' ratifying all the refusals of the Catholic Church to be involved with Stockholm or the 1927 Lausanne Conference. This refusal did not stop some spiritually motivated pioneers exploring possibilities of Catholic involvement. Blessed Max Josef Metzger (1887-!944) - Founder of the Una Sancta Brotherhood in Germany managed to get approval to attend the Lausanne Conference. It inspired him later to found the ecumenical Una Sancta Brotherhood in Germany of Lutheran Pastors and Catholic priests and Laity. The movement in turn had a great impact on the church in the time leading up to Vatican 2. It also did not stop two other pioneers - Anglican layman Lord Halifax and French priest Fr Portal - engaging in what came to be called the 'Malines Conversations'. Both set about exploring a possible reunion of the Anglican and Catholic churches including the question of the re-examination of the validity of Anglican orders. The Conversations between Rome and Canterbury, though radical, could not by themselves encourage such reunion until the whole of the Catholic Church was involved in the process. The conversation, however, had begun.
the power of prayer!
Anglican Vicar Rev Spencer Jones and Catholic priest Fr Paul Watson founders of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in 1908.
In the past one hundred or more years various threads of the torn garment of Christ have been gradually been knitted back together through prayer and common action. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was developed by Anglican priest Spencer Jones and Catholic priest Paul James Francis Wattson and was first observed in 1908. Separately in 1932 Fr. Paul Couturier, a Catholic priest from Lyons, introduced the 'Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity' in the Diocese of Lyons, expanding on the work of Vicar Jones and Fr Watson. Couturier was supported by his Cardinal Gerlier, and, with the help of Marist priest Fr Villain, the whole idea of the week and spiritual ecumenism was widely defused. The week of prayer for Christian Unity is now supported by the Vatican Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity and the World Council of Churches and is an annual global event, celebrated in January in the Northern hemisphere, and at Pentecost in the Southern hemisphere.
reconciliation into the 21st century
Canon Jacques Desseaux Head of French Secretariat of Christian Unity from 1970-1980
In previous centuries the relationships between the Churches have been marked by separation and suspicion, sometimes leading to strife and scandalous wars . Thankfully today in the 21st century, the dynamic is much more that of 'communion, encounter and reconciliation'. Whereas before each part of divided Christianity saw itself as being separate with certain common elements, now Christians see themselves conscious of union and realizing all that unites them with other Christians.
After a century long of consistant prayer by a wide variety of people across the globe we can say that prayers for Christian Unity have been answered before our very eyes. The dry bones of Ezekiel have started to reassemble - the fallow fields are showing buds, and there is a song in the air from one end of the earth to the other. Canon Jacques Desseaux, head of the French Secretariat for Christian Unity from 1970-1980 echoed Cardinal Bessarion (1395-1472) when he said: 'What excuse can we give to justify our refusal to reunite? What will we say to God to justify this division of brothers and sisters, after Christ came down from heaven, took flesh and was crucified in order to unite us and make us a single flock?"(6) There are still steps to be taken towards the path of full communion: however we need concrete demonstrations of all that has been achieved so far, otherwise as Desseaux says' 'the ecumenical movement would be in danger of being a set of intellectual problems for theologians, a set of negotiations among authorities and those in charge'. (7) The Ecumenical movement however is proof of the Holy Spirit working across the whole of the people of God as they undergo this conversion to the realities the theologians have discovered. The last hundred years have seen incredible moves of the Spirit: this period has witnessed the advent of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-5) and the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (1999) : it has also seen movements -such as the Charistmatic Renewal and the Alpha Program - which have been drawing Christians from all denominational backgrounds across the globe into a living dynamic personal faith, worshipping and evangelizing together.
It is time to celebrate! Time to rejoice at all the answered prayers of over 100 years and more!
After a century long of consistant prayer by a wide variety of people across the globe we can say that prayers for Christian Unity have been answered before our very eyes. The dry bones of Ezekiel have started to reassemble - the fallow fields are showing buds, and there is a song in the air from one end of the earth to the other. Canon Jacques Desseaux, head of the French Secretariat for Christian Unity from 1970-1980 echoed Cardinal Bessarion (1395-1472) when he said: 'What excuse can we give to justify our refusal to reunite? What will we say to God to justify this division of brothers and sisters, after Christ came down from heaven, took flesh and was crucified in order to unite us and make us a single flock?"(6) There are still steps to be taken towards the path of full communion: however we need concrete demonstrations of all that has been achieved so far, otherwise as Desseaux says' 'the ecumenical movement would be in danger of being a set of intellectual problems for theologians, a set of negotiations among authorities and those in charge'. (7) The Ecumenical movement however is proof of the Holy Spirit working across the whole of the people of God as they undergo this conversion to the realities the theologians have discovered. The last hundred years have seen incredible moves of the Spirit: this period has witnessed the advent of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-5) and the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification by the Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation (1999) : it has also seen movements -such as the Charistmatic Renewal and the Alpha Program - which have been drawing Christians from all denominational backgrounds across the globe into a living dynamic personal faith, worshipping and evangelizing together.
It is time to celebrate! Time to rejoice at all the answered prayers of over 100 years and more!
Why a special day june 25th 2031? why augsburg? why globally?
June 25th 2030 marks 500 years since the failure of the Catholic Church and the Reform movement of Luther and Melanchthon to agree together at Augsburg. This event regretably caused the schism in the Western Church. As the original Augsburg Day of 1530 was a time of unfulfilled expectation and consequent division, it has not since ever been a time to celebrate Christian Unity. However Pope Francis, and now Pope Leo together with the Lutheran World Federation and the International Lutheran Council are reexamining the Augsburg Confession. They are seeking to determine whether this document - which was the occasion for the break up of Western Christianity - can now be a pathway to unity as Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger ( later Pope Benedict XVI) suggested in a meeting in Graz Austria in 1976 . He said "a recognition of the Confessio Augustana - or more correctly a recognition of the CA as Catholic - would help make corporate unification possible, even in the face of differences'. (8) Agreeing on this document, which is the fundational document of Lutheranism, could in effect mean the healing of the roots of the Reformation.
Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928-2014)
Famous Lutheran theologian, Wolfhart Pannenberg said:
' If the Magisterium of the Catholic Church were to find itself in a position to confirm ... through the ordinary teaching of its Bishops, or throught a papal or conciliar pronouncement this ( Catholicity of the CA) ... [it would be] of much more than historical interest. It would be an event of immense contemporary ecumenical significance... placing the whole ecumenical dialogue on an entirely new footing., not only with Lutheran Protestantism but with Protestants as a whole. ' (9)
The Augsburg Diet finally would finally have had its desired result: not disunity but unity!
June 25 2030 could witness an unprecedented ecclesial recognition of (as yet) an imperfect communion between the churches. (10)
The scene is set for a possible great reconciliation!
Let us pray for it:
Let us celebrate it:
Let us live it:
...from one end of the earth to the other:
Una Sancta - One Holy Church! Amen!
References: 1. Pew Research Center and Gallup. 2. Jacques Desseaux Twenty Centuries of Ecumenism Paulist 1983 p.40.
3. Ibid p.42 4. Ibid p.43 5. p.46 6 .p.85 7. p.66 8. Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger in O'Duffy Una Sancta: Why are we still separated?' Wipf and Stock Oregon 2025 p. 122 9. Ibid Wolfhart Pannenberg in Una Sancta p.130 (10) Wengert and Wood A Shared Spiritual Journey Paulist 2017 p.195
' If the Magisterium of the Catholic Church were to find itself in a position to confirm ... through the ordinary teaching of its Bishops, or throught a papal or conciliar pronouncement this ( Catholicity of the CA) ... [it would be] of much more than historical interest. It would be an event of immense contemporary ecumenical significance... placing the whole ecumenical dialogue on an entirely new footing., not only with Lutheran Protestantism but with Protestants as a whole. ' (9)
The Augsburg Diet finally would finally have had its desired result: not disunity but unity!
June 25 2030 could witness an unprecedented ecclesial recognition of (as yet) an imperfect communion between the churches. (10)
The scene is set for a possible great reconciliation!
Let us pray for it:
Let us celebrate it:
Let us live it:
...from one end of the earth to the other:
Una Sancta - One Holy Church! Amen!
References: 1. Pew Research Center and Gallup. 2. Jacques Desseaux Twenty Centuries of Ecumenism Paulist 1983 p.40.
3. Ibid p.42 4. Ibid p.43 5. p.46 6 .p.85 7. p.66 8. Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger in O'Duffy Una Sancta: Why are we still separated?' Wipf and Stock Oregon 2025 p. 122 9. Ibid Wolfhart Pannenberg in Una Sancta p.130 (10) Wengert and Wood A Shared Spiritual Journey Paulist 2017 p.195