Thoughts for the Day

Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful one, and said:
‘I have set the crown on one who is mighty,
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
I have found my servant David;
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
my hand shall always remain with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him....

He shall cry to me, “You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation!”
I will make him the firstborn,
the highest of the kings of the earth.

(Church in Wales Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

Almost 40 years ago as a Deaconess I helped set up the first Ecumenical Church in Gloucester Diocese. I was the most junior of the ministry team, but when the others went back to their own churches, I was left to run Abbeydale Ecumenical Church. What was different about this church, well it met in the Community Centre and was made up of four different denominations - Baptist, Church of England, Methodist and the United Reformed Church. They created a covenant to work together. The challenges seemed great, but when we looked at the Communion Service (also called the Eucharist, the Lord's Supper and many other names) by writing down what it needed, the most amazing thing was that our lists were identical. The differences were in the actions - did we stand for the Gospel or sit; did we have a chalice or individual glasses; or did we have candles and an altar or a bible and a table. Other differences were names which drove me batty, since I had to say all three or more each time I spoke, for example: did I say 'minister', 'priest', 'elder' or 'pastor' for the clergy?

I can only give a flavour here of this amazing church, now called 'Christchurch' - of the time the Methodist minister celebrated Holy Communion but the Bishop preached - the former was astounded that the Bishop would receive communion from him! Or the baptisms of babies with Baptist members present to support the rest of us, even though they believed in adult baptism. We learnt one huge thing! We needed to be strong in our own beliefs and practices, or else we would became a new denomination, rather than four denominations working together! And the Roman Catholics? Well our two pottery chalices lined with gold came from Prinknash Abbey.

Today we have an even greater need to work together. In Psalm 89 above we see how the psalmist talks of the Messiah who would come to call all people back to God. All our denominations believe this, and we should start from that point. We should also pray for each other (particularly in this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity), keep in contact with each other, and face the problems of the world together.

Heavenly Father,
we ask Your forgiveness
for the way the Church
has splintered into fragments,
and we ask You to help us
to stretch out a hand of friendship
to others who worship in
slightly different ways.
May we remember that we
have more in common
than that which separates us.
Amen.