For the Good of the Church

Unity, Theology and Women

Thomas

• Publisher: SCM Press
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9780334060628
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

What do we need to learn and receive from the other to help us address challenges or wounds in our own tradition? That is the key question asked in what has come to be known as 'receptive ecumenism'. And nowhere is this question more pressing and pertinent than in women's experiences within the church.Based on qualitative research from five focus groups, 'For the Good of the Church' expose the difficulties women face when they work in a church – sexism, unfulfilled vocation, and abuse of power and privilege, as well as the wide range of gifts and skills which women bring in light of these.The second part of the book continues to draw on the particular wounds and gifts, which arise in the focus groups. Specific case studies are used to identify gifts of theology, practice, experience, vocation and power.Against negative prognoses of an 'ecumenical winter', Gabrielle Thomas reveals how radically different theological and ecclesiological perspectives can be a space for learning and receiving gifts for the well-being of the whole Church.

Part 1

1. What is Receptive Ecumenism?

At the heart of receptive ecumenism lies the belief that each Christian tradition has an ecumenical responsibility to ask: ‘What do we need to learn from another tradition to help us address difficulties in our own?’1 Ecclesial unity is a core concern of receptive ecumenism and therefore it focuses on the Christian faith, taking seriously the broken witness that the Christian churches ‘give to the world by not being able to live consistently in full and visible structural, sacramental, and ministerial communion’.2 Diverging from but not replacing other forms of ecumenism, receptive ecumenism begins by calling for ecclesial conversion akin to a prophet in the wilderness who cries out to the people of God, ‘Repent.’3 This chapter locates receptive ecumenism within the broader ecumenical movement before surveying the web of philosophical and biblical imagination woven through this way of ecumenical engagement. The receptive journey calls for long-term commitment and is not a quick fix to the challenges of ecclesial unity; therefore the chapter closes by asking, ‘How important are virtues to receptive ecumenism?’

The Introduction described an English afternoon tea as a means of capturing the heart of receptive ecumenism. A further image is one of a church holding out its hands to receive a gift from another, hands that bear wounds. These wounds, weaknesses or sins may take a number of forms. They might be found in theological-doctrinal webs and the ways in which these are complicit in broken ways of being church. The webs will need scrutinizing and reconfiguring for the reception of desired learning. Added to this, churches might be struggling with aspects of organization, leadership, culture, or mission and evangelism.4 Following the way of receptive ecumenism, a church will need to examine itself and ask the Holy Spirit to shine a light on the wounds, sins or dysfunctions within its doctrines and practices. Having done this, and recognizing that it is not yet imaging Christ as fully as it might, each church is called to repent and reach out to others for healing gifts.5

To engage in receptive ecumenism is to encourage churches to pause and to be honest with themselves. It creates the space to admit that our churches do not function perfectly; rather, there are wounds and difficulties in each of our traditions that await the Spirit’s transformation. This takes courage. Churches engaging together in receptive ecumenism respond to the call to become transformed through ecclesial encounter, rather than expecting to be transformed before any ecclesial encounter takes place. In light of this, churches do not focus on their differences from one another, nor do they seek to find areas on which they can agree. Instead, each one examines itself and asks what it might learn and receive with integrity from the other traditions.6 Integrity is crucial, since receptive ecumenism does not advocate the destruction of traditions. Each tradition should be more wholly itself or, put another way, each church should image Christ more fully.7

In an essay on ‘Receiving Gifts in Ecumenical Dialogue’, Margaret O’Gara offers a pertinent metaphor with respect to retaining the integrity of diverse traditions. She suggests that rather than imagining ecumenism as a melting pot of gifts, which seeks to eliminate all differences (and therefore potential gifts), instead a mosaic is an apposite image of ecumenical gift exchange.8 A mosaic creates the space for different patterns and colours to come together; not at random, but in such a way as to create a vision of diversity in which each contribution is valued for its role in the overall picture. While O’Gara is speaking of ecumenical dialogue and not receptive ecumenism, this image fits well the aim of receptive ecumenism in which the integrity of each tradition is celebrated.

The image of a mosaic evokes a particular view of ecclesiology that lends itself to receptive ecumenism. This relates to Nicholas Healy’s critique of ‘blueprint’ approaches to ecclesiology on the grounds that a blueprint ecclesiology offers an abstract and theoretical view of the church, which I will discuss later in the chapter.9 To attempt an all-encompassing definition of the church would be foolhardy, since each church differs radically concerning sacraments, worship, and many other matters. Ecclesiologist Dan Hardy characterizes the church as ‘a practice of commonality in faith and mission’ on the grounds that ‘the Church was not first an idea or a doctrine’.10 He argues, quite rightly, that the church exists within history and within the story of God’s ways with the world; it cannot be abstracted from the ‘varying social embodiments of Christian life in the world’.11 When I refer to the whole Christian church, I assume that this comprises ‘churches’, such as the Catholic Church,12 Anglican churches, Pentecostal churches, etc., as well as local churches and congregations. Since the churches and denominations discussed throughout the book vary in their own self-understanding, I have followed as much as possible the descriptions that the churches and denominations apply to themselves.13

The broader ecumenical movement

As we turn to locate receptive ecumenism within the broader ecumenical movement, it is important to note that it does not aim to replace other forms of ecumenical engagement; rather, it contributes to the variety of ways that churches seek transformation and unity.

Receptive ecumenism joins an ecumenical movement on a rocky path towards Christian unity.14 Since the formation of early Christian communities, groups and individuals have disputed Christian doctrine and practice. Mutual excommunication of churches began early in the history of the church, taking most effect in 1054 when the heads of the churches of Constantinople and Rome split from one another. Moving forward some 500 years, the splits were not confined to East and West but occurred within the Western churches also. One of the results of the Protestant Reformation was that ecclesial communities broke communion with one another; for example, the Lutheran and Reformed (Calvinist) churches of Germany and France, and the Church in England.15

A notable shift in the ecumenical landscape began with a series of movements focused upon world mission. It is commonly recognized that the Third Ecumenical Missionary Conference, convened in Edinburgh in 1910, played a prominent role in ‘the initial shaping and endorsing of modern ecumenism’.16 Important movements followed, known as Life and Work, and Faith and Order. Life and Work arises from an emphasis on churches working together, crossing ecumenical divides in order to focus on social justice by running winter shelters, foodbanks and gatherings for prayer.17 Rather than focusing on the differences between faith traditions, this movement centres on the practical outworking of the gospel, taking its lead from the theme prevalent throughout Scripture, stated in the letter of James 2.14–17:

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,’ and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.18

Along with the world missionary movement, Life and Work and Faith and Order are at the heart of the World Council of Churches, which began its journey in 1937 and 1938. Faith and Order has tended to focus on discussing issues that have divided churches historically, such as eucharistic sacrifice, sola fide and church structures.19 The World Council of Churches Faith and Order Commission encourages churches to ‘reflect on how they understand and claim their own ecclesial identity and how they regard the ecclesial status of other churches and other Christians’.20 The aim of this kind of engagement is to find common ground on areas of doctrine, structure and practice. Great progress has been made with regards to churches growing in their understanding of one another; nevertheless, one weakness prevails. Due to the formal nature of this kind of ecumenism, Faith and Order involves necessarily those church members in positions of significant authority within their churches. The result of this is that the representation of minority groups in Christian leadership (for example, women) is low.

Ecumenical relations continued to flourish with the momentum of Second Vatican Council (1962–5). A strong theme emerges from Vatican II which paves the way for receptive ecumenism: God does not restrict God’s gifts to one church or to a particular cluster of churches. Instead, God has given gifts across the diversity of the Christian tradition. Moreover, these gifts are of value to the whole Christian church and should not remain hidden within each tradition or denomination. In 1964, Pope Paul VI promulgated Lumen Gentium (‘Light of the Nations’) which states that ‘gifts belonging to the church of Christ are forces impelling toward catholic unity’.21 Put another way, the gifts that are spread across the churches each have a contribution to make towards Christian unity. This theme appears again in Unitatis redintegratio (Vatican II’s Decree on Ecumenism) which speaks of the Spirit of Christ using the gifts given to the churches by God as means of salvation.22 Two decades later in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint (‘That They May be One: On Commitment to Ecumenism’), John Paul II speaks of ecumenical dialogue as an ‘exchange of gifts’.23 ‘Exchange’ is significant here, since the Pope does not believe that the Catholic...