Unity Day at the Assembly
The Unity Day at the Assembly is really the core of the Assembly because without the search for unity the entire enterprise would not be happenng at all; we would all simply be going our own ways or engaging perhaps in disconnected gatherings focussed on separate issues.
Most of the work for the documents that are being worked on has been done by the Faith and Order Commission over years so it is perhaps hard to see how the Assembly can make any substantial difference but some of the statements that are produced are worked on in the ecumenical conversations and there is a careful process of discussion and reflection on the appropriateness of the documents and the ways in which the churches can be asked to reflect and receive the them. The term 'receive' is an important one to explore because it means much more than simple accept and file away or display on the mantelpiece. it means to think about how it can create change within our own thinking and churches.
The ecumenical conversation of which I have been part; focussing on the 'Towards a Common Vision' document realised that often these documents are considered at the level of Faith and Order Committees but goes unrecognised at local church level which is where the real experience of living ecumenically goes on. So we wrote in to our statement the idea that the document has to be translated not only into different languages but into formats that will encourage 'people in the pews' to engage with it. Nevertheless, how that is then engaged with largely depends on the nature of its reception into the churches at the centre.
The Unity Plenary was moderated by the UK's Mary Tanner who has been the European President since the Porto Alegre Assembly and contained a number of statements from different traditions and parts of the world. It ended with the singing of some Taize chant led by two of the Taize brothers. Listening to the two main statements from the Orthodox and the Baptist traditions made me realise just how much language makes a difference. Not simply the words and their meaning but the cultural assumptions and characteristics underlying them were significant. We may all use the language of the Body of Christ but the language of unchanging truth may have very different meaning and implications for when we engage with one another about unity. It's clear that for some of the Orthodox unchanging truth creates much less openeness to change than it does for others and for those of us who would see unchanging truth residng with God and towards which we move, changing as we go.
So the gradual search for unity goes on. For myself I still hope that a new overarching paradigm rooted in a deeper exploration of Paul's undestanding of the organic unity of a physical organism could be found that would help us to realise that we are all, in fact, organically united even with all our disagreements and differences. But then I confess to being sometimes afflicted with a holy naivety!
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