Spiritual Disciplines for Ecumenism: Forgiveness, Patience, and Conversion

If our love has grown enough that we can be truly hon­est with one another, we will inevitably have to face our sins against oth­ers as well as their sins against us. And all Chris­tians know what they have been com­manded to do with sins: for­give them. For­give­ness is spir­i­tu­ally essen­tial to ecu­menism. We have to ask for it and we have to grant it. The for­mer is hard because it means we have to repent of our evil ways. The lat­ter is even harder! Espe­cially when we have been the vic­tims, for­give­ness might look like excus­ing the mis­deeds of the past and pos­si­bly even los­ing our iden­tity to the one who has hurt us.

In cases like this we must call to mind the cen­tral impor­tance of for­give­ness in the Scrip­tures. “For­give us our tres­passes, as we for­give those who tres­pass against us” (Matthew 6:12). “‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I for­give him? As many as seven times?’… ‘I do not say to you seven times, but sev­enty times seven’” (Matthew 18:21–22). “As the Lord has for­given you, so you also must for­give” (Colos­sians 3:13). Such for­give­ness does not apply only to the past; it also applies to the present. In ecu­menism itself we make mis­takes, we fail in char­ity, we indulge in dis­hon­esty: and so we must repent when we have done so, and we must for­give our neigh­bors churches when they have done so.

But what if these neigh­bor churches still recoil in sus­pi­cion instead of draw­ing near in love? What if they only report tales of suc­cess such that we sus­pect they are not being fully hon­est with us? What if they refuse to for­give? What if they are just not inter­ested in the whole ecu­meni­cal task? For that mat­ter, what if mem­bers of our own churches share these feel­ings? What if we find them in our­selves? In such cases we can only do as the psalmist did, and “wait for the Lord” (Psalm 27:14).

Patience is another spir­i­tual dis­ci­pline vital for ecu­menism. In some cases we are talk­ing about estrange­ments that have lasted a thou­sand years—half of the church’s entire his­tory! In the long view, the progress of the past cen­tury has been truly remark­able. It does noth­ing to improve the sit­u­a­tion if we lose patience and become angry with one another for mov­ing slowly. Love and trust are built over time, not in an instant. For long-separated broth­ers and sis­ters, only the test of liv­ing life together, day by day, year by year, can over­come the hos­til­ity or igno­rance that stands between us. None of us knows ahead of time what God will grant us to see in our own life­times. All we can do is pray, love, speak the truth, for­give one another, and wait.

The final spir­i­tual dis­ci­pline we under­take in ecu­menism is con­ver­sion. This does not mean con­vert­ing from one church to another—that, in fact, is often the enemy of ecu­menism. No, every Chris­t­ian has to be con­verted more fully to the Christ who com­manded us to love one another and to be one as he and his Father are one. Ecu­menism can only suc­ceed when we seek not the suc­cess of our own church or tra­di­tion above all else, but when all Chris­tians together seek God’s will.

Some­times that will mean faith­fully adher­ing to what our indi­vid­ual tra­di­tions have given us. Some­times that will mean fac­ing our fail­ures head-on and admit­ting to them. Some­times that will mean con­sid­er­ing some­thing that never even occurred to us before. All of us can and should grow into a deeper under­stand­ing of what it means to be Jesus’ dis­ci­ples and chil­dren of the heav­enly Father, aflame with the fire of the Holy Spirit.

Paul Beck says:
September 10, 2010 at 4:07 pm
I applaud your efforts to keep us cen­tered on what is the main thing: Christ’s love and for­give­ness. [I also pray that you could share in the sun­shine we are enjoy­ing in east­ern Penn­syl­va­nia in exchange for some good Ger­man rain.] Carry on! We pray for your strength and com­mit­ment. Your efforts are an inspiration.
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Andy Ballentine says:
September 10, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Wow, what a great line: “All we can do is pray, love, speak the truth, for­give one another and wait.” Thank-you.
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