Friday, March 12, 2004

Why Does the Church's Disunity Matter? And Why Would 'Evangelical Catholicism' Be a Good Thing?

Why Does the Church's Disunity Matter? And Why Would 'Evangelical Catholicism' Be a Good Thing?

Ok. For the sake of argument, let's leave off the question of the relationship of institutional unity to other forms of unity in the church because that seems most heated. Let's take a look at an individual congregation. Would it make sense to say that a congregation where some don't consider others in the congregation to be Christian to be a difficult problem? Let's say the others return the favor. How do we ajudicate unity or disunity in such a situation? Well, we could pull the big c-trigger and say: there's unity there in Christ. Well, how? In their being baptized? In their communing at the same table? Sharing the same air? Being under the same oppression of sin, death, and the devil? And all his e-vil?

What prevents this same kind of question from extending among congregations? Or even congregations that identify somehow they got their preacher from the Archbishop of Milwaukee who was confirmed as bishop by other bishops who seem to feel a need to visit the bishop of Rome from time to time. Or perhaps they got their preacher from Luther Seminary. Why would it matter that one set of people claim to be one in Christ with others but don't share the Supper? Whose loss is it?

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