Allentown, Saturday

My goodness, what a long day and what a lot to take in and think about. Rather than a detailed report, here are a few images, phrases, or ideas that struck me while listening to each talk:

  • Denominational, doctrinal, or Christian identity; voluntary, explanatory, or before-God accountability; has the representational model of ecumenical work outlived its time (Jason Donnelly)
  • “Right remembering”, healing memories, the redemption of memory, re-narrating stories so that a story of horror becomes just a piece of the larger story of redemption (Nancy Heisey)
  • Hunger is constitutive of the human condition; feeding hungers is constitutive of the church; sitting down to share a meal with the homeless is not the same thing as helping out at the soup kitchen (Chris Nelson)
  • Make the ecumenical impulse explicit; simple small steps to implement ecumenical hospitality can accomplish much; imagine yourself in the place of the other (Diane Kessler)
  • Old & new ecumenical problems surface with greater intensity as ecumenical progress is made; recognition needs to be the starting point, not the end point; look to the social sciences for help with inclusion/exclusion, otherness, us/them (Timothy Lim)
  • Polarizing divisions among Christians are occurring within ecclesial communities, not just between them; ideology and culture wars taking the place of theology; we can speak truth to each other without becoming enemies (Leonid Kishkovsky)
  • The work of unifying the Church is God’s work, not our work: thanks be to God! (a frequently repeated theme)

      It was a very rich day with material that I’ll be chewing over for quite some time.

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1 Response to Allentown, Saturday

  1. Pingback: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity: Day Five | Gaudete Theology

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