Week 32—Wednesday Romans 12:3-5
Week 32—WEDNESDAY
ECUMENICITY IN SHOES
We are looking at the bypassing of the Incarnation, some of it conscious and deliberate and some of it unconscious. Take the word, the blessed word “ecumenical”—we’ve actually learned to pronounce it, but not produce it. Halford Luccock says that “the word ecumenical does not come out of the everywhere into the here.” And it is only when it becomes the “here” that it becomes power. It is refreshing to turn from the endless discussions on ecumenicity, going round in circles, getting nowhere, to a quiet experiment, an illustration of the word of ecumenicity become flesh.
In Lunenburg, Massachusetts, there were two churches in a town of 2,500, just struggling to keep their heads above water. They heard of the principle of Federal Union and decided to try it, to put it in shoes. They decided to have one church—“The Church of Jesus Christ in Lunenburg,” but under it two branches—the Congregational Branch and the Methodist Branch, each with its pastor and each with its emphasis. Over those branches they put “The United Parish,” a body made of representatives of the two Branches. In this “United Parish,” they began to do things together. Soon they were doing twelve things, the last, a united budget. The Congregational Branch was the stronger of the two, so they said to the Methodist Branch, “You have only a student pastor, put enough in your budget to get a full-time pastor and a good one, and we will go out to the community together to get it.” They did. The Congregational Branch increased its income 48 percent and the Methodist Branch 128 percent. They went out to the community in visitation evangelism, two by two, one from each Branch, to strengthen both Branches, for now they belonged to one church and the strength of each was the strength of all. Each Branch doubled its constituency. Then there were those who did not belong to either of these Branches, and they were allowed to join “The United Parish” without losing their denominational loyalties. This took in all the church people of the town. The pastors were paid partly by their Branches and partly by the “United Parish” and were thus pastors of a total community.
O Father God, gather us into one flock. We may not necessarily be in the same fold, but we can and do belong to the same flock. Help us to feel and act upon our oneness. For in Christ we are one. Help us to act like it. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Every one who belongs to Christ belongs to every one who belongs to Christ.