Recent global events have highlighted the ongoing challenge of ethnic and tribal divisions. Americans have also been reminded by events in Ferguson that divisions along race and ethnic lines are just down the street. These ongoing divisions forcefully highlight the need for greater efforts at ecumenism. Christians must reassert their common identity as members of the City of God and find ways of working together in light of that identity. The communication of the gospel to the world involves the call to be a new nation and race because Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility between Jew and non-Jew.
When most Christians think of ecumenism, visible unity immediately comes to mind. Most of the effort to realize this goal has been between those occupying liturgical and sacramental traditions. The first steps were to try and move beyond anathemas of the past, and this has had some success. The fractures within Protestantism, coupled with other developments such as the move to allow women bishops in the Church of England, however, suggest that the movement toward visible unity is in stasis. While it remains an important goal, it seems farther removed than ever.
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