CONTENTS VOLUME 45 NUMBER 2
Editorial
Nati sumus ad mutuam sermonis communicationem.
'We are born to understand each other', wrote Philipp Melanchthon (Jung, 228). A life task implicit in Receptive Ecumenism's programme (Murray): we live to learn from each other.
Catholics concerned, for whatever reason, about our new English translation of the Roman Missal may learn from the balanced, informed analysis by an Anglican liturgist and patristics scholar of the multiple issues at stake (Rutherford).
The relationship between Ecumenism and Mission (Evangelism) is prominent in the following pages (e.g. Richie, Charbak). Articles on Rabindranath Tagore, born 150 years ago, lead us from Receptive Ecumenism to Receptive Evangelism. Simply, this great non-Christian Indian poet can teach us about Christ (Radice). Listening to him, we will learn about ourselves. From one of his Christmas Day sermons:
Shall we say that today is his birthday by consulting a calendar? If we do not feel that day in our hearts, can we feel it through a temporal calculation? The day on which we renounce in the name of truth, on which we are able to call people our brothers in a simple spirit of love—that’s the day on which God’s son is born in our lives, that is Christmas Day, on whichever date it falls. His birthday comes at specially happy moments in our lives, but his death by nailing on the cross comes day after day. I know that on today’s special day praises are ringing out in many churches in many lands for him who has brought to the children of men the message of his supreme father—and outside those churches the world is awash with the blood of brother slaughtering brother.
Natus est, nati sumus.
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‘Putting ashes on our heads’: Anglican reflections on the problem of liturgical English
Janet Elaine Rutherford
The 2010 English translation of the Missale Romanum is the latest of many attempts by western ecclesial traditions to create an appropriate liturgical idiom in the English language. None of these has been entirely satisfactory. This latest translation provides an opportunity to examine why this might be, and leads directly to a consideration of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum concilium, and its vision for the reformed Mass. This vision is patristic, and is a source of unity for all the liturgical denominations of the West, as well as between West and East. But secular influences in the late twentieth century worked against an implementation of the Conciliar reform in its full patristic intention, which integrated rite, music, art and architecture on the basis of the unity of the Person of Christ. The agendas of rival ‘language-games’ came to take precedence over addressing God, and this is reflected in contemporary liturgical English. By recovering our correct liturgical orientation towards God, a shared English idiom can be created which finds its integrity in prayer.
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ARCIC III: Recognising the Need for an Ecumenical Gear-Change
Paul D. Murray
The strategies of previous phases of ARCIC bore fruit, in dispelling misconceptions about the other’s beliefs and, more profoundly, in demonstrating that, in some important areas, alternate expressions of belief may not be mutually exclusive. Receptive Ecumenism is presented as a way to animate the new phase. Founded on the principle of church as Trinitarian communion, it explicates strategies of self-criticism and mutual learning which can help open a perspective in which Christian churches hear the voice of the other as call to conversion—the life task of the Christian, be it church or individual.
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On ‘Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct’. A Pentecostal Perspective on Evangelism and Religious Pluralism
Tony Richie
In June of 2011 an important and unprecedented document, ‘Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct,’ was made public. In this essay, Tony Richie, a participant in its formulation, overviews it’s contents, assessing and interacting with some early responses, both Christian and non-Christian. Richie highlights the ecumenical nature of the document and its amazing affirmation by major ecclesiastical bodies representing the vast majority of contemporary Christian groups. He further explores its insights and implications for his own faith family of Pentecostal Christians. Richie aims for enthusiastic Christian evangelism and witness with ethical sensitivity to the needs and context of today’s religiously plural world.
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The following article is available to read on the 'Free access' page.
Melanchthon: between Humanism, Protestantism and Catholicism
Martin Jung
Melanchthon, a humanist and Lutheran theologian, was one of the most ecumenical reformers. He believed in the unity of the Church and fought for its restoration. As professor of Greek language and a student of Luther in Wittenberg, he integrated his humanistic influences into the Reformation. Contrary to Luther, Melanchthon remained in close contact with Erasmus. He strove to reform by means of the written word—never by force. In 1530 he wrote the Confession of Augsburg, pleading for diversity in the church. Melanchthon kept up his efforts to unify both churches and to cure the wounds in the church caused by the the wars of religion.
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Tagore: Poet, Mystic and Humanist
Leonard Fernando sj
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Rabindranath Tagore. The first Asian to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Tagore’s appeal is universal. His loving concern for humankind, and for every living thing, was all-embracing, and incarnated in effective social and educational institutions, as well as in lyrical poetry. A mystic in the Indian bhakti tradition, his lyrics express a passionate love for God as Father. One in Christis grateful for permission to reproduce the following article, which first appeared in the August 2011 issue of the Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection.
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Tagore and Christianity
William Radice
Tagore’s relationship with Christianity is a subject that tends to be avoided, because of the sensitivities that were aroused in India under British rule by Christian missionaries. Those who read his translations in Gitanjali and subsequent books were often misled by their ‘biblical’ prose style into thinking they were more Christian than they were. Nevertheless, Tagore’s reflections on Christianity, as expressed in a series of Christmas Day sermons that started in Santiniketan in 1910, provide ample evidence of the importance that aspects of Christianity had for him, though his interpretation of Christ’s life and teaching was entirely unconnected with any Christian church.
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Healing and Hope: Remembering Michael Hurley
Patrick Fintan Lyons OSB
Michael Hurley SJ (1923-2011) was a pioneer of ecumenism in
Ireland. This article pays tribute to his work for this cause, above all in
founding the Irish School of Ecumenics.
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Sr Minke de Vries: an Interview
Born in Holland in 1929, member of the Reformed Church, Sr Minke joined the community of Grandchamp, Switzerland in 1958. She was prioress of her community from 1970 until 1999. Thierry Marteaux OSB, of Rostrevor Monastery, interviewed her earlier this year.
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Ecclesial thought and life trajectories. Part 2. Olivier Clément and Paul Evdokimov: Deux Passeurs
Stefanie Hugh-Donovan
Olivier Clément, French Orthodox lay theologian, historian and author, gained recognition as one of the significant pioneers of the renewal of Orthodox theology in the twentieth century. The Russian Diaspora brought Eastern Orthodoxy into a fresh encounter with the West, enabling Clément, a young atheist, to discover Christ. He was baptised into the Russian Orthodox Church in Paris in 1951. The ecclesiology, theology and ecumenical thought of Paul Evdokimov was a major influence in leading Clément to this decision, and resulted in a lifelong friendship and fruitful theological and literary collaboration. Part 1 of this study, on Clément and Thomas Merton, appeared in One in Christ, vol. 45 no.1.
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Christianity in Iraq. The development of Secular Christian Political Thinking
Herman Teule
Against the background of some of the resolutions adopted at the Special Synod for the Middle East (October 2010), this article describes the complicated situation of Christians in Iraq. The Christian minority (about 1 or 2 percent of the total population) is not only divided along traditional ecclesiastical lines, but also politically and because of different views on their ethnic identity. This raises the question of a secular Christian leadership, defending some form of ethnic-Christian identity as a way for survival in Iraq, as opposed to the opinion of some bishops for whom the exclusive emphasis on ethnicity would marginalize Christians and prevent them from playing a role in the wider society.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------History and Hope: Towards a Common Date of Easter
Demetrios Charbak
This article pleads for the removal of the scandal of Christians celebrating the Resurrection of their one Lord on different dates. It is an evangelical requirement, especially in the Middle East
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Reports & Events
The Reims Statement: Praying with One Voice
The English Language Liturgical Consultation gathered together some twenty liturgical scholars in Reims in August 2011 to discuss possible future collaboration and sharing in the development of the Lectionary and common texts in the liturgy in the English speaking world. We reproduce here the fruit of their deliberations. For further information, see the Consultation’s website: www.englishtexts.org.
Forty years of walking together: Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue in Canada. Bruce Myers
Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World: Recommendations for Conduct
Catholics and Pentecostals: Sixth Round of Conversations
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Book Reviews
Anglicans et Luthériens en Europe: Enjeux théologiques d’un rapprochement ecclésial, Franck Lemaître OP (Paris: Cerf, 2011, Studia Oecumenica Friburgensia 55), 356 pages.
Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity, Adam A. J. DeVille (Chicago: University of Notre Dame Press, 2011), 280 pages.
Communion, Diversity, and Salvation: The Contribution of Jean-Marie Tillard to Systematic Ecclesiology, Brian Flanagan (London: T & T Clark, 2011), 176 pages.
Denomination: Assessing an Ecclesiological Category, Paul M. Collins & Barry Ensign-George, eds. (London/New York: T&T Clark/ Continuum, 2011) hb. x + 180 pages.
Agreeable Agreement: An Examination of the Quest for Consensus in Ecumenical Dialogue, Minna Hietamäki (T & T Clark International, 2010), 272 pages.
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