“Does ecumenism make sense from a non Roman Catholic standpoint? There's been a big movement to bring several churches back into communion, but what happens to their hierarchies?”
August 26 at 4:36 pm
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Ontario Emperor and Alex Scoble CISSP liked this
Could you explain what you mean by ecumenism and communion? - Alex Scoble CISSP
Copy and paste job from the other thread, but for the sake of completeness: Ecumenism is a movement within several branches of Christianity that holds that it is of upmost importance to heal the wounds between the faiths and come all back into the same communion, as one of the core tenets of several of the denominations is that there is only one Catholic Church. - Mark Trapp
This is more or less been the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church since the beginning, but since Vatican II, it's been one of the core issues Rome has been working on. Since then, several churches have been brought back into communion with the Latin rite, and depending on who you talk to, we're pretty close to bridging the gaps between the Anglican churches (been separated for 500 years) and the Eastern Orthodox Churches (separated for 1300 years). If that happens... man that'll be big. Supposedly the biggest barrier for that is lax liturgical practices I mentioned in the other thread. - Mark Trapp
By communion, I mean full recognition that we're in the same faith: being out of communion means you can't receive the Eucharist: as a Roman Catholic, I can't receive the Eucharist from an Anglican priest, and vice-versa. - Mark Trapp
I can't speak for Anglicans, but at some churches I've been to they allow you to receive the bread and wine as long as you've been baptised as a Christian. - Alex Scoble CISSP
Anglicans do allow all Christians to partake communion. - Evan Brown
There are two ways to look at ecumenism - one is to look at denominations from the same theological tradition coming together (i.e. the ones that make of today's United Methodist Church). The one of more interest is when denominations with divergent theological beliefs come together - I think the United Church of Christ exemplifies this latter trend. - Ontario Emperor