‘We will all be changed,’ declares the Apostle Paul in robust manner to the Christians in Corinth. And, no doubt, after all the headaches which that community gave him (read his letters to them!), this must have been as much a deeply-felt prayer as a statement of theological moment. It is on this theme and its application to our lives of Christian discipleship that we are invited to reflect during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity this year. The material has come from the Christian Churches in Poland, a country which has experienced much change over the last thirty or so years, as indeed we have in Ireland, for better or for worse.
Change is in the air – dreadful things have brought, and are continuing to bring, seismic changes in both Church and society; peoples of other world faiths and of none are challenging, often properly, our time-honoured ways of thinking and doing; secularism, whatever we may mean by the term, is rampant. All is changed, changed utterly, as W.B. Yeats commented at another time of great change. Whether a terrible beauty is born remains to be seen.
This is not the place to rehearse the detail of all this, but rather to reflect on how we, as people of faith, the Christian faith, learn to live together in a different space to that to which, over the years the Churches have become accustomed. It is imperative that we do this reflection together, putting behind us those stereotypes and preconceived notions we may previously have entertained of each other.
The Revd John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement in these islands, visited Ireland on twenty one occasions, between 1747 and 1789, just two years before he died in 1791 at the age of eighty-eight. On his third visit in 1749, having taken time to observe the different nature of society from that on the neighbouring island, he wrote ‘A Letter to a Roman Catholic’.
This ‘open’ letter should be read and understood in its own context as well as being relevant for today. The 1740s were a polemical time, both in politics and religion; here in Ireland, there had been religious riots in Cork and a general atmosphere of opposition to ‘the people called Methodist.’ Undoubtedly and as was so often the case, Wesley knew himself to be doing something controversial, but, for him, the Gospel message was for all and Christian witness and mission was at stake.
Acknowledging unhelpful stereotyping, he asks how this may be avoided:
1. You have heard ten thousand stories of us, who are commonly called Protestants, of which, if you believe only one in a thousand, you must think very hardly of us. But this … has many ill consequences, particularly this – it inclines us to think as hardly of you.
Hence we are on both sides less willing to help one another, and more ready to hurt each other…
2. Now, can nothing be done, even allowing us on both sides to retain our own opinions, for the softening of our hearts towards each other, the giving a check to this flood of unkindness, and restoring, at least, some small degree of love among our neighbours and countrymen?
Having posed this critical question, Wesley goes on to outline areas of belief and practice common to Roman Catholics and Protestants. On the basis of this, he then proposes four resolutions, as challenging now as they were then:
In the name, then, and in the strength of God, let us resolve, first, not to hurt one another...
Let us resolve, secondly, God being our helper, to speak nothing harsh or unkind of each other…
Let us, thirdly, resolve to harbour no unkind thought, no unfriendly temper towards each other…
Let us, fourthly, endeavour to help each other on in whatever we are agreed leads to the Kingdom. So far as we can, let us always rejoice to strengthen each other’s hands in God…
(for full text see http://hitch.south.cx/john-wesleys-letter-to-a-roman-catholic.htm, among other sites)
In this always-contemporary letter, John Wesley is talking about change: change in the ways in which people regard each other. He asks for a new mind-set, a conversion of the heart, a new attitude of co-operation in the interests of the mission of the Church and the Kingdom of God.
It may be that, as in Wesley’s time, some of us hold, cherish even, stereotypical ideas about those who differ from us in things of the faith. Thought and words and deeds, as Wesley realised, are related to each other: how we think affects how we speak and how we speak affects our actions. We need to be changed, and through faith, we will all be changed.
This year’s theme for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity challenges us to harness for ourselves and our Church communities the transformative power of faith in Christ. And, as we reflect on this theme, Dziekuje (thank you) to the Christian community in Poland for doing the initial reflection for us and for challenging us to take it to ourselves. Perhaps we might be intentional in inviting people from Poland in our different localities to take part in worship services as we join together, as Christian people, at this special time of year?
(Gillian Kingston made history at the 2010 Annual Methodist Conference when she became the first person to hold the newly created position of Lay Leader of the Conference. Since 2008 she has been Director of the Glenstal Ecumenical Conference. Gillian serves on the Pastoral Committee for IEC 2012.)