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    Christian Unity — the Next Step: 'That They May All Be One'
    Christian Unity — the Next Step: 'That They May All Be One'
    Christian Unity — the Next Step: 'That They May All Be One'
    Ebook82 pages1 hour

    Christian Unity — the Next Step: 'That They May All Be One'

    By Fr. Kevin E. Mackin OFM

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    About this ebook

    Catholics, Orthodox and Protestants have in many ways moved from diatribe to dialogue. Conversations among theologians have achieved significant progress on many issues in the half century since the Catholic Church entered the ecumenical movement in earnest.

    In CHRISTIAN UNITY – THE NEXT STEP ‘THAT THEY MAY ALL BE ONE’ Kevin E. Mackin, OFM, a popular priest and former college president and professor, delves into and shares his studies on recent Church history and theology, and posits that the time is ripe for more real-world Christian collaboration and service, for further internal reform, and for a third ecumenical Council.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateMar 31, 2020
    ISBN9781973687184
    Christian Unity — the Next Step: 'That They May All Be One'
    Author

    Fr. Kevin E. Mackin OFM

    Father Kevin E. Mackin, OFM, is a member of the Franciscan community at St. Anthony’s Friary in St. Petersburg, Florida, serves at St. Raphael Catholic Church, and is a chaplain for the St. Petersburg Police Department. He’s also a member of the special works board for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. A priest in the Order of Friars Minor, Province of the Most Holy Name of Jesus, Fr. Kevin, born in Brooklyn, New York, served at Christ the King Seminary, a graduate theological school, as president-rector; at Siena College on the faculty and as president; as director of development/public relations for his Franciscan Province; and as president of Mount Saint Mary College, where he also served as a professor. He has taught Christian Theological Tradition, Catholic Tradition, Introduction to Biblical Studies, Modern Search for Jesus, Contemporary Catholic Thought, Contemporary Protestant Thought, and The Gospels. Fr. Kevin has also published articles and books, including Get Thee behind Me, Satan: Rejecting Evil (WestBow Press, 2019), Enjoying God’s Gifts (WestBow Press, 2018), Integrity: Living God’s Word (WestBow Press, 2018), and A Spirituality for Sunday People (WestBow Press, 2017). Highlights of his reflections are at www.afranciscanjourney.blogspot.com

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      Book preview

      Christian Unity — the Next Step - Fr. Kevin E. Mackin OFM

      Copyright © 2020 Fr. Kevin E. Mackin, OFM.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      WestBow Press

      A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.westbowpress.com

      1 (866) 928-1240

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

      Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      ISBN: 978-1-9736-8719-1 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-9736-8718-4 (e)

      WestBow Press rev. date: 03/17/2020

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Catholic Christianity: A Surprise Entry Into The Ecumenical Movement

      A Case Study In Theological Dialogue

      The Church Always Reformable

      INTRODUCTION

      I am a cradle Catholic and have only gratitude about it. In my mid-century Brooklyn neighborhood, Marine Park to be precise, everyone seemed to know everyone else. Church and parochial school were integral to family life, and people generally associated with their community—other Catholics.

      Not much changed in things Catholic from high school to college, as I prepared to become a Franciscan friar-priest. I began graduate classes in 1960 in Washington D.C., and four years later received a degree in sacred theology from Catholic University of America.

      Little did I realize that the 1960s would be a decade of incredible change.

      The October 1958 conclave of cardinals had elected Cardinal Angelo Roncalli, 76, as Pope John XXIII. He was a surprise pontiff, and in 1959, he astonished seventeen cardinals by announcing to them that he would convene an ecumenical council. Reactions varied from proverbial yawns to murmurings about what the curia was up to, and some were horrified, thinking no good would likely come of a council.

      John XXIII’s papal ministry was relatively brief, five years. Yet it was one of the most revolutionary times in the history of the Catholic Church. Good Pope John captured many minds and hearts with his affable personality. He desired to renew the life of the Church, to advocate for peace and social justice, and above all to reestablish Christian unity.

      To do so, he read the signs of the times with a thesaurus view of Catholic: wide-ranging, extensive, all-embracing. What had been primarily a Protestant unity movement became, with Pope John’s impetus, more globally Christian, at least among theologians. During the many years he had served among Orthodox Christians as an apostolic delegate in Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, he realized that before we can discuss what divides us and how we can be united, we first have to get to know each other and treat separated Christians as brothers and sisters in the same spiritual family.

      Pope John created a specific Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, directed by Cardinal Augustin Bea.

      For nearly four hundred years after the sixteenth century Reformation, the Catholic and Protestant churches drew further and further apart. Diatribe generally described relations between the two.

      In the nineteenth century, Protestant churches realized they were exporting to Africa, Asia and South America a divided and divisive Christianity. They were competing, duplicating resources, and often undermining one another. In 1910, many missionary societies came together in Edinburgh, Scotland to work out a common strategy. Thus was born the twentieth century ecumenical movement. Out of this conference came the International Missionary Council in 1921, Life and Work in 1925 (its slogan: Doctrine divides; service unites) and Faith and Order in 1927.

      The purpose of Faith and Order was to draw the churches together to explain their convictions to one another. The methodology up to 1952 was to compare ecclesiologies: some churches say this, others say that.

      Nathan Soderblom’s vision in Life and Work gave rise to the World Council of Churches, established in 1948, comprising the most significant churches except, notably, Roman Catholics.

      The World Council sees itself as a fellowship of churches which confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the Scriptures, and therefore seeks to fulfill together their common calling to the glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

      The World Council does not see itself as a super church but as an instrument to serve the various churches. Its great task is to continue the work of Life and Work, Faith and Order, and the World Missionary Council by making cooperation between the churches easier and stimulating and strengthening ecumenical and missionary endeavors.

      Although a number of Catholic movements, institutes and associations promoted Christian unity during the first half of the twentieth century, Catholic Christianity had officially entered the modern ecumenical movement very slowly.

      Pope John XXIII began the first session of the Council in October 1962 and wrapped it up that December with scores of working documents sans promulgation. The Council was automatically suspended when the pope died on June 3, 1963. He

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