Tear down these walls: following Jesus into deeper unity

Abstract

When I became Team Rector in the Cambridgeshire town of Huntingdon, I realised the main time that the Christian people of the town were divided was when they went to church. With many of the other social, economic, and voluntary activities in the town they co-operated as one. In this semi-autobiographical book, John H. Armstrong charts his conversion to ecumenical activity and describes the driving forces for his own journey. Growing up in a conservatively religious household in the South of the United States Armstrong moved through seminary and into ministry with a growing awareness of the blinkered nature of his own denomination. He begins with the realisation of the true strength of the concept of ‘catholic’ in our credal belief: One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church. The unity he commends is relational rather than structural or even organic. He mentions a ministry of ecumenism as a legitimate vocation, while aware of the possibility of creating another ‘sect’ or even heresy. What he gives us in this book is neither autobiography nor theological reasoning, but an accessible mixture of both. For many in our congregations, and an increasing number of our clergy, this spiritual journey will be familiar. Our rural congregations will be made up of many from a range of denominations committed to worshipping locally. Clergy inmulti-congregation charges equally find themselves growing through the chameleon-like work of local ministry. That they can do this with integrity is thanks in no small part to journeys like that of the one described in this book. Important is the wide reading that Armstrong shares alongside his narrative of deep and enduring friendships across the denominations. Aware of the importance of knowing the Orthodox in any faith journey, he is equally sensitive to the need for the inclusion of Pentecostal and charismatic churches. The emerging theology underpinning ecumenical activity is important. Armstrong is indebted to theologians from Leslie Newbiggin to Jim Packer, to encyclicals and prophetic models such as Focolare, Taizé, and weeks of prayer for unity. He might not have grasped the full social implications of the Kingdom parables or of the full nature of apostolic ministry, but in conclusion, he does recognise the purpose of all missions as reconciling the world to the purposes of God. In our own country the energy seems to have gone from much ecumenical activity. Grace Davie and Paul Avis have analysed this in some detail. Here, Armstrong gives a spirited account of what continues to energise him – and the foundation he has established. Ecumenical development has to be both local and theological and Armstrong’s narrative makes this task appear enlightened common sense. Indeed, he says, ‘keep it simple’ and that what makes this book internationally relevant. In a closing chapter, with indebtedness to Bonhoeffer, he commends the passages in the opening of The Cost of Discipleship changing the concept of ‘cheap grace’ to ‘cheap unity’, neither of which characterise the content of this book.