Would you like to see a more unified Church?

[Dynasty]

I'm wondering how many people out there would like to see more unified Church, specifically Protestants and Catholics, or are you happy with the way things are?

Or should that be united? I take it everyone is happy as it is!

Can't see it happening I'm afraid. Religion seems to cause more divisions than unifications amongst people.

But if it were possible somehow, would you be happy? Or do you prefer having 'different flavours'?

I have a low regard for all religions so it doesn't really matter to me.

Do you mean organised religion, or spirituality in general?

Abrahamic religion I have a dislike for- spirituality is something apart that we can all embrace.

I like it the way it is. Christians differ from individual to individual, churches differ and denominations differ. I prefer this diversity to remain.

The church that I attend has links with other denominations. I would like to see more of this.

I would like the Church -- that is the big C church, the body of Christ, to be united, and to rediscover its fundamental unity.

But that doesn't mean that it has to be unified and all the same; that would be impossible even if it was desirable! But Christian unity is hard. It means finding ways to be in communion with people who have very different views. How can I be a sister in Christ with Sarah Palin (or Peter Akinola)? There are troubling issues that don't have any easy solution -- maybe they don't have any solution.

Is there a way to be found of being united with people we think are wrong on all sorts of issues? Maybe not. But I think it's important to have it as an ideal, because the way of unity, and respect for difference, and understanding of other people is the way of peace -- and of course the thing we have in common is that we follow Christ, the prince of peace. The way of being right is the way of narrow-mindedness, and fanaticism and war. So even though we may never in practice achieve complete Christian unity, I think it is an ideal worth holding onto.

Niminypiminy puts it really well - united but not unified. There is the wonderful image in Paul's letters of the body of Christ and so all churches are part of the same body but different and it is right that they are different. I struggle with some churches approach to faith - everything is cut and dried and sorted but when I talk to their members they are the sorts of people whose personalities are such that they like cut and dried and sorted. I'm not and there is plenty of room in the church for mystics and contemplatives who find God in mystery and paradox and the fuzziness of everyday life.

We loose something when we insist there is only one way of being a Christian which is where unified tends to end up.

I have asked myself this question several times over the years.
I think I look at it that in the bible there were different churches. So I dont really have a problem with there being many churches now too.

Sevensev I like that way if looking at it!
I don't think that it matters and I wish everyone could love what they love about their own church and not worry about what others do.
It should be like food- I have my preferences and there are some things I don't eat, but I understand that everyone needs sustenance it's all the same.

What are your views Dynasty?

Fundamental unity would be nice, and ought to be something we all strive for. But... any time we have discussions on the topic, like ARCIC, the end result is a lovely book giving all the basic similarities, with a little appendix pointing out that a small number of issues are not resolvable without one side or the other giving up on something they genuinely believe is important, and that therefore it just isn't going to be happening in any conceivable timescale.

Protestants in general are not going to say it's ok to insist everyone believes in transubstantiation or Papal infalibility or the requirement for celibate clergy. Many Protestant denominations would have a much, much longer list than that.

And the RC position tends to be that they'd love the rest of us to reunite with them, any time we want to 'come back into the fold'.