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Commission
on Christian
Unity and Interreligious Concerns
http://www.gbgm-umc.org/interrelig
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CCUIC Ecumenical
/ Interreligious
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INTRODUCTION
TO THIS WEB SITEakba
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Welcome to the Ecumenical /
Interreligious
page of Northern Illinois Conference.
 "We
have
inherited a big
house,
a great "world
house"[oikoumene] in
which we have to live together - black and white, Easterners and
Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and
Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who,
because we can never again live without each other, must learn,
somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other.
This means that more and more
our loyalties must become ecumenical
[oikoumene]
rather than sectional. We must now
give an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve
the best in our individual societies.
This call for a
worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe,
race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and
unconditional love for all men."
-
Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr -
Nobel Peace Prize Lecture - Dec. 11, 1964 |
GETTING
STARTED -
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CONTACT US
CCUIC
Chairperson: Rev.
Catiana McKay PH
773-761-2500 Fax 761-2097 H 761-1555 , McKayc@sbcglobal.net
United Church of Rogers Park ,
1545 W. Morse,
Chicago 60626
NIC
Ecumenical/Interreligious Officer: Rev.
Edgar
L.
Hiestand Jr Phone/Fax
708-660-9168,
email ehiest@mc.net
1124 S.Clinton Ave., Oak Park, IL
60304
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The
Menu at the left takes you to
various aspects of building ecumenical and interreligious
bridges.
White links to
Calendar, news and late breaking
Yellow
links to Conference and UM agencies that will work with
you
- e.g. the Northern
Illinois CCUIC and its mission purpose and portfolio.
Orange links
include your basic resources, and examples of ministries locally and in
ecumenical news.
Teal links
are to the web sites of Christian bodies locally and worldwide.
Blue links
focus on difficult issues of interfaith relationships as impacting and
being impacted by world problems.
Pink links specifically
focus on the Muslim Methodist relations in Northern Illinois Conference
Greenish links highlight recent documents in
the ecumenical movements related to United Methodists.
Brown links
to archive resources and history, to UM mission in the
oikos context, and to blog.
HINT - This web
site is long - try using Ctrl-F to "find" search what you want
SOME
ECUMENICAL ETYMOLOGY The
root of the word "ecumenical" is oikos,
a Greek
word in
the
Bible meaning "house." We find oikos
in words like "economy" and "ecology." Therefore "ecumenical" has
to do with the "household" of God - and oikoumene
is a "world
house" (see MLK above). I interpret various scriptures
about the God's plan/telos/end as being that All (panta) people are to realize they
are brothers and sisters in God's household.
Another Greek
word tells us how to participate in God's goal -- that is, to turn
strangers into com-panions around the table of dialogue. Xenos means "stranger,"
as
in xenophobia "fear of
strangers
(we see that as an overriding
social/political pathology). Paradoxically, the Greek word for
"hospitality" is xenia which
means a "stranger turned into a guest."
While the word
"ecumenical" has traditionally described the movement for unity within
the Christian house, as against the words "interreligious" or
"interfaith"
meaning relationships to religions outside Christianity, I believe
"ecumenical" can
be correctly used to in relation to other faiths. (Again
MLK) As such it connotes, not a movement to co-opt into unity,
but
a recognition of the Holy Spirit working amid the whole household
toward the telos/end of a world family reconciled in a just
peace. Interfaithing is
a imperative verb
for this whole household. You can draw some ecumenical views
from Ephesians 1:10; John 17:21; Acts 2; Acts 9:10f; Acts 15:12f;
Luke 4:24f; Mark 7:24-36. More
ELH |
The
United Methodist Church is a connectional church. This connectional
dimension encompasses both gifts of diversity and unity,
and is expressed
in Christian koinonia and in interreligious linkage. Connection's
relational source
is in the Holy Spirit at work amid humanity.
In Christian
relations this means our ecclesiology is about realizing
the One Body of Christ; in interreligious relations, it means the
fulfillment of reconciling the whole human household and
new creation.
Ecumenicity
is not an option in
programs, ministry projects, and events
for the local church. Just as we are cautious when a person's
religious
faith
becomes onnly individualistic and loses communcal consciousness of
being a member of the Body of Christ, SO ALSO -- a local church
is somehow incomplete in its being ecclesia
if it thinks of itself only congregationally, or even
denominationally--United Methodist or even Wesleyan.
The paradigm logic
about
ecclesial incompleteness needs to extend until we have moved to the
"ALL" that is the promise and goal of God. We
do not define ecumenism in minamalist terms as, "just getting along" --
we want fullness. The Ecumenical
stance at the local
church and at every level of the
church is a witness that our very being is the reconciling gospel which
we proclaim will heal the whole household.
"Transformation
of
the Ecumenical Movement: Facing the 21st Century Reality"
Overview
by Dr.
Larry Pickens 4/06 Download
talk here .
Former
General
Secretary
of the General Commission on
Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns
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NEW
Quotable
nuggets
"What
if the approach to
the "other" -- (even in NW Pakistan) was not force, but respectfully
being with and enabling aspirations--education, health, reverence for
the best in each one's faith?" from book: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote
Peace by Greg Mortenson 3
Cups
"We
are who we are not because we are separate from the others who are next
to us, but because we are both separate
and connected, both distinct and related; the boundaries that mark our
identities are both barriers and bridges." from book: Exclusion & Embrace: a Theological
Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation by
Miroslav Volf.
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MAKE IT LOCAL - United
Methodist clergy and laity need to
continue being the sparkplugs in local communities for thriving
ministerial associations, clusters, and community and dialogue
events, Often it will be your initiative in recognizing a need
and urging others by telephone calls, that can ground the
"household" -
"ecumene" in your parish (Wesley said something about that.) And
let the laity share that vision in mission, social action, hospitality
and worship.
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