The issues and paradoxes of unity and diversity within the church have are pushing ecumenists deeper into presuppositions (beyond sociology, traditions, to scripture, magisterium, authority, and toward horizon question of ecclesiology). We'd not be surprised if the UMC will soon have workshops on ecclesiology - the nature of the church.

It is instructive, and sometimes helpful for creative solutions, to look at problems from the vantage point of a neighboring field. The neighboring field, in the case of unity and diversity, is the e pluribus unum of the American experiment. Every day we hear of an issues of the one and the many in the context of our American phenomenon of church and state.

Cross fertilization of ideas between the church debates and the cultural debates can help each in clarifying its models of unity and diversity. A book title using words like "America" and "soul of a church" push the metaphorical envelope. But remember that a metaphor always is composed of attributes that are alike and unlike. Discernment of what is like and unlike out of the dialectic process in the allied field is vital.

You will find instructive materials on this interface in these web sites www.prchfe.org (Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics which produced Religion and Public Discourse: Principles and Guidelines for Religious Participants); and www.americanassembly.org ( producer of Matters of Faith: Religion in American Public Life) A very useful book on this issue is The One and the Many: America's Struggle for the Common Good, by Martin E. Marty.