In a service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, representatives from 25 churches in Geneva drew together in the World Council of Churches chapel on January 18.
Anne Deshusses-Raemy, a Roman Catholic, and Blaise Menu, a Protestant, offered the homily together. Deshusses-Raemy and Menu are co-directors of l’Atelier Œcuménique de Théologie.
Deshusses-Raemy spoke of how unity in Christ is not "uniformity" in a single mold, but “unity in diversity.”
The menu reflected that, as long as we don't take the step of a real ecumenism of agape, “as long as the first step of ecumenism is not the meeting, but the negotiation, we will indeed have nothing to do together and our ecumenism will only be a façade.”
Yet, he added, “in front of Christ, we are imperfect churches, but in Christ, we have communion, and we are one.”
Deshusses-Raemy said that the “co-construction” to which Christ calls us is not a loss of one’s own identity. “The only risk we take is to lose ourselves together in the infinite love of God,” she said.
Aurélie Ethuin-Lanoy, president of the Rassemblement des Eglises et Communautés Chrétiennes de Genève, reflected that the prayer service was an unmissable event for those who are committed to the ecumenism, as it was an opportunity to pray together and to come together as Christians. “The Rassemblement des Eglises et Communautés Chrétiennes de Genève gathers around 25 different churches in Geneva, and this event gives visibility to small churches,” she said. “We have a lot to offer each other and it is very important to be able to pray together."
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity
Originally from the Website: "oikoumene.org"
CCD reprinted with permission.
