Emerging Impulses: Ecumenical

Introduction
This is the first article in a series that I am writing about the Emerging Church. I’ll be taking a look at the various impulses that somehow together have produced what is termed the Emerging Church.

People who self-identify as an Emerging Church person will hold to these impulses with various levels of commitment, and in fact, may not hold at all to some of them. It should also be noted that none of these impulses are unique to the Emerging Church.

Nevertheless, it is my hope that this series will provide people with a better understanding of the Emerging Church. It will also present a series of issues that are worth considering even if one has no desire to read about the Emerging Church. These “impulses” will be covered in a more or less random order.

Ecumenical defined
Ecumenical, as I am using here, can be defined as “promoting or fostering Christian unity throughout the world.” I see this occurring on both a “high” level and a “low” level.

The high level deals with organizations that promote Christian unity, such as the World Council of Churches. It is also seen in talks between denominations and even occasionally results in mergers of denominations.

The low end is seen at a more grass roots level. It consists of cooperation between individual churches at the local level, and the belief that people who attend other churches are indeed part of the Body of Christ.

The Roman Catholic approach to ecumenicalism is not covered in this article.

The Beginning of Modern Ecumenicalism
The modern ecumenical movement took off in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, driven chiefly by Mainstream churches. It operated more at the high end, forming organizations such as International Missionary Council, and holding conferences on various subjects.

There were also some significant denomination mergers during this period. Prime examples include the United Church of Canada and the United Church of Christ. This sort of ecumenicalism sometimes minimalized or ignored doctrinal differences.

Neo-Evangelicalism
As early as the 1920′s, dissent arouse in Fundamentalists’ ranks over how to approach culture. The traditional Fundamentalist approach was to be separate from it as much as possible. By the 1950′s, Fundamentalists who rejected this view were being called Neo-Evangelicals.

Neo-Evangelicals differed from Fundamentalists, not only on how to approach culture, but on ecumenical issues as well. Exemplified by the cooperation between denominations (including Catholics and “liberals”) involved in Billy Graham’s evangelism crusades, Neo-Evangelicals sought cooperation between Christian groups. In addition, the increase in parachurch organizations saw Christians from different backgrounds working together.

At the grassroots level, many Christians began to expand their view of who was a “proper” Christian. New terms such as “born again” became popular to describe proper Christians, and denominational identity was often surpassed by a wider evangelical identity.

Today
Recent years have seen a marked increase in non-denominational churches, a sign that the importance of denomination identity is at a low ebb. It remains to be seen if this will cause an increase in ecumenicalism, or if denominational identity will be replaced by other things, such as “conservative” and “liberal” identities. Personally, I feel that the latter is likely as the correct assertion that “unity must be in truth” is far too often used to place secondary issues into essential importance.

Most in the Emerging Church value ecumenicalism, indeed one of the features of the Emerging Church that has drawn significant notice is the blending of traditions that were often kept separate before. This is not the type of ecumenicalism that seeks to combine different groups and hide their distinctiveness, but rather it seeks cooperation and understanding between the groups without demanding conformity. This often extends to all orthodox groups, including the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches, which has drawn a lot of criticism from some quarters.