Ecumenism: A Case Study of the Inter-Church Group on Faith and Politics

Abstract

Traditionally, the ecumenical movement has been concerned with the promotion of Church unity and working to overcome divisiveness in Christian life (Kinnamon and Cope 1997: 1). Underpinning the ecumenical approach is an ethos which seeks to develop commonality through service, fellowship and witness, from which emerges a renewal of purpose through co-operation and recognition of the unifying power of the body of Christ (ibid.: 2). Striving in particular to facilitate a reconciliation of conflicting faith dialogues, the body of Christ provides a spatial unity within which divergent expressions of faith can be collectively considered and tolerated. As such, ecumenism is a movement which works to address the antagonistic emphasis of faith positions by acknowledging the value of each within the one space of God’s presence (ibid.: 5). The ecumenical movement, we are told, ‘at its best, lives creatively with such tensions, refusing to reduce them to either/or choices’ (ibid.) and is able to do so because of being ‘essentially a spiritual mood or religious commitment rather than a single clearly worked out theological position’. Ecumenism then can be viewed as a pragmatic impulse which seeks to construct a unified sense of Christian life and community (Houlden 1983: 173).