Ecumenical workshop issues "call to unity"
By WAYNE FOWLER
Father Joe Graffis challenged an audience of Catholics, Jews and Protestants to "bring back together that which was once whole" in wrapping up an ecumenical workshop Sunday at the Flaget Center.
"We must look beyond our narrow perspective," he about 75 people gathered for "Living the Call to Unity." God reveals himself in so many ways. Our depths of faith can only be increased."
Father Graffis, the pastor of St. Augustine, said that he saw the ecumenical movement beginning in families and moving through larger "rings of development." Those "rings" include understanding neighbors; bridging gaps between and among churches; working together on community programs; tackling tough issues and moving beyond Christianity.
"Forty to 60 percent of all marriages are interfaith," Father Graffis said, "And that means that the family is the most important unit in the ecumenical movement."
As an example, he cited his own family. His mother was Catholic and his father a Methodist and they had to marry, in the parish rectory more than 50 years ago.
"' Interfaith marriages should be an opportunity to celebrate and enjoy both faiths, not just go to the lowest denominator," he said. "We must listen to and dialogue with neighbors about their religious beliefs and find common ground. We need to visit other churches and find that it is no longer frightening to pray with, to worship in a different church.
"Then we must take our common religious values and work to solve the social problems of the day," he said. "'Only after realizing what is common in our faiths are we ready to confront the tough issues that divide us. In doing so, we need to confront our own arrogance."
The workshop opened with an ecumenical worship service, followed by a talk by Archbishop Thomas C.
During a discussion session that followed, Gordon Unger, a member of Our Saviour Lutheran Church, called Louisville 'a jewel' in the ecumenical movement.
"My wife, Jean, who now goes to Epiphany, and I came here from Milwaukee 30 years ago," he said. "We had been married in the priest house, and things were different there. I always think that God had something to do with us coming to Louisville because of the ecumenical atmosphere that exists here."
A panel discussion designed to show how interfaith efforts affect the community featured Reba Cobb, executive director of the Kentucky Interfaith Community, the Rev. Dartanya Hill, pastor of West End Baptist Church and co-chair of CLOUT, and Jacques and Jean Morris, a Jewish couple involved in a Jewish-Catholic dialogue for 18 years.
Father Jude Weisenbeck, past president of the Kentucky Council of Churches, said that the future of the ecumenical movement will surprise everyone, just as it has done in the past.-
There have been important positive events in the local ecumenical movement, but those events were "just symptoms of what was happening and not the real cause," he said. "Twenty, 30, 40 years ago, we knew something was happening, but whop could have dreamed of the changes that would take place.
"In the same way, none of us are fully able to dare to imagine now the changes that will occur in the future."
Archbishop says respect needed among all faiths. Taking a cue from the papal encyclical on Christian unity, Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly said we need "to live in deepest respect with all of our brothers and sisters of other faiths and open ourselves to the wisdom and experience of other churches."
Speaking at a "Living the Call to Unity" workshop last Sunday at Flaget Center, the archbishop called Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical That They May Be One the "magna charta" of a church which "seeks to understand" other faiths and "seeks to live in harmony with all churches and all those who believe in God."
The pope says that the way the church is now structured might be a hindrance to Christian unity, Archbishop Kelly noted, and the pontiff invites ideas on "how we would look more appetizing" to others.
With this encouragement, the archbishop added, "we have the chance now to rethink ourselves, to see where we can make changes that will be helpful."
Archbishop Kelly discussed the questions of what kind of church Catholics want to be and what kind of unity they might anticipate in the future.
He mentioned a suggestion by Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony that Christians not wait for liturgical, sacramental and theological unity to take place but come together now. And the place to start is with the poor and the needs of society.
Working with one another at this level of the Gospel, where "Jesus called us so strongly," Christian churches can be a "witness to justice," Archbishop Kelly said. They can become "a united voice about the needs of others," and "community of conscience in the world" united in working for justice.
The archbishop also said that striving for Christian unity requires both "loyalty to our (faith) traditions" and creativity, the kind of creativity the pope speaks of in his encyclical.
"When you put loyalty and creativity together," one gets tension, he said. But there might be a stage when "we overcome the tensions'"and "keep our creativity alive," he added.
"None of us want(sic) to give away anything that is good," the archbishop said. "What we try to do is embrace all that is good, and all that unites us."
