Ecumenism - Silence is rarely golden!

Silence is golden, or so the old adage says, but of course this is not always the case for, whilst there are times when saying nothing is preferable to speaking, there are times when we need to dialogue.

I find many of my brothers and sister in Christ would perhaps like us to engage in that time honoured practice of not engaging. Keeping silenct over matters where we disagree in the hope that this would look like unity. But, having seen the effects of silence, would that some time we would have the courage and integrity to engage in discourse and open debate?

I recall a letter from Cyril to Nestorius where the author basically asks, "What kind of excuse can we find for thus keeping silence so long?" The issues were being raised because silence would only have permitted people to act wrongly for longer and the answer to the question was, "None!"

I was taken up by Hans Küng, the theologian, who writing to the 'Catholic Bishops' last year said of silence (I was so impressed with it that copied the letter and have it filed!) :

"By keeping silent in the face of so many serious grievances, you taint yourselves with guilt. When you feel that certain laws, directives and measures are counterproductive, you should say this in public. Send Rome not professions of your devotion, but rather calls for reform!"

Well, I'm not speaking of Rome but of the fact that we as ministers need to be the voices that open the debate on issues of ethics, demonstrate how that debate might be engaged with and taken up and demonstrate also the way that we live when we find that we cannot come to agreement on those issues.

This covers everything before us and includes political issues (I'm a purple!), matters of sexuality (I'm of the opinion that it ain't who (or what) you are but the way that you do it that matters!), Pro-life issues (abortion or termination, the words we use define the people we are!), Green issues (Save the Wales or love them? Camilla and Charles at large or just the ears and teeth?), Social issues (oh, there's so many of them), education (What we don't don't need no?) and more besides.

Christians need to be engaged in the world before them. They also need to be taking a view that is Biblical (for isn't it the Cross of Christ, the Bible and our traditional faith that shape us?), loving, supportive, honest, consistent and all the other things that show Christ as being the focus of our life and the model for our living.

Especially in an ecumenical setting, we need to celebrate the image of God in one another and to come to a place of reasoned acceptance of the other view and we can only do this by dialogue.

So, let's get down and get into the stuff before us, or should we remain silent and hope that everyone thinks we agree on everything?

Pax