Daily Devotion Thursday 2nd November 2023

I find myself dipping into other expressions of Church for worship; I read theology from a range of perspectives and am informed by forms of worship from across the ages and a range of Christian expression.   Our openness to many forms of Christian expression is a delight and is part of our ecumenical dream.   The dream, however,  may not always be part of our reality; we’ve moved away from Calvin’s desire for weekly Communion, the ministry of Eldership is not always the spiritual office we believe it to be, Reformed worship can be VERY wordy, we often deny ourselves the use of a variety of senses in worship, and our yearning for organic union hasn’t resulted in what we once hoped for.  

The writer of 1 Peter saw the Church as a society of foreigners and exiles.  We live in the world, even in the Church, with a sense of both welcome and strangeness.  Maybe this is part of the tension inherent in our  self-understanding of being Catholic and Reformed.  We yearn for unity, proudly inhabit our own tradition, yet see what is lacking within it.  Maybe our ecumenical dreams are informed by our ecumenical realities as we seek to be pilgrims yearning to arrive at our heavenly shrine.