3-Minute Read
In his daily Christian Art reflection for 6 September, Fr Patrick van der Vorst offers a simple but profound observation: “Christianity is a faith of companionship.” None of us, he suggests, makes the journey to God alone. Other Christians encourage us, challenge us, teach us and, sometimes without even knowing it, draw us closer to Christ.
There is something deeply ecumenical in that insight. We readily recognise that individual Christians need one another. Perhaps we should be equally ready to recognise that our churches need one another too.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 18 are spoken into the reality of Christian community. He does not imagine discipleship as an isolated relationship between the individual and God. He speaks about brothers and sisters, disagreement and reconciliation, prayer and gathering. At the heart of it comes the most amazing promise:
“where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
Matthew 18:20
For those of us committed to Christian unity, that promise has particular meaning. When Christians from different traditions gather in the name of Christ, we are not simply representatives of separate institutions meeting to discuss matters of common interest. We are brothers and sisters in Christ, and Christ himself is present among us.
That does not make our differences unimportant. Ecumenism does not ask Catholics, Anglicans, Orthodox, Methodists, Baptists, Reformists, Salvationist, Quakers, Pentecostals, or Christians of other traditions to pretend that the things which divide us do not matter. Genuine companionship allows us to speak honestly about difference precisely because the person before us is not a stranger or competitor, but a fellow pilgrim.
Fr Patrick’s accompanying reflection on Marian Zarembski’s 1888 painting The Sower adds another dimension. A father pauses from sowing his field to pray with his young daughter. As Fr Patrick observes, he is sowing twice: seed into the earth, but also the seed of faith in his daughter.
I think something similar happens in ecumenism. Other Christians can sow something in us. Their prayer, worship, witness, and service can help us see aspects of Christ and the Christian life afresh. We do not cease to be rooted in our own traditions by receiving something from another. Rather, the encounter can send us back to our own tradition with a deeper appreciation of what God has given us.
That, surely, is one of the simplest arguments for ecumenism. We do not journey towards Christ alone. We are fellow pilgrims, sometimes carrying and sometimes being carried, sowing seeds of faith in one another and trusting Christ’s promise that when we gather in his name, he is already there among us.
Read Fr Patrick van der Vorst’s original reflection and view Marian Zarembski’s The Sower:
Christian Art — Matthew 18:15–20: “Where two are gathered in my name, there am I among them”
Article and image by Dr Ian Watson, County Ecumenical Officer for Norfolk and Waveney, as part of his regular reflections encouraging Christian unity and ecumenical encounter.
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