CHRISTIAN EVANGELICAL
ECUMENISM: “That All May Be One”
OPEN LETTER: 26 June 2013
Most Reverend Archbishop Michael O. Jackels, S.T.D.
ARCHDIOCESE OF DUBUQUE, IOWA
Dear Archbishop Jackels:
A WAY FORWARD: The global work of Ecumenical Evangelization faces increased
challenges in local churches and in global communities. What should the
response of churches be?
A new vision of justified faith
and reason, as one family of one Creator God, challenges all to respond in the
common purpose of meeting the challenges to common life. Religious divisions
have never been deeper and more challenging; the world has never been more bent
on destruction; and yet, perhaps we are now, at this moment closer than ever to
finding workable answers. Instant global communication of people-to-people facilitates
universal consciousness and opportunity, as never before. This new reality
needs to be capitalized in promoting works of Peace and Justice, the “New
Evangelization”.At the present time, churches are losing membership even though people search for communal joining. Vocational choosing of traditional priesthood and religious life are on a decline at a time when the need is greater than ever. These problems call for grassroots solutions. People and churches everywhere need to awaken locally to the task of peace-making if peace is ever to become global.
A PROPOSAL: Vacant churches in local communities are resources waiting to be used by communities as places where solutions to common problems can be sought, problems confronting faith, nature and people stretching life’s fabric to the tearing point. Local repair is needed for local hurt; global repair is needed for global hurt.
The continued existence of the
Church of Saint Mary of the Visitation, here in New Hampton, Iowa, is at issue
in the moment; its future is in question as is that of closed churches in other
places; which opens to the broader consideration that society needs for
churches to flourish rather than diminish. So, how can/ should present
resources (closed churches) be put to constructive and creative uses? Our
prayer should be “let violence end and let peace begin, with me, with us, here,
in this place, at this time”, wherever on Earth we are.
Specifically, my prayer and
request are that in concert with the ecumenical vision of Church Universal, and
in concert with Francis I, Bishop of Rome, that here in New Hampton, Iowa, in
the Dubuque Archdiocese, an ecumenical response is embraced as to the
obligation of making peace with one another in our divided churches, here and
globally, and to advance the promise of Peace and Love in the ever-new teaching
of Jesus, The Christ. For this to happen, church leadership should enable
people locally and globally to join in the reflective experience of Eucharistic Ecumenism.
Your blessing is asked in support
of Saint Mary Church of the Visitation becoming an INTER-FAITH CENTER for EUCHARISTIC ECUMENISM, here in Chickasaw
County, where people of good faith can
work and pray together to find remedies to cultural violence, and so that “all
may be one” in and with the “New” Evangelical mission of Christianity open to
all.
Respectfully,
Sylvester L. Steffenwww.WordUnlimted.com
