British cardinal: Suspicion, inertia, impatience damage ecumenism
CHESTER, England (CNS) -- A British cardinal encouraged Christians to overcome the "three enemies of ecumenism" and to pray for the progress of closer unity. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, retired archbishop of Westminster, said "suspicion, inertia and impatience" had damaged the ecumenical project. The former co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission also told about 500 worshippers gathered in the Anglican cathedral in Chester that prayer and grass-roots initiatives were the best means of keeping the ecumenical dream alive. "To mend the ruptures of the past is a task that devolves on each one of us here this evening," the cardinal said at the Jan. 22 service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. "For too long we have lived, as it were, apart, and one of the joys of my years as a priest and bishop has been the growing friendship that has come amongst us," he said. "For when we meet together and pray together, the suspicions of the past dissolve, and we reach the heart of the ecumenical movement, which is a spiritual movement focused on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to whom we pray and in whom we reach the Father," he said. "And, of course, we overcome inertia by what we do together," the cardinal added. "We can have many notional ideas of what we want to do, but do we actually do them? In every village and every town, everywhere, there ought to be some things which Christians are doing together. It may be a prayer group; it may be an expression of social concern for the poor and needy; it may be joint services, especially at key times such as today," he said.
CHESTER, England (CNS) -- A British cardinal encouraged Christians to overcome the "three enemies of ecumenism" and to pray for the progress of closer unity. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, retired archbishop of Westminster, said "suspicion, inertia and impatience" had damaged the ecumenical project. The former co-chairman of the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission also told about 500 worshippers gathered in the Anglican cathedral in Chester that prayer and grass-roots initiatives were the best means of keeping the ecumenical dream alive. "To mend the ruptures of the past is a task that devolves on each one of us here this evening," the cardinal said at the Jan. 22 service for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. "For too long we have lived, as it were, apart, and one of the joys of my years as a priest and bishop has been the growing friendship that has come amongst us," he said. "For when we meet together and pray together, the suspicions of the past dissolve, and we reach the heart of the ecumenical movement, which is a spiritual movement focused on Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to whom we pray and in whom we reach the Father," he said. "And, of course, we overcome inertia by what we do together," the cardinal added. "We can have many notional ideas of what we want to do, but do we actually do them? In every village and every town, everywhere, there ought to be some things which Christians are doing together. It may be a prayer group; it may be an expression of social concern for the poor and needy; it may be joint services, especially at key times such as today," he said.
