Office of Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships The United Methodist Church

Integrity Authenticity Respect Accountability What does unity mean for us ?

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Parent of all, who is above all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4: 4 - 6

ECUMENISM –CHRISTIAN UNITY Activities and organizations aimed at promoting : Common service Witness Worship Among now-divided Christian churches VISIBLE UNITY AS THE BODY OF CHRIST

Three streams of ecumenical activity 1. Life and Work 2. Faith and Order 3. The International Missionary Council (IMC) ECUMENISM

Councils of Christian churches or denominations promoting unity through greater cooperation and improved understanding.

Interdenominational Cooperation Fund (ICF) The Interdenominational Cooperation Fund, authorized by the General Conference, provides basic support for ecumenical activities through which the UMC participates in God’s mission in cooperation with other Christian communions.

Recommendations regarding the amount to be raised are made by the Office of Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships of the Council of Bishops. OCUIR Council of Bishops

The Interdenominational Cooperation Fund was established in 1952 to:  support ecumenical efforts around the world;  witness to the Christian faith;  foster a renewal of Christian unity and understanding;  meet human suffering; and  advocate for global peace and justice.

Councils of Christian Churches or denominations promote unity through greater cooperation and improved understanding. World Council of Churches A worldwide association of Christian churches, bringing together more than 340 churches, denominations, and church fellowships in over 100 countries and territories. World Methodist Council Founded in 1881, an organization comprising 104 member churches throughout the world that share a Wesleyan or Methodist heritage.

The United Methodist Church is a member of the National Council of the Churches of Christ and through its predecessor denominations has been a member from the beginning of the Council. United Methodists serve as voting members of the governing board, principal divisions, and committees of the Council.

Founded in 1950, 37 member communions come together in covenant community as the National Council of Churches to offer common witness to Jesus Christ and to share in a ministry of reconciliation to the world in his name. Together, they include more than 45 million people in over 100,000 congregations in the United States. National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA

World Council of Churches A worldwide association of Christian churches, bringing together more than 340 churches, denominations, and church fellowships in over 100 countries and territories.

World Methodist Council Founded in 1881, the World Methodist Council is made up of 80 Methodist, Wesleyan and related Uniting and United Churches representing over 80.5 million people in 133 countries. Its headquarters is located in Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

It engages, empowers and serves the member Churches by encouraging Methodist unity in witness, facilitating mission in the world, and fostering ecumenical and inter-religious activities. THE WORLD METHODIST COUNCIL It promotes obedience to the Great Commandment of Jesus Christ to love God and neighbor and to fulfill the Great Commission to make disciples through vibrant evangelism, a prophetic voice, cooperative programs, faithful worship and mutual learning.

African Methodist Episcopal Church African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church Christian Methodist Episcopal Church The United Methodist Church Union American Methodist Episcopal Church

CHRISTIAN UNITY - ECUMENISM Ecumenical Vision for the Connection The ecumenical movement is about making visible to itself and to the world, the effective harmony in the diversity of the body of Christ, the church through: 1.Dialogue 2.Worship 3. Service

Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships Unity (harmony of the church and renewal of the human community). 1. Living witness of Christ’ love and reconciliation 2. Foundation for interreligious dialogue and cooperation a. Biblical b. Wesley

Scripture gives us many images of neighborliness which extends across conventional boundaries. God challenging Abraham and Sarah to go live among strangers (Genesis 12). Speaking with a lawyer, Jesus reminds him that his neighbor, the one to whom he should show love and compassion, and from whom he may receive grace, may be a stranger (Luke 10:25). Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships

A witness to Jesus Christ is one who can bridge boundaries, be they geographic, sociological, racial, or cultural. The Gospels tell story after story of Jesus crossing boundaries and reaching to outsiders, drawing them into his circle. Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships

What are some of the scriptures that would be fruitful to explore as a basis for interreligious relationships? Here are some; what others can you think of? Acts 10 – Cornelius Genesis 14 – Melchizedek I Corinthians 13:7

Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships Our Lord’s call to neighborliness (Luke 10:27) includes “strangers” of other faith traditions who live in towns and cities. Christianity itself impels us to love our neighbors and to seek to live in contact and mutually beneficial relationships, in community, with them.

Increasingly Interdependent Nations Daily Inter-religions Experiences Worldwide Problems Require Connectional Solutions

What does it mean to affirm the Lordship of Jesus Christ in a religiously pluralistic world? How can we relate to one another and remain powerful witnesses for Jesus Christ?

How are we to relate to those who seem different from us in religious belief?

 Exclusivism:  Relativism:  Inclusivism:  Pluralism

 Pluralism is active engagement.  Pluralism is an active attempt to understand.  Pluralism is an encounter of deep commitments.  Pluralism keeps the deep religious commitments of each. (based on Diana Eck’s A New Religious America)

What can United Methodist Christians do and bring for building constructive relationships between persons of different religions, who hold other faith perspectives? We United Methodist Christians, not just individually, but corporately, are called to be neighbors with other faith communities.

 A human community  A set of relationships between people at once interdependent and free Community characterized by Office of Christian Unity & Interreligious Relationships 30 JUSTICE LOVE MUTUAL RESPECT

AS DISCIPLES OF JESUS, our outreach draws upon the gospel to be even more than neighbors. We are to proclaim and witness to the God who has bound humanity together in care for one another, regardless of the differences between us.

“… we are not required to determine anything touching their final state.. How it will please God, the Judge of all, to deal with them, we may leave to God himself. But this we know, that he is not the God of the Christians only …” Wesley’s sermon, “On Charity” The Sermons of John Wesley, No. 91

A Way to be Neighbors Dialogue is not debate. Define yourself honestly and fully. Dialogue is two-pronged – learning about other, and learning about self. At its deepest level, dialogue is both learning about and sharing our faith through stories and images. Create an atmosphere of honesty and openness. Know where you are coming from

Be open to the direction that the dialogue takes. Deal openly with the hard issues as well as the easy issues. Separate the essential elements of each faith tradition from the non- essentials. Focus your conversation on the former. Don’t require more agreement from your partners in dialogue that you require from your own faith tradition.

A true willingness to enter a relationship of mutual acceptance, openness, and respect. Engagement in dialogue is a form of Christian ministry. In genuine dialogue, we witness and are witnessed to.

(Adapted from Interfaith Relations, Presbyterian Church (USA) website)

Interfaith celebrations

Welcome  Welcome people of other faiths to Christian worship. Inform them about what they are observing. Use your usual form of service.  In Christian worship, use materials from other faith communities only with sensitivity to their original history, meaning, and context. ( Adapted from Interfaith Relations, Presbyterian Church (USA) website)

 Visit the worship activities of other faith communities only when you can do so with respectful presence. Before going, learn about the community and your expected behavior.  Before participating in the worship of another faith community in any way, be clear about the meaning of doing so. Avoid participation that invites misinterpretation and confusion or that violates the integrity of either your own or the other community. (Adapted from Interfaith Relations, Presbyterian Church (USA) website)

 Be clear about the reasons for interfaith events.  Expect each community to decide who will represent it in planning an interfaith celebration.  Respect the right of each person to determine her/his own level of participation. Acknowledge to one another what is and is not acceptable.  Be mindful of the importance of silence.  Never use jointly-planned interfaith celebrations as an opportunity to proselytize. (Adapted from Interfaith Relations, Presbyterian Church (USA) website)

 In a group whose members have developed mutual trust with each other, be sure that any act of interfaith worship is integral to the group's processes rather than an intrusion. Check to see that everyone can affirm what is happening.  Affirm as a Christian that commitments made in gathered interfaith communities will not violate your ultimate confession to God, the Source of our being. (Adapted from Interfaith Relations, Presbyterian Church (USA) website)

Office of Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships The United Methodist Church