In the Great Banquet Hall analogy, there are no doors between peripheral rooms. Only walls. Rooms can only be genuinely related on account of their connection to the Great Banquet Hall. For there is just one, connected body that is the Church–by which and through which all genuine connections exist. And, this fact is so integral to ecumenical discussions and the essence of the Church that, to lose sight of it, even just for a moment, threatens to set the whole discussion about an improper axis.
All evangelical churches of which I’ve been a part, as good as many were/are, have suffered from a tragic lack of focus on this point. It isn’t that they have lost sight of this fact merely for a moment, but just the opposite. They operate in the anti-reality, and they dip in only and ever for a moment, if at all. While they (may) affirm the Church’s oneness when asked, it does not sufficiently (or even significantly) affect their identity or thinking or energies. In other words, many evangelical churches, by and large, have failed to adequately grasp the tragedy that is our division. With sadness, I’ve come to believe, over time, that the urgencies and realities of evangelical church life, and the trajectories of our churches’ people, are disinclined to move into greater expressions of the Church’s oneness or to even see much of a need for ecclesiastical unity.
Let us be keenly aware of what the creed and the epistle to the Ephesians says about the one, single, united Church. Let’s not claim that unity is important while remaining unwilling to traverse paths beyond our current horizons. For my own part, I have taken that vision seriously enough to make many, lesser ecclesiastical realities (i.e., my tradition, my history, my Protestant heritage, my religious preferences, my training, my ministry, my influence, etc.) truly secondary. And this is because we must make our realities match “thy kingdom come” rather than try to realize his kingdom within our realities. So, in contrast to the way some leave their communions (i.e., to get away), I never had a desire to “get away” but to take my church with me–to forge a way forward together into greater expressions of unity. To this end, I have tried to advertise my approach to the door to the Great Hall, to announce that I’m turning the knob, and to fling that door open so that odors from the Great Hall waft in.
My expectations have remained somewhat meager. I do not anticipate that anyone will be immediately able to translate aroma into action. My hope, however, is to impart a glance, a taste, a whiff that would draw the senses toward what is on the other side–to engender a godly curiosity that prompts consideration of that Great Hall to which every peripheral room ought to be fully connected in order to derive its identity and highest life.
Fellow Christian, are the inhabitants of your church peering with curiosity toward that door, or are they unaware of its existence? Do they seek connections with the Great Hall or are they content with insularity? Will your church be the type of church that seeks the Great Banquet Hall?
One of my purposes is to help Protestants come to know the benefits of Catholicism because, until one knows and appreciates a system, one cannot properly judge it. Proper judgment of any system must include its potential for facilitating unity. So our churches need to familiarize themselves with one another if we are to fairly evaluate different traditions and their potential for unity. This is one purpose of ecumenical discussion. Moreover, we must understand that unity is a key priority of the gospel, not secondary to the Great Commission but a key aspect of it. Meeting such demands, Catholicism pushes herself into view because she has built up mechanisms to achieve, facilitate, and guard unity, as off-putting as some of those mechanisms may seem to outsiders.
If there is any validity to a church as a church (vs. as a social group, a ministry center, a teaching platform, a care center, etc.), it is by virtue of her connection to Christ’s greater, mystical body–the “one Church” of Ephesians–the Church of the Great Creed–the single, worldwide Church of history. What this means for the Protestant evangelical who is disconnected from Christ’s larger body and the Church of history is a bit surprising. It means that one can step into a deeper representation of that same reality that imparts life to her–not away but into. Toward the same light, not sideways or backwards–a path readily open and available to be taken at any point by any and every Protestant. C. S. Lewis represents this well with his “further up and further in!”
In my final years as a Protestant, I began to see clearly that all churches are on a great pilgrimage not just to emulate their brother but to find their mother and sisters. Only in this reunion can the Church fulfill its true identity and highest end, and only in this unity is the greatest salvation possible for the world. The more I thought and prayed about next steps, I knew that unity demanded that I be part of a church that understood its dependence upon the Great Hall, that kept the door open for communal identity and free exchange, and that knows what this means for its relationship to its sisters, to the truth, and to the world. I believe Protestant churches must direct themselves on a course to find their mother and sisters because that’s what scattered families do. How better to honor our brother, who wishes for his body to be complete?