Tag: Christian Unity

PWJ: S1E1 – MC P – “Preface” (Part 1)

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Mere

In case you didn’t know, here in San Diego I’m part of a C.S. Lewis reading group called “The Eagle and Child”, named after the pub in which Lewis and “The Inklings” would regularly meet. Inspired through these group discussions, my friend Matt and I have launched a podcast where we will be working our way chapter-by-chapter through “Mere Christianity”. In today’s episode, we begin the Preface…

The podcast is available both on iTunes and Google Play. If you have any comments or questions, you can contacts us through my website or tweet us @pintswithjack.

Episode 1: Preface – Part 1 (Download)

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Unity, Liberty, Charity

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Unity

I was recently involved in a Facebook discussion where someone attributed the following quotation to St. Augustine:

“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and, in all things, charity”

I have previously heard these attributed to St. Augustine, but I had always been extremely doubtful of its origin. After commenting to this effect, someone else on the thread said he thought it was John Wesley, which sounded a bit more like it. However, after some digging, I found a post which confirmed that it definitely wasn’t Wesley.

After further research, I found that many people attributed these words to a relatively obscure German Lutheran theologian from the seventeenth century named Rupertus Meldenius, also known as Peter Meiderlin), who wrote a tract on Christian Unity (1627). However, after further digging, it appears that the earliest usage of the phrase is in 1617 by Marco Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Split, in his anti-Papal work “De Republica Ecclesiastica”.

Pro-Life March and Christian Unity

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Today is the March For Life in Washington DC. This past Sunday, my priest noted the providential intersection between this event and the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity which began last week.

Although it can sometimes be a source of conflict, protection of the unborn and the pro-life cause is really an issue which can unite Christians of all denominations together, as well as with people of good will…

Catholics and Protestants

"May they be all be one…"

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Below is the reflection I gave on 22nd January 2005 during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in response to the follow passage of Scripture:

After saying this, Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said:

… Consecrate [those you have given me] in the truth; your word is truth….I pray not only for these but for those who through their teaching will come to believe in me.

May they all be one, just as, Father, you are in me and I am in you, so that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.  I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one.  With me in them and you in me, may they be so perfected in unity that the world will recognise that it was you who sent me and that you have loved them as you loved me.

…. I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them – John 17:1, 17-23, 26

Introduction

This is the week of prayer for Christian unity, so I intend to speak for only a couple of minutes so we can get back to the business of prayer.  I wanted to say just a few words about the reading that was chosen for tonight’s service.

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