Predicting the future with any degree of accuracy is always an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. “Our brains, wired to detect patterns, are always looking for a signal,” writes Nate Silver, “when instead we should appreciate how noisy the data is [sic]” (New Republic, December 21st 2012). The belief that the ecumenical movement represented the future and the hope of the Church, and indeed was what God was doing to renew the Church, seemed to be being realized in the search for organic unity. It was this hope which was the primary
motivation in the creation of the United Reformed Church. Today this hope appears increasingly archaic, and in so far as it still exists, is held primarily by an aging cohort. The United Reformed Church itself can only be regarded as part of that
disappointment. The fact that to most observers the high point of the Church’s life was its inaugural service, before the reality of the hopeless task it had set itself became clear, is a poignant reflection of the illusions which motivated it. When, despite its hopes, the new Church found itself a continuing part of the English church scene, a crisis of relevance and identity was inevitable. The Church’s ecumenical aspirations may even have made this more difficult to solve, just as its commitment to develop new churches ecumenically may have damaged its prospects of growth. In any case nothing stopped membership plummeting to undreamed of depths.
Against this something more positive can be said. As Christopher Driver recognised, the rationale for the Free Churches was already in question before the creation of the United
159 Reformed Church (Driver, 1962). If the United Reformed Church never found an answer to the dilemma, it is by no means clear that its predecessor churches would have done any better. And anyone cynical enough to doubt that belief can motivate action, and even over- ride the self-interests of organizations, might do well to look at the history of the United Reformed Church. It came into being primarily because its creators believed they were acting out God’s will. That inspiration was visibly present in the life of the United Reformed
Church, in the way it alone chose only to develop new churches ecumenically, in its work for unity through the Churches’ Unity Commission and in its members who served both in the British ecumenical instruments and in the World Council of Churches. No other
denomination had the same commitment to Local Ecumenical Projects. Wherever there were local councils of churches it was very often the United Reformed Church minister who chaired them. The United Reformed Church may have read the future inaccurately, and it grossly overestimated its own importance, but it cannot be accused of not acting on its convictions. Sadly there was some truth in the ever sage reflection of Arthur Macarthur that the Church found itself “on a hiding to nothing, with its flag still high on the mast
proclaiming its own wish for further unity and the absence of answering signals from the rest of the fleet” (1997 p.95).
Organic unity proved unachievable and even some of those who once believed in it were finally glad it had not happened. It is important however to recognise that what failed was a particular model of ecumenism, not ecumenism as such. There are negative features today in the ecumenical scene - on issues such as sexuality the tensions are real and sometimes bitter, and the institutional churches are often more concerned with their own survival and identity than with an ecumenical hope.
But the positive needs recognising too. A significant part of the ecumenical case is now widely accepted. Catholic/Protestant relations have been transformed. Diversity and pluralism may have undermined organic unity but they have also made distinctions between denominations less significant. While the liberal theological tradition has weakened
organizationally, its conviction that one can believe in the truth of one’s own faith without denying the authenticity of the perspectives and beliefs of others is now widely diffused in the culture. Late modernity’s individualism and detachment from institutional commitment means that ecumenism is inevitably now mainly relational but it is real. In the search for trade justice or environmental sustainability Christians of differing backgrounds happily find common cause. At the local level people move from one church to another, frequently oblivious to the distinctions which seem so significant to the institutions.
None of this is unproblematic. The institutions cannot be ignored and there can be a shallowness about a post-denominational culture which does not encourage real commitment or a depth of religious experience. We have not, however, gone back to a pre-ecumenical world. In 1922 Harry Emerson Fosdick lamented the “shame that the Christian Church should be quarrelling over little matters when the world is dying of great needs” (Sherry, 1978, p.37). The shared dynamic of Christian discipleship may yet lead to new ecumenical
160 expressions which can meet that challenge. If so the United Reformed Church may yet play some small part in achieving this.
161
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