Ecumenical Movement Fading, Says Conservative Watchdog Leader

The Christian Post ^ | November 10, 2010 | Lillian Kwon

[wmfights]

"Sadly, over the last 50 years, it (the ecumenical movement) has faded into the sidelines and is now largely ignored," said Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, which monitors mainline denominations and ecumenical groups.

Some 400 people from various mainline Protestant churches and Catholic and Orthodox traditions opened a celebratory gathering on Tuesday in New Orleans, marking 100 years of the ecumenical or Christian unity movement.

Throughout the three-day gathering, led by the National Council of Churches, participants are discussing diversity, interfaith relations, and ecumenical cooperation for the next century, among other things.

[wmfights]

"Unfortunately, groups like the NCC and the WCC (World Council of Churches) have interpreted unity to mean setting up centralized bureaucratic organizations like themselves that a list of denominations belong to when trends show wider Christian unity [that's] much more informal and less institutional."

The NCC and its approach to Christian unity are very outdated, Tooley asserted to The Christian Post.

On top of that, the organization's liberal direction has also posed problems. "The NCC and its predecessor, the Federal Council of Churches, aligned themselves with a theologically liberal perspective that also espoused a liberal political perspective," he said. "While they were doing that, they forgot often to consult the church members they were claiming to represent."

[wmfights]

Why no mention of Doctrine? Is that going to be thrown aside for the sake of “unity”?

[Buddygirl]

Really, I am GLAD that the ecumenical movement is fading...the movement to accept gay preachers and priests is not something any born-again Christian should be involved with except to repudiate it with truth told in love. And, I do not want the way of salvation diluted. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no man can come to the Father except through ME.” Many religions mess up the way to Heaven so I will keep my Lord and Savior Jesus.

[ConservativeDude]

“participants are discussing diversity, interfaith relations, and ecumenical cooperation”

Translation:

WE’RE A BUNCH OF HOMOS!

[muawiyah]

No doubt the gay blades in the various denominations used the opportunity.

This is another reason its good to maintain separate churches ~ so decent people can escape the corrupt ones quickly.

At the same time it's also a good argument for having no church hierarchy beyond the local congregation.

[Genoa]

There’s still strong motivation toward achieving Christian unity, but the real growth lately has been more under the radar, not on the part of denominations, but of individuals, families, and local church bodies looking for ways to put away old denominational divisions and adopt a more wholistic understanding of Christian faith. One good example is the convergence movement, which emphasizes what major streams of the faith have in common, such as the evangelical, charismatic, and liturgical streams, and seeks to recover ancient expressions of worship.

[circlecity]

"Why no mention of Doctrine? Is that going to be thrown aside for the sake of “unity”?"

This ecumenism springs from the "neo-othodox" school of Christianity which openly and avowedly rejects even the concept of Christinan doctrine. They say Christianity is a feeling not a doctrine - "we have no creed but Christ". It is as far from Biblical Christianity as you can get.

[Shadow44]

There’s two kind of Ecumenism. If by Ecumenism you mean churches opening dialogue to settle disputes while preserving the principles of the faith, then I still believe that exists and should be encouraged. Now if you mean watering down Christianity to empty platitudes in hopes of making Evangelicals, Catholics and other clearly distinct groups one happy “feel-good” family, then I am happy to say that efforts seem to be dying.

[ConservativeDude]

I agree entirely.....

[ReformedBeckite]

If you gauge the ecumenical movements by numbers of nondenominational Churches out there, I can see where it might look like it's fading, but my gut feeling is there is a lot less smaller churches around, and a whole bunch of bigger/mega churches popping up here and there that are replacing a bunch of smaller churches. The net total in churches might be less but the amount of people still going to these churches is still the same.