Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Tonight it feels a bit like "3 down and 4 to go" as the celebrations of the WoP are in full swing, with activities every night. It has been a special week though - on Tuesday for the opening service I preached in the Battistero. As the name suggests, it is still used for baptisms and has been so used for centuries. The first building on the site was a pagan temple. The current building was built in the 11th century (you can spot pieces of Roman marble with a fresco that were recycled to re-use the precious stone). It is an octagonal shape, to remember the "eighth day" of Christ's resurrection is inside is richly decorated with mosaic with an enormous Christ. It is far more beautiful than the Duomo which overshadows it, facing the famous Porta "del Paradiso" (Michelangelo called them the gates of Paradise) by Lorenzo Ghiberti.

Beautiful, historic and important. I was for the first time in ages, nervous about preaching - it would have been a challenge in English with the vast acoustic that seemed to take the words from your mouth and bounce them around the walls as if you are playing squash with an unseen competitor, but in Italian it felt like a rite of passage!

The archbishop went first and by the time I was frozen to the spot and dry-mouthed, I tried to explain about being the Church in but not of the City, and being Church together by recognising each other as fully Christian and fully Church. I had been reading "Love Bade Me Welcome - A British Methodist Perspective on the Church" by David Carter, and he points out the ecumenical spirit of Methodism (although as per usual Wesley veers from acceptance to opposition, in the end he mellows a bit).

Methodists soon after Wesley provide great food for thought:
Benjamin Gregory "The Holy Catholic Church" (1873) speaks of how any community that is orthodox regarding the Trinity, the 2 natures of Christ and the atoning death of Christ must be recognised as Church. For Gregory Church unity is linked to holiness, which is in reach for the church as it is for us and that we should work towards such unity and holiness by friendship, sharing, joint bible study which contribute to steps together and not assimilation. David Carter summarises Gregory's position as one which involved "the generous recognition of the work of the Spirit in other Christian communities, even those with they had ecclesiological or other theological disagreements."

My problem with the WoP is the same this year as with previous years: we all talk about the importance of the meetings during the week, we talk about how we do all recognise and accept each other. We don't talk about the real, large differences that still divide us. Now I've sat next to the archbishop of Florence, and pulpit shared with him and he knows that I am not Catholic, if I go to the cathedral on Sunday and go to him to receive Communion - he would refuse, because roman catholic church order does not accept that I am a Christian. C'mon, let's talk about that - our difference on this point is critical.

Ash Wednesday and Festival of Religious Liberty

We spent a lovely Sunday night-Monday at www.casacares.it with great food, company and the traditional falò (bonfire) as a slightly in advance celebration of the granting of religious liberty to the Jews and the Waldensians (17 February 1848). It is a festival that seems to go unmarked by the majority of the country, but is significant as the religious freedom granted then opened the doors to the further freedom that is part of the country's consitution.

However, there continues to be widespread ignorance about the Protestant churches and faith. I think that Protestants are no longer seen as potential enemies of the state, but a sense of being separate clearly persists. On Saturday the Methodist Church hosts a conference on the theme of the expereince of religious minorities. I am wary in the UK when the Church starts to see itself as a religious minority, after all we exert an influence way beyond our membership, however here perhaps the term is correct.

It is also Ash Wednesday, althoug there is no service here. It has not been requested and I suspect that the practice of ashing would be seen as far too Catholic! One reaction to the experience of being a religious minority is to withdraw from practices that look too much like being quasi-catholic. Perhaps this combination of festival and fasting invites us to get back a sense of balance in our relationships with other churches, with the earth, with God.