Icon (Close Menu)

Making Church Unity Tangible

Choose the Narrow Path
The Way for Churches to Walk Together
By Pierre W. Whalon
Peter Lang Publishing, xiv + 292 pages, $99

Debates and dialogues about the nature of ecumenism and church unity can seem rarefied to the average parishioner. Indeed, in an increasingly globalized world where new modalities of polarization and division often surface, it can be discouraging to consider the viability and efficacy of work aimed at bringing unity out of disunity. For some it has become common to lament our entrance into an ecumenical winter, even as others celebrate new ground forged between, for instance, Pope Francis and former Archbishop Justin Welby. Where do we go from here?

Pierre Whalon, the former Bishop in Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, has strong credentials in ecumenical work and study. Choose the Narrow Path draws on his rich experiences as both a bishop and an ecumenist to cast a vision for how judicatories and parishes may pursue the “narrow path” (Matt. 7:13-14) by theological commonalities of different traditions. Whalon correctly asserts the existence of a “wide gap between what the churches all share in common and how poorly we express that unity.” These commonalities have been revealed through dialogues that have grown primarily out of 20th-century movements.

Grounding his vision in the assertion that “all churches hold in common the great bulk of Holy Scriptures,” he draws on the Episcopal Church’s full communion wins with the Old Catholics and the Church of Sweden in the first part of his book to form a model for his research. He proposes an emergent Urtheologie, a common core of ecumenical consensus he calls the “Narrow Path.” Part two of the book then develops the Narrow Path into “a full-blown systematic theology.”

Protestants often pit truth against unity, as if these can be divided in the economy of creation and the Church, to say nothing of their indivisibility in the Godhead. Whalon wants the average Christian to see schism as a grave sin, to feel implicated by it, and, I trust, to question the narratives we create to justify the existence and perpetuation of our denominations and our divisions against one another.

For those unfamiliar with key historical ecumenical moments, this book offers a helpful primer in the first four chapters, outlining some of the high points of dialogues and texts related to both “faith and order” and “life and work,” that is, the doctrine and the mission conversations, respectively. Whalon introduces the reader to stock terms such as “receptive ecumenism,” and summarizes a great deal of ecumenical resources along the way (Ut Unum Sint, the Joint Doctrine on the Doctrine of Justification, and so forth).

He then aims to offer his unique contribution in chapter six. It is a massive chapter that accounts for the remaining 70 percent of the book and is full of rich reflection and references from across the ecclesial spectrum, reflecting a good deal of research and erudition on Whalon’s part. The upshot of his argument is to push for “exceptional intercommunion.” What is this?

Early in the book, Whalon argues there is no reason any longer for churches to deny the validity of each other’s orders, sacraments, and teaching. Whalon grounds his argument in the “very substantial doctrinal unity among the churches concerning the dogmas outlined in the creeds, as well as the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. The dialogues have exhaustively examined what we all believe and conclude that we all believe it together.”

This tacit reality, Whalon believes, forms a hidden unity that is increasingly overwhelming, and is the Narrow Path. This unity is grounded in the indispensable place and theological privilege of the Nicene and Apostle’s Creeds. Nevertheless, the reality of a growing consensual unity born of ecumenical dialogue needs to be embraced through a sacramental “sign” that is the heartbeat of every Christian — Christ and his Eucharistic feast.

Whalon argues for a practical implication in church practice: “The new sign of this unity will be for the churches of the Narrow Path to allow members who are for geographical reasons prevented from attending a church of their own to receive the sacrament of the Eucharist.”

The author affirms that to be a part of those who walk the Narrow Path does require belonging to churches involved in dialogue with one another, who each in their own way believe in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Whalon desires these Christian churches to normalize what exists already in exceptional form, such as when Archbishop Rowan Williams received Communion at the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

The author believes such exceptions should become normative to the Narrow Path, as they represent a pastoral opportunity to live now as we will live then (in the kingdom come)There is much more that could be highlighted, including many rich reflections upon the credal articles. While readers will need to determine for themselves if his arguments are convincing, his goal is heavenly in its aim.

The Narrow Path is a way to embody anew the degrees of communion we already possess while striving in a small but “supersubstantial” way toward a literal deeper degree of communion through Holy Communion — on earth as it is and will be in heaven.

The Rev. Clint Wilson is rector of St. Francis in the Fields Episcopal Church in Harrods Creek, Kentucky.

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Top headlines. Every Friday.

MOST READ

CLASSIFIEDS

Most Recent

Primates of Africa Unite on Congolese Crisis

The 700-word statement calls Congo’s situation “a profound humanitarian tragedy, marked by violence, displacement, and suffering that affects millions of innocent lives.”

Church’s Retiring CFO Honored for Service

Kurt Barnes, who has overseen the church's finances for 21 years, was honored for his leadership, and Executive Council was briefed about the complicated role of the Executive Officer of General Convention and challenges faced by immigrants.

Help for Dioceses Tops Realignment Plans

Major goals include practical assistance with crisis communication, Title IV, and faster bishop searches, as well as a “reinvention” of General Convention.

Episcopal Migration Ministries: The Work Continues

Sarah Shipman: “The end of federal funding for Episcopal Migration Ministries does not mean an end for EMM — or to the Episcopal Church’s commitment to stand with migrants.”