Christian Unity according to Internet

1st Internet Question: IS ORGANIZATIONAL CHRISTIAN UNITY REALLY NEEDED TO HAVE MORE EFFECTIVE SPITITUAL UNITY? THE RESPONSES COME FROM 3 CHRISTIAN WEBSITES 1) Stephen says: Organizational unity is for me an absolute no, no,. Spiritual unity is an absolute necessity. 2) Corbin says: I feel it's important to have organizational Christian unity, but only if it leads to true Spiritual unity. 3) Tom says: Humans are social, yet we frequently fear organization. Why is this so? We fear that which we need. Spiritual unity can only be accomplished if there is an organization that allows us to come together and seek it. My understanding of organization is simply a defined space where everyone understands and follows the same rules while in that space. Without this common ground how do we create sacred space to share that which will bring about unity. Do we fear organization because it calls us to follow rules? Without rules spirituality is impossible. 4) Anne says: I tend to be somewhat an anarchist and rebellious at heart and belonging to a church is really difficult for me. I belong to one now and what brought me back was having small children. I had the desire to bring them up in the traditions and teachings of the church, feeling that I wanted community support along with what I taught them. I guess I have been very fortunate in that I haven't been through any terrible horror stories as far as churches are concerned, but I am aware of suffering caused by some churches with church people going awry 5) Shirly says: Today we Jehovah's Witnesses are organized to carry out Jesus' command to preach the good news of the kingdom worldwide. We are united spiritually in a way that no other group claiming to be Christian can compare. Regardless where you may go in the world, Jehovah's Witnesses believe the same thing doctrinally. We remain individuals with many differences as to culture. likes, dislikes, etc. Yet we are a true brotherhood. We do not mix with the politics of the world and do not take up arms against our brothers of any nation. 6) Jimmy says: I agree with Shirly about her organization, but I strongly disagree with her about her doctrine. 7) Barbara says: This is not a"one size fits all" issue. The answer to your question lies in the level of faith of the Christian. We are all at different levels-the purpose of a Church organization is to give teaching, support, strength, and above all, fellowship by example, to those weak in their faith. Those of us who have a strong faith and have found the Truth have a stewardship toward those who struggle still to obtain the "mustard seed". We must answer the call of our Lord and go where He directs us, to administer to His Sheep, our brothers and sisters in Christ. This may, or may not be, in a Church organization. Actually we must all acheive Spiritual unity before organizational unity can be acheived. 8) Johnny says: This seems to be a movement towards a shallow unity at the expense of truth, which may be based largely in part on the protest movements of the 60s and 70s. True unity must involve both an inner change of heart and life with doctrinal and practical uniformity. 2nd Internet Question: WHAT WOULD BE THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN ORGANIZED CHRISTIAN UNITY - THE LORD'S SUPPER, BAPTISM, CHURCH GOVERNMENT STRUCTURE, WOMEN ISSUES, BIBLICAL INTERPRETATIONS, THE PAPACY, ETC.? 1) Corbin says: I believe it would be the Papacy because how do you deal with the infallibility of the Pope on moral issues. 2) Johnny says: That's really an interesting question, You've definitely picked a big stumbling block for Protestants, Corbin, with papal infallibility. Especially since the Catholic Church condemned much of the Reformational ideas and reformists. Then there is the Evangelical's emphasis on being "born again" and all they mean theologically with that. On the one hand, it is encouraging that the Episcopaleans and Lutherans worked out a way to accept each other in unity, able to supp together and administer all rites together. On the other hand, 20+ years of dialogue seems terribly long to resolve together two denominations that most of the world can't even tell apart. Personally, I think they all need to recognize that there are a lot more grey areas of doctrinal interpretation than they realize. Thank you for the question that deals with a matter that is close to my heart - the need for much more Unity of the Spirit amongst the brethern. 3) Melvin says: The pope has only been infallible since the 1800s and that was because the pope said that he was infallible, which means nothing if he is fallible. Besides, nobody knows what that means. I think that sharing communion is about the best that we can hope for. 4) Johnny says: Although it has never been stated until the 1800s, I believe the infallibility of the Pope was implicitly understood since the beginning of the Papacy. 5) Bernard says: The biggest problem for me is that organizational unity can never be real in heart, it must by its nature be coercive. 6) Mary Anne says: I agree Berny. Organizations are by nature, static and ultimately death-dealing to the life of the Spirit. Spirit moves. It is fluid, dynamic, and changeful. Box it up in a pile of laws and statutes and codes and contracts and pretty soon it's dead as a doornail. Unity I do not support. Love and wonder and appreciation in diversity I do. Love your individualism. I hope it's contagious. 7) Morgan says: I recall an old saying which went "in essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity; in all things, charity". I think there's a lot to be said for that. I work ecumenically, and I find that valuable and worthwhile. But ecumenism, and for that matter, multi-faith understanding, has never been about seeing what is the lowest common denominator on which to base a spurious unity, but an appreciation of the diversity of faith and the celebration of that diversity, alongside a recognition of where we can connect with one another whilst retaining our differences. 8) Jane says: For me, the biggest obstacle to any kind of human unity is the humans themselves. I don't have to look further than my own front door to see that. As far as Christian unity goes, it seems that the second biggest obstacle to unity is the definition of what it means to be Christian. I have seen so many definitions of this and it can be quite confusing. 9) Debbie says: The primary problem with Christian unity is that of differing traditions/doctrines/and/ beliefs. They all cannot be correct; however, they all can be wrong, but it's impossible for all to be right concerning the nature of God and Salvation. 10) Mary Jane says: I have to agree with those who say that disunity in the understanding of Scripture is probably the biggest problem in the way of unity. Listening to all the chatter about what this verse means and what that verse means makes one think that 99% of folks have bitten the apple if you know what I mean. That is, suffered the effect of a kind of self pride that enticed us to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and now we all seem to think we are gods and we can decide what is right and wrong and what makes one a Christian and what can't possibly make one a Christian, and what is or isn't necessary to believe. Another term to describe this is original sin. 11) Herbert says: Jane, your feet are not only wet, you're really swimming now. 12) Samuel says: The only Christian unity that will come will be at the end of time. 13) Clifford says: I think the biggest problem would be trying to get everyone to agree on what is the correct thing to believe. There are so many different types of churches today because whoever started them had a slightly different idea about how something should be interpreted, and when someone else agreed with him, it started a new church, So how do you get them all to believe the same thing? 14) Celeste says: I agree with Cliff. I think this is impossible, so I think we should try to build our unity on love and respect despite the differences, and that is something I believe could work, because we all want to love God and God tell us to love one another. 15) Corbin says: Another problem could be the meaning of Apostolic Succession. The Roman Catholics believe that Apostolic Succesion just came from Peter, but I believe Apostolic Succession actually came from all the Apostles so that every Christian is representing Christ here on earth with the Bible as our guidebook. 3rd Internet Question: ONE ANSWER TO CHRISTIAN UNITY MIGHT BE FOR CHRISTIANS TO ORGANIZE AN ECUMENICAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH WHERE THE CHURCH WOULD RECRUIT ALL CHRISTIANS, INCLUDING ROMAN CATHOLICS, TO BE MINISTERS TO WHOMEVER NEEDED HELP. WHAT DO YOU THINK? 1) Jim says: This is a nice idea. Unity is certainly what the world needs today. And the branches of Christianity started out with this idea in mind, the problem being that with each new one, even with the unification of Christianity in mind, it is just adding itself to the list of branches of Christianity. The World Christian Encyclopedia estimates that in 1900 there were 2000 sects of Christianity whereas in 1990 there were 21,000. Almost 5 new ones every year. 2) Stephen says: My experience of ecumenical endeavors is that the mainstream churches generally work well together whilst recognizing that our various traditions do create differences, but these can be a source of positive diversity and richness. 3) Corbin says: I'm a member of this type of church down here in Argentina, and we're really one big happy family as far as Christian unity is concerned. Of course we have our family squabbles like all families do, but this is strictly in-house 4) Melvin says: Corbin, I think this kind of church sounds like a dream. I've heard of other churches like it and I think that if we can get it to work in more places, it will definitely be a big step in the right direction for the whole of Christianity. 5) Miichael says: I think that would be a great idea. We Christians then could work much more efficiently in solving Global Issues. The names of the commentarians have been changed to protect the privacy of the Internet contributers, but their comments are accurate.