An Ecumenical Testimony 

By Dr. R. Keelan Downton
Post Doctoral Fellow
NCCC Faith and Order Commission

Evangelicals have never liked the National Council of Churches. At least, that's the way one story goes.  

I tell the story rather differently, and usually start it with junior high Sunday School at Montvale Evangelical Free Church. It wasn't long after I completed my Bible Instruction Class that tensions over the pastor's leadership erupted into a major public debate. I still don't know what the particular issue in question was, but I do know that it led to a vote to depose the pastor that was carried by a narrow margin. Most of those who wanted the pastor to stay went with him and created a new church. Though the other church staff did not join this new church, they had agreed to resign if the vote carried and so the congregation was left largely without leadership. The painful rifts this created between those who stayed and those who left generated a palpable sorrow around church life in my formative years. Eventually, new pastors were hired and stability was restored, but observation of the deeply personal pain of Christian division had already made an enduring impression on me.  

One of the key points of my adolescent spiritual formation was participation in a mime/drama group we dubbed "Scene From Above." Our signature rendition of the crucifixion from the perspective of Simon of Cyrene was so well received in our own congregation that we took it on the road. We performed in a few Evangelical Free Churches, but the majority were other denominations. It never really occurred to me to question the polity or theology of these congregations - it was clear from their similarly misty eyes that they were as intensely committed to the story as those in our church. The skills I developed there provided a point of connection with other youth groups both within the denomination and outside of it. It was a natural extension of that ministry to both worship with these other local communities and to join with them in ministry - sometimes providing training for developing creative ministries, and sometimes performing with them.   

Though this provided an important framework for reflecting about the lack of connection between the various congregations I was involved with, the worldwide ecumenical movement remained one of the best kept secrets of Christianity until well into my college years - even at Messiah College, which hosted the North American Academy of Ecumenists in 1999. If not for the Church history courses of Douglas "Jake" Jacobsen, I might have been content to promote a limited, localized, and a historical vision of ecumenism as vague cooperation dependent on relative silence about "non-essentials" (perhaps even without defining what that category includes).   

Graduate studies in Northern Ireland provided an opportunity to explore the long history of the ecumenical movement in depth. I saw the passion of early leaders to challenge division as a hindrance to evangelism and subsequent changes as they struggled to give their ideas institutional form. My research was particularly informed by the work of Dennis Cooke and Brendan Leahy who created the innovative Exploring Theology Together program. This novel approach invited students from both communities to sit under joint lectures by faculty from Catholic Mater Dei Institute and Methodist Edgehill College. Living in a divided society helped to make a connection between the personal anguish of church division and its catastrophic socio-political implications. The residue of Belfast's continuing "Troubles" served as a continual reminder of the need to deal with theological difference in a way that affirms God's love for other persons and other communities. Participation in the life of several congregations along the Lisburn and Malone roads in south Belfast provided an opportunity to observe how Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, and Catholics are embodying the relationships forged through ecumenical dialogue in practical ways.  

When I returned to the United States to teach, I was pleased to find that the students of Messiah College and Eastern University interested and engaged in ecumenical issues. Both these schools include a more ecclesially diverse student body than they did a decade ago. As I began serving on the Faith and Order Commission, several students stayed after classes to discuss current drafts of my committee's work. Others commented that an extended discussion of Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry was one of the most fruitful sections of my theology course. Growing interest in liturgy, ritual, and other nonpropositional ways of embodying theology means that students are increasingly drawing from traditions outside of their own communion and that my journey is not unique. Perhaps ecumenical testimonies will become a new genre for acknowledging the contributions of NCC to evangelical discourse.