44/52 - An Ecumenical Experiment

A theme that seems to be developing in various aspects of my life, but especially within the commmunity house (now called The Harbour, by the way) has been the idea of the need for unity among Christians, despite our differing opinions and backgrounds.

Within this house and associated boyfriends, at least six different denominations are represented - Reformed, Baptist, Pentacostal, Mennonite and United.

Some of us have a more conservative way of viewing life and faith and how it should be lived out and some of us are more liberal. Yet all of us are committed to our one God, this community and to learning how to coexist and love each other.

I believe then, that a valuable mission this house could undertake would be in learning to listen to not just each other's voices, but the voices of various congregations within the city of Waterloo.

Online, there are forty-four churches that advertise on the City of Waterloo's website: http://www.city.waterloo.on.ca/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabID=260.

I think it would be an interesting experiment with Christian unity and mutual understanding to visit each of these churches on a typical Sunday morning, e-mailing each of them ahead of time explaining who we are and what we are doing, attaching a short survey asking their perspectives on what it means to follow Jesus, who in their congregation does an exemplary job of doing this and what about their denomination or congregation is most misunderstood by the Church of general public. Finally, we will invite each pastor and his/her family to come over to our house for lunch after the service.

The goal would be to gain a more thorough understanding of the Christian spectrum within Waterloo, gaining their perspectives on us and what we do as a house and to promote the importance of ecumenism in Waterloo.

I hypothesize that there is a wealth of untapped potential in various sincere Christian voices listening to and understanding each other, even if those voices may contradict at times.