On Thursday evening, January 26, an interdenominational service for Christian unity was held in the Keenan-Stanford chapel. Fr. Paul Doyle, CSC, presided over the service, which featured prayer, music, and scriptural readings and reflections. Luke Potter, a graduate student in the philosophy department, and Mary Atwood, an undergraduate senior, provided these personal reflections on the significance of, and proper approach to, Christian ecumenism. The event, hosted by Campus Ministry, also featured the musical and choral services of five separate campus groups: Voices of Faith, Celebration Choir, Coro Primavera, the Iron Sharps Iron Worship Team, and the Totus Tuus Band.
Thursday’s service marked Notre Dame’s participation in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, an international ecumenical service whose purpose is to foster unity and dialogue between different Christian denominations. First proposed in 1908 by Fr. Paul Wattson, a Franciscan friar, the octave is observed annually from January 18 to January 25, beginning on the feast of the confession of Saint Peter and ending on the feast of the conversion of Saint Paul. Each of the eight days of the octave features a specific theme pertaining to the transformative power of Christ’s love. The readings and prayers used these services worldwide are prepared by the World Council of Churches’ Commission on Faith and Order and by the Roman Catholic Church’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity.
Brett Perkins, director of Campus Ministry, commenced the service with words of welcome and an encouragement to pray for Christian unity. Fr. Doyle led the congregation in an opening prayer, and the various choirs provided different flavors of beautiful and spirited praise throughout the evening.
After the first scriptural reading, Atwood, an active participant in Campus Ministry programming and events, offered her personal reflections on having grown up in a home full of both Catholic and Protestant Christianity. Later, Potter shared his thoughts on a passage from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
Potter spoke to his belief in the importance of an event such as Thursday’s prayer service.
“We live in a society where religious differences and the potential dangers that can arise are met with cultural pressure from two different directions: on the one hand, there’s pressure to adopt a kind of relativism about these matters, simply affirming everyone’s beliefs and practices. On the other, there’s pressure towards a type of cool indifference urging people to believe whatever they want to but to keep it safe and private,” he wrote in an email to The Rover. “But the Christian gospel offers a view on these matters that’s much more substantive and attractive.”
According to Potter, Paul’s exhortations in Ephesians and elsewhere challenge all Christians to strive for deeper unity.
“As St. Paul seems to have understood it, the central Christian message had the power to humble people to the point where they could disagree deeply and fundamentally – both in and outside the Christian community – while at the same time being charitable, refusing to caricature, and striving to understand those who disagree.” If adopted across Notre Dame’s campus, Potter believes, this charitable attitude toward disagreement “would transform campus life, academic habits, and be a terrific witness to the broader world.”
At a place like Notre Dame, where there is no shortage of diverse opinions, disagreement can seem inevitable. In his reflection, Potter further elaborated Paul’s views on disagreement between Christians: “Paul urges that, instead of trying to downplay our differences, we should instead join together, remember[ing] that through Jesus, we are being brought into the heart of the Trinitarian life. Our tendency is to downplay theology or to minimize the differences: Paul suggests nothing of the sort.”
According to Potter, proper ecumenism is capable of embracing people with diverse theological views while remaining charitable. The maxim “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity” is an apt summary of the message of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Thursday evening’s service reflected that mentality.
Tim Kirchoff is a sophomore political science major who doesn’t really care much whether it’s called Keenan-Stanford, Stanford-Keenan, or Stannan-Keenford. One chapel, one dorm.
