We no longer have this unified Christian community and the greatest obstacle is the lack of unity in our hearts. The church of St. Mark and the church of St. Peter and the church of St. Andrew are in dialogue and are making progress towards unity. However, until the day there is a mutual declaration of Communion, we remain divided. It is heartbreaking for me to attend a Eucharistic service in another denomination without being allowed to partake of the Body and Blood of Christ.
The key question I want to ask is - "did that make you uncomfortable?" I referred to the Communion in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church as the Body and Blood of Christ. If it didn't make you feel uncomfortable then you didn't think about it. This should absolutely make you feel uncomfortable. The Mystical Body of Christ is on the altar. It is either on the altar in all of these churches, some of these churches or none of these churches. Those are the only three options, and none of them make sense until all the churches are in Communion with each other.
I have written before on Radical Unity and now I want to ask "what are the criteria for unity?" Having this conversation with people brings out many obstacles to unity, some of which I understand and some of which I don't. The reality is that we will most likely never fully reconcile on doctrine. Maybe that seems pessimistic but I would say that in the crucifixion of the "unity in doctrine" approach we can find the resurrection of the "unity for the sake of unity" approach. Now before you decide that this is ultra liberal, relativist, left wing propaganda, please understand that I am not saying that everyone and anyone should be able to take communion anywhere any time.
What I am saying is that if someone is baptized, chrismated and fully participatory in a church that celebrates the Eucharist as the True Body and Precious Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ then we must, in Charity, accept their Faith. We must accept the children of St. Andrew and St. Peter and hope that they accept us as the children of St. Mark. We must work out our differences and disagreements as the Apostles did. We must continue to recognize that we may disagree with each other, but God has mainatined his presence with each of us.
We find further proof for this approach within our own denominations. People, even scholars, within each denomination disagree with each other on key theological points. We do not respond to this by sounding the alarm and telling everyone to stop taking communion until we work out our differences. We continue to invite the Holy Spirit to descend and convert the bread and wine into Body and Blood. We continue to commune individually in that same Mystical Body that unifies us despite our differences. Within each church the Mystery of the Eucharist unifies a church that in many ways is divided among itself.
If we wait for dogmatic unity we will never find unity. If we wait for agreement on theological points of contention we will never find unity. If we prioritize ideas over people we will never find unity. Unless one can make a rational argument that proves that one of these apostolic churches has the True Body and Blood and the others don't, I would say that we already have Unity. We may not be "allowed" to take Communion in the other churches, but we already take Communion there when we partake of the same Body and Blood in our church. It is time that we consider making it official.
