Ecumenical input (Sunday 17 January)
John 1: 35-42
We are preparing for the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which will run from tomorrow, 18 January, until 25 January which is the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul.
This is why I have been asked to preach during this live-streamed service. I am very happy to do so, and I greet all of you who are participating in this service, wherever you may be.
Commenting from an ecumenical viewpoint on the Gospel that has just been proclaimed, I wish to emphasize three points.
First, the focus is on Jesus. John the Baptist points him out: “Look, there is the lamb of God”, the two disciples follow him and spend half of the day with him.
Focusing on Jesus is the first step towards the unity of Christians. The more we get to know the Lord as our Redeemer, as our Saviour, the closer we shall grow to one another. We can liken the different Churches to the spokes on a wheel which are united at the hub. The hub of our Christian wheel is Jesus himself.
Secondly, we see that one of the disciples who has spent time with Jesus goes off to share this experience with his brother.
We can see here an indication of what is known today as “receptive ecumenism”, or the sharing of gifts. The Holy Spirit helps us to understand who Jesus is, not in the abstract, not as a fixed portrait or a statue, but as a living Person whose message we have to put into practice today. Jesus is inexhaustible; we shall never finish learning about him. So we are called to help one another by sharing our understanding.
Thirdly, these disciples have names; they have their own personalities. One of them, Andrew, shares his experience of Jesus with his brother, Simon, and brings him to Jesus. Jesus looks hard at Simon and chooses him, giving him a new symbolic name: “‘You are Simon, son of John; you are to be called Cephas’ –meaning Rock.”
What amazes me here is that there is no reaction from Andrew. He doesn’t say: “Hang on a minute, I was the one who brought my brother to you. What about me?”
Nowhere in the gospel do you find any trace of jealousy on the part of Andrew. His brother becomes the leader of the Apostles, the one who is always ready to speak out. Andrew is not part of the favourite trio: Peter, James and John, but he does not complain about being left out.
This is a real Christian attitude, not rivalry, but cooperation. As you may know, St Andrew is the patron of the Greek Orthodox Church. There are good brotherly relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. Every year on the Feast of St Andrew a delegation from Rome goes to Istanbul to meet with the Orthodox Patriarch at the Phanar, Constantinople, and on the Feast of Saint Peter and Paul an Orthodox Delegation comes to Rome to meet with the Pope. There are personal relations between Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis. In his latest encyclical letter Fratelli Tutti Pope Francis says he was inspired by Bartholomew’s commitment to ecology to write a previous letter, Laudato Si’, about care for creation.
I am sure such personal relations exist also between Archbishop Welby and Patriarch Bartholomew. They certainly exist between Archbishop Welby and Pope Francis. They are planning to visit Southern Sudan together whenever this will be possible. You may remember that two years ago they combined to provide a spiritual retreat for Southern Sudanese leaders.
These personal links for friendship and cooperation are not foreign to Liverpool. We remember the collaboration between Bishop David Sheppard and Archbishop Derek Worlock. This relationship of esteem and cooperation still exists, with the two cathedrals and their deans combining to launch common ventures, including prayer together. Last year I had the privilege of being invited to preach at ecumenical vespers.
So we don’t say with the Beatles: “If you want a cathedral, we have one to spare”, but rather we pray and hope that the two cathedrals and other Christian bodies will continue to deepen their knowledge of Jesus, their Lord and our Lord, will keep on exchanging their gifts, and will persevere in working together for the good of all, not only in our city of Liverpool but throughout the world.
May the Lord help us to achieve this. Amen.
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