Catholics, evangelicals explore common ground rooted in shared ‘love of Jesus Christ’

CINCINNATI (OSV News) — A group of Catholics and evangelicals has released a one-page document that identifies areas of common ground among the two largest Christian groups in the world.

“The Gift of Being Christian Together: An Ecumenical Statement of Fidelity and Recognition” is “the fruit of a new ecumenical dialogue,” according to a news release from Glenmary Home Missioners in Cincinnati on the document.

“At the most basic level, Catholics and evangelicals share a love of Jesus Christ,” said Alexei Laushkin, founder of Kingdom Mission Society, an evangelical organization that helped spearhead the effort.

Catholic efforts were led by Nathan Smith, ecumenical director for Glenmary Home Missioners, a Catholic society of priests, brothers and laypeople who work in evangelical-dominant areas of Appalachia and the South.

Smith and Laushkin have established a website, thegiftofbeingchristiantogether.org, to disseminate the document and to gather signatures of support not only from evangelical and Catholic institutions, but also from everyday Christians from those traditions, they said.

The document was released Aug. 28, the feast of St. Augustine, and signatures are being accepted until the feast of Christ the King, Nov. 24.

“The feasts of St. Augustine and Christ the King both have ecumenical significance,” explained Smith. “Christians see Christ the King as the center of unity. It is then that we profess the Lordship of Christ. And St. Augustine is much beloved by evangelicals and Catholics.”

His writings are important, for example, in St. Thomas Aquinas’ writings and as well as those of Reformation theologian John Calvin, he said. “More important, Augustine dwells on the interior life, the conversion and change of heart that opens the door for unity,” Smith added.

Churches will be recruited to have liturgical events that resonate with their tradition on Nov. 24 to highlight the theme of unity. One recommended practice is that churches be lit with red lights around Nov. 24 as a sign of solidarity with modern Christian martyrs.

“Let’s put an emphasis on the evangelism that has often been the cause of their martyrdom,” Laushkin said. Congregations are also encouraged to recite the Nicene Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and to pray for Christian unity, along with sharing the document with their congregations.

The dialogue group was formed in 2021 to address the question of “how the two communities see one another as being Christian, as sharing in faith in Christ’s Lordship, even in the midst of our current differences,” Smith told OSV News in a Sept. 4 email.

He and Laushkin led a working group of Christian theologians from six traditions: Catholic, Methodist, Reformed, Wesleyan, Anglican and the Free Church.

Catholic theologians in the group included Jonathan Ciraulo, author Dawn Eden Goldstein, Alan Mostrom, Dominican Father Ignatius John Schweitzer and Father Walter Kedjierski, who was executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs until his appointment in June as director of seminarians for the Diocese of Rockville Centre, N.Y. Besides Laushkin, evangelical theologians included Howard Snyder, Ben Homan, the Rev. Craig Higgins and Miranda Cruz.

Dialogue participants “spent time highlighting ways that members of the two groups (evangelicals and Catholics) can see another as being Christian,” said Smith. “The effort was not focused on particular theological differences so much as a starting point: that each communion affirms the Lordship of Christ and the call to more closely align our lives to the Gospel.”

The Christian Forum of Switzerland has translated the document into French and is using it for a study group this fall, according to Smith. The news release added that the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs has recommended the document, and it is endorsed by the North American Baptist Fellowship.

Smith said he hopes for practical positive outcomes from better understanding among Catholics and evangelicals.

“For example,” he said, “it’s not uncommon for families to have both Catholics and evangelicals, or Pentecostals or other Christians within that one family. I’ve spoken to people in our mission whose kids marry evangelicals, and now they tell their parents that they’re not Christian, because they’re Catholic.” That causes a lot of division, he said.

“‘The Gift of Being Christian Together’ gives some language as to how we might see one another, even though we’re different, as being Christian,” Smith added. “It provides a starting point for further conversation.”

For more information on the document, visit: https://thegiftofbeingchristiantogether.org/

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