Friday, January 18, 2008

The Hedgehog in the Fog



Today's features at You Tube brought me this delightful short animated film, "The Hedgehog in the Fog".

Meanwhile, I thought to check the Anglican Communion websites to see if there were any new statements or articles released. I found that the The Archbishop of Canterbury's pages have been revamped considerably. The Photo Gallery is especially intriguing, including this image.

As for new writings, the following, "A Hundred Years on from the Establishing of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, How Much Further Forward are We?" was just released today.

Here is an excerpt:

To speak about mutual recognition is, of course, to grant implicitly that unity is not about absorption into a single mega-institution; it is about distinct and even divided communities freely consenting to be reconciled because they have recognised one life, Christ's life, in each other. To keep on insisting that this is bound up with recognition of where Eucharistic life is present in its fullness is not to prefer legalistic scrutiny over spiritual fellowship; it is simply to hold on to the conception of Christ's Body as the organ of a unity in which everyone genuinely lives for and 'into' the welfare and salvation of everyone else, because all are carriers of life for one another.

In our current rather bemused or becalmed ecumenical environment, we could do worse than revisit Lima and the ARCIC texts on ministry and the Church as communion, and reacquaint ourselves with the questions that we all have to confront about how we can see this or that ecclesial body as authentically more than just local and contingent. And perhaps we shall learn as we do so that the alternatives are not careless pluralism and cast-iron centralism. Between them lies the biblical conviction that we are responsible to each other for the faithful communication (in every sense) of the one Christ, and that we have to be in search of the structures which will properly serve that end.

These are, indeed, fine sentiments, however bemused and becalmed. I just wish someone would translate them, please.

2 comments:

BooCat said...

Klady, the Hedgehog is absolutely delightful. Thanks for that.

klady said...

I'm glad you liked it.