Albert C. Outler, 1908-1989
Today I read this excellent paragraph from Albert C. Outler’s That the World may Believe: a study of Christian unity (New York: Joint Commission on Education and Cultivation, Board of Missions of the Methodist Church, 1966), pp. 13-14:
If we could agree that our interest in Christian unity came from our concern for the effectiveness of the Christian mission, we could also be frank in our appraisals of the virtues and faults of the actual programs of ecumenical action that are being sponsored by our churches and by the various councils of churches
—local, national, and worldwide. It is the devoted ecumenist—and not the sectarian—who should be first to disavow all those starry-eyed enthusiasts who extol unity for the sake of unity. He should also reject those impatient prophets who refuse to reckon with the practical difficulties involved. It is the ecumenist who should disclaim the label of “indifferentism” by resisting the temptation to set aside all disputed points. He should refuse to conceal, water down, or even deny his own basic convictions in the interest of some spurious consensus that will not last. It is the veteran ecumenist—not the novice and certainly not the sectarian—who should resist the lure of “bigness” and the seductions of pomp and circumstance. It is an article of his creed that the basic unit of the universal Christian community is the local community of Christians—all the Christians in each place in valid communion with each other.
