From Volume 1, Number 2, Autumn 1994

There is one Body and one Spirit;
There is one hope in God's call to us

Unity and Community: the Body of Christ and the healing of creation. In the Way of Life for the Order of St. Aidan the value of "unity and community" works in both those directions. The  unity of Celtic Christianity was not the structural unity that characterizes the modern Christian denomination. These Celtic Christians did not see themselves as rivals to the Roman Church of the continent, but as  sisters and brothers sharing the same Lord, the same Gospel, the same mission. The Celts had their own practices, their own culture, their own values. However, as a rule, they did not seek to impose their form of  Christianity on other Christians. They sought to live in a mutual coexistence wherever they roamed. The failure of the church of their day to embrace this kind of 'unity in diversity' is a human failure, not a Roman  one.

Our era is one of even greater fragmentation within the Body of Christ. In spite of intense efforts in the area of Christian unity each year sees the birth of new denominations. How are we  to live our unity in an era of such division? The Way of Life provides us with some direction: "We look upon all fellow Christians not as 'strangers but pilgrims together,' and we honor those in oversight in all  denominations. We resist all gossip and destructive talk about our own denomination or others. We resist in our own lives things that damage the unity of Christ's body, and will not do separately what is best done  together."

As an ecumenical order, we will be constantly challenged to incarnate this behavior in local fellowship. We may find in one fellowship both women in holy orders and those who cannot accept  the ordination of women. We may find both those who insist on ordination by bishops, those who accept ordination by presbyters and those who see the local congregation as the ordaining body. How shall we have unity  in such circumstances? There is no easy answer, no formula for us to follow. Only by living together in love can we begin to see a way through. It may cause great pain to a local fellowship that sharing in the  Lord's Supper is not possible because of such division. We may nonetheless embrace one another in other ways, acknowledging the pain but refusing the breaking of fellowship.

Over the years, as the Lord calls more and more people into this community, we may be able to share our stories of community struggle and, with openness to the work of the Holy Spirit, be  able to find new patterns of community that allow us to live in a "loving tension."

I have named the second aspect of this value as "the healing of creation." That may seem a bit overblown as a way of describing community. It certainly encompasses many of the other values  in the Way of Life. It is best to begin by saying what I do not mean. I do not mean that the fullness of the Kingdom of God will ever be realized in this world. To describe community as "the healing of creation"  means that our attitude of oneness with one another, with the neighborhoods which give home to our congregations, and with the cultures in which we live is part of God's saving work. Yet oneness does not mean  assimilation. Much of the pre-Christian Celtic culture was taken in, "baptized" if you will, in the conversion of the Celtic peoples. Much, but not all. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the good news of God's saving  action in a sinful world. The value of community in the Way of Life is described in this way: "We seek to cultivate a solidarity with all people in everything except sin, to value all that is truly human in them,  and to shed attitudes and practices that put up barriers between the church and the people."

This solidarity is more than feelings of good will. It will involve us in the sacrificing of our personal time to build local community. When there are a number of members of the Order of  St. Aidan in one area, a fellowship may be formed that will meet together for meals and prayer and worship. In that fellowship we can also give time to examining our environment, identifying those elements which we  may bless and in which we may participate. In this pattern we may find ourselves more effective evangelists, sharing the Gospel in our speaking and in our lifestyles.

But if there are no opportunities to create such a fellowship, we still need not to live our way of life in isolation. We can seek out in our parishes those who share the same hunger for  the spread of the Gospel and the building of Christian community. There will be members of other religious orders or devotional societies. There will be those who do not see themselves as called to a religious  community, but who treasure the values of the Way of Life. The Celts moved easily back and forth between solitude and human community. Where no fellowship exists, our attention to this value moves us to create  fellowships. In bringing together scattered Christians in this endeavor, connecting with one another, connecting with our environment, the building of community can become a significant step in the healing of  creation.