Speaking for a trinitarian public he could further say: "I come here today as a pilgrim from Rome, to pray before the tomb of St. Edward the Confessor and to join you in imploring the gift of Christian unity. May these moments of prayer and friendship confirm us in love for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, and in common witness to the enduring power of the Gospel to illumine the future of this great nation". Because we think he would not like to see the non-trinitarian Christians in unity with their church.
Important to remember is: "Here we cannot help but be reminded of how greatly the Christian faith shaped the unity and culture of Europe and the heart and spirit of the English people. Here too, we are forcibly reminded that what we share, in Christ, is greater than what continues to divide us".
Benedict XVI recalled how this year marks the centenary of the modern ecumenical movement which "began with the Edinburgh Conference's appeal for Christian unity as the prerequisite for a credible and convincing witness to the Gospel in our time. In commemorating this anniversary, we must give thanks for the remarkable progress made towards this noble goal through the efforts of committed Christians of every denomination. At the same time, however, we remain conscious of how much yet remains to be done. In a world marked by growing interdependence and solidarity, we are challenged to proclaim with renewed conviction the reality of our reconciliation and liberation in Christ, and to propose the truth of the Gospel as the key to authentic and integral human development".
You can wounder what the Church's unity should be. Is a unity in the apostolic faith not to believe what the apostles themseves believed? And would this not mean that all Christians should keep to the first centuries believe of those who really knew Jesus from first hand? But more important should Christians not go back to their leader they are proclaiming to follow?
Normally we all should strive to Christian unity, but we should be following all that Jesus asked us to do. We should keep to the tasks he gave to his disciples. In case Trinitarian Christians would like to their idea that Jesus is also God they should also accept those who keep to the words of Jesus and his Holy Father. In the Holy Scriptures their relationship is clearly described.
The Vatican see themselves as the “mother” church. The universal church. The word Catholic means “universal”. They see other Christian churches as wayward daughters that need to be brought back under her wings. The Pope’s ambition therefore is to become head of all Christian religion. But do we not have to look at what the Scriptures gave as warning to the next generations? Revelation 17:2 says that the “kings of the earth” have committed fornication with the harlot woman of Rome.
What happened yesterday is important for Christians to see in the light of the Bible.
As the Anglicans and Catholics all sang together in London (latter day Tyre) we heard not joyful words but the singing of “an harlot” as prophesied in Isaiah 23. “Tyre shall sing as an harlot”. The singing which began in 1996/7 is reaching a crescendo. The judgement of latter day Tyre will soon come. The next chapter says “the noise of them that rejoice endeth…” Isaiah 24:8
Get to know more in the Weekly World Watch 12th - 18th Sept 2010
In all the four centuries from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II, England has been defined as a Protestant nation. "The Catholics were the Other; sometimes violent terrorists and rebels, sometimes merely dirty immigrants." according to Andrew Brown in the Guardian, Friday 17 September 2010.
ReplyDeleteBrown recognizes the significance of the fact that Pope Benedict based his thoughts on the example of St. Thomas More: a man who had defied the king in loyalty to his faith. He notes, too, that the British Empire arose soon after the Reformation:
Rebellion against the pope was the foundational act of English power. And now the power is gone, and perhaps the rebellion has gone, too.
> Pope's visit: Moral absolutes and crumbling empires
Ian Jack in The Guardian, Saturday 18 September 2010points out that historians might jib at the generalisations: if the Vatican were so helpful in the 14th century, how come it excommunicated Robert the Bruce? Catholicism and Scotland have a long and complex past. Did the papal visit change anything?
> Pope Benedict and the St Ninian revival