Christian leaders converge on Phoenix

By J.D. Long-García | May 7, 2009 | The Catholic Sun

Hundreds of Christian leaders met in Phoenix last month to bridge the gap between people of different religions, races and ethnic backgrounds.

The National Workshop on Christian Unity, a yearly ecumenical effort that began in 1964 under Catholic leadership, works toward Christian unity.

“For those of us who live in the desert, we have an appreciation for the need to water any living thing in order to have fruit,” said Fr. Michael Diskin, director of the Office of Ecumenism and Interreligious Affairs for the Diocese of Phoenix.

The theme of this year’s workshop, April 27-30 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Phoenix, was “Desert Pilgrimage.”

“If we acknowledge that all Christians are truly meant to be one, then there’s an obligation that we all share to nurture that ongoing effort,” he said.

Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted, who sits on the U.S. bishops’ committee on ecumenical affairs and is a dialog partner on a joint committee with Orthodox churches, opened and closed the worship ceremony April 27 at St. Mary’s Basilica.

“I trust that as we praise Him together that He will bless our time together,” the bishop said in the opening worship ceremony April 27 at St. Mary’s Basilica. “And that He will deepen our longing to be one in word and deed with the prayer that Jesus offered at the last supper, ‘that they all may be one.’”

That was the hope of Rev. Jan Olav Flaaten of Trinity Lutheran Church who was instrumental in bringing the workshop to Phoenix.

“We have a good ecumenical spirit among the leadership in Arizona,” he said. “We’re concerned about ways that we can pray and think and talk together in a constructive and helpful way.”

Flaaten said Christians can find unity around many issues, especially issues of social justice like the environment, racism and immigration.

“We’re united around what’s becoming one of the central ethical concerns in this country — just immigration,” said Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

Two separate sessions during the workshop were dedicated to the immigration issue. Tucson Bishop Gerald Kicanas and Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño spoke at the first.

“One of the most painful things about our state is the deaths in the desert, which continue,” Bishop Kicanas said, noting the mounting hostility toward undocumented immigrants in the community.

“When we have a broken system of laws, it’s not helpful because those laws need to be upheld,” the bishop said. “We’re not a nation that allows laws to be disregarded, so the challenge for us is to come up with comprehensive immigration policy.”

While Christian leadership is generally united around the need for reform, Bishop Kicanas said Christian communities are not.

Bishop Carcaño described immigration more personally, explaining that she’d found insight from a mother’s perspective. She recounted stories from immigrants she’d met on the border. She said Christians have to lead on a moral level.

Workshops also took on other issues, from racism to the place of Mormons in the ecumenical movement. In addition to ecumenical discussions, organizers also took on interreligious matters, especially the Christian-Muslim relationship.

Yet the remaining divisions were clear at the workshop. Separate celebrations were held April 28: a Mass for Catholics at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish and another celebration for Episcopalians, Lutherans, United Methodists, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ and other reformed participants at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral.

Metropolitan Gerasimos of the Greek Archdiocese of San Francisco also noted that not all Christians celebrate Easter on the same day. He suggested a good ecumenical step would be to address this difference.

“Listen to one another,” the metropolitan said during the keynote address. “We are to be so committed to the relationships we have that we can sit in silence for a while and just be comfortable sitting together.”