Senior Roman Catholic and Lutheran officials announced in Geneva that they would mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in Oct 31st 2017 as a shared event. The 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis, the doctrinal challenge that launched the Protestant Reformation, will be their first joint celebration.
That is only a time and times and half a times, 42 months or 3 1/2 years from now. In Oct 1517, the year of the 95 Thesis was also a Jubilee year when Jerusalem changed hands. She was to remain part of the Ottoman Empire for the next 400 years or 8 Jubilees until her liberation again in 1917 and again in 1967. Her next Jubilee is also 2017.
Roman Catholic, the world largest church has 1.2 billion members and make up fully one half of all Christians. Lutherans make up 75 million. David A. Barrett’s book, World Christian Encyclopedia leads us to conclude that there are 30 Roman Catholic denominations and 41 different Orthodox denominations and only 27 “Protestant” denominations and 185 “Independent” denominations. Catholics and Lutherans began seeking theological common ground since the 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council which opened the Roman church to better relations with other churches. In an age of cultural pluralism, interfaith unity became acceptable and desired.
The Vatican II initiative, coupled with other major documents like the 1964 “Restoration of Unity” by Paul VI and the 1995 encyclical, “That They May Be One,” by John Paul II, outlines how Catholics would like to have one universal—Catholic—church. In the 1960s, cultural pluralism led to theological pluralism. Theological pluralism gave birth to ecumenism. Ecumenism is the promotion of religious unity among interfaith groups. To make this pluralism work, the participants had to forget the past, and they had to compromise.
In 1999 they took a major step forward by agreeing on a common view justification, the doctrine that was the core of the 16th Century dispute. The issue was the understanding of whether Christians attained eternal salvation by faith alone or also doing good works. In their joint 93 page report they agreed that each side had often ridiculed each other’s teachings in the past, sinning against the commandment against bearing false witness. The Lutheran side also confessed its shame and regret “the vicious and degrading statements that Martin Luther made against the Jews” and the persecution of Anabaptists.
With the growth of Christianity in developing countries, the secularization and the decline of the church in Western societies, many old feuds were now forgotten. The rise of Pentecostal and Charismatic moments in this century have changed the priorities of Christians, and made many of the old confessional controversies obsolete and irrelevant. The Vatican announced in 2009 that it would introduce a new church structure that would allow former Anglicans to enter into “full communion” with the Catholic Church while preserving their Anglican traditions.
Over half of the 67 Episcopal clergy who have applied for membership with the Catholic Church have been approved by the Holy See. An Episcopal church in Maryland was the first in the nation to join the Roman Catholic Church. The members and pastor of St. Luke’s Episcopal parish in Bladensburg, Md., converted to Catholicism under a process set up by the Vatican to bring disaffected Episcopalians and Anglicans into its fold.
As society declines, the Catholic have stood by their traditional values and this will attract followers discouraged and disaffected by their compromising and secular denomination. The conclusion of the joint agreement between Lutherans and Catholics spoke of the church sharing “unity in reconciled diversity” over their issues. The Lutheran World Federation (L.W.F) said it would hold further discussions with other denominations to be included in those joint celebrations of the Reformation in 2017.
And while all the world see the need for Unity, the people of God squabble and bicker among themselves.“That They May Be One,” is not just a book a Pope wrote, but the unanswered prayer of a Saviour preparing to die.