Promoting Christian Unity

by Pastor Allan E. Johnson

We gathered in New Ulm last year, on a chilly October day with the wind hurrying us to the doors. We were there to celebrate a step on the way toward closer partnership.

I am a Lutheran. Which is to say, I am a Christian who understands himself to be part of a reforming movement within the Church. I confess one holy, Catholic and apostolic Church; and in that Church, we have been too long apart. So as I stood that cold October day and watched as bishops of our two communities set their own signatures to the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, it was a prayer answered. We declared, together, our common trust in the grace of God who called us. One step toward the day when we will gather yet at God’s own table.

In recent years, our partnership in the Gospel has grown closer in many ways. I remember that each Easter, when we light the Paschal candle; Roman Catholic neighbors gave it to us first, and each year reminds us of that partnership. It reminds me of vacation bible school weeks that we’ve shared, of times we have been guests at each other’s worship. And it reminds me of other congregations in our synod and in the diocese who have found in each other close partners, companions on the journey of faith, shared strength in time of need.

We strengthen each other. God has given our communities precious gifts of faith; given them so that they might be shared. And so we find in each other gifts which enrich us, which make us ready for mission and service in our churches and our towns and countryside. When the winds blow, sometimes they are the winds of God.