Encouragement in Ecumenism

Back when I went to The Cong (Armadale Congregational Church), I remember seeing a number of different church buildings in very close proximity to each other. While the churches may well have cooperated with each other, I couldn’t help but wonder what the point was of having so many churches in the one place. While I had heard that pastors from Armadale would meet up to pray and share with each other, I never saw this lead to anything tangible in my experience as a churchgoer. As far as churches working together, the best I saw in Armadale was a combined churches Christmas carols event, and this tradition was on its last legs when I was at The Cong.

I also used to read about anthropology and social structures - topics like how mass transit had shaped society, or the impact of electric lighting on the rhythms of day to day life. Along these lines, I was fascinated by the history of ‘work’ - particularly the movement from modes of life where we only had just enough to get by (hunting and gathering, subsistence agriculture), to modes of life where we can produce more than we need (agricultural and industrial revolutions). As I understood it, this movement from subsistence to having more than we need meant that an increasing number of people were able to specialise in particular areas. In turn, specialisation increased general productivity, and the more productivity increased, the more people were freed up to specialise. I’d drive around Perth marvelling at things like highways, cars, and skyscrapers, thinking about how there was no way someone could make them on their own. Looking back now (2022) I can see the parallels with what God said at the tower of Babel about humanity being able to achieve anything we set our minds on if we’re able to work together.

When I was at South Perth Baptist, I noticed that Steve (the pastor) was really good at some things, but not so great at others (and I’d say this is the case for all of us). “Wouldn’t it be cool” I thought to myself, “if Steve could do what he was good at for multiple churches, and people who were good at things that he wasn’t could do those things for his church?” So I developed an interest in ecumenism, not for the sake of unity itself, but for the benefits of it. Imagine if different churches and denominations were able to, despite their differences, work together for the Kingdom of God!?

When I was at Lake Gwelup, this way of thinking really started to take shape. For example, I’d heard that there was a great English class at Karrinyup Anglican Church (near Gwelup), so when people started suggesting that Lake Gwelup should start an English class, I said we’d be better off supporting the one that was already established at Karrinyup.

I was so keen on this kind of ecumenism that I got in touch with a pastor from another nearby church, and we came up with a plan to act this out. For my first step I went to a neighbouring Catholic church that was in a local retirement village. But after asking me where I lived, the priest there (who happened to be Polish) wasn’t really interested in talking to me at all (possibly because I wasn’t living in his Parish).

This left me feeling quite discouraged. Things got busy at work, and my passion for ecumenism got lost on the backburner for awhile.

Some time later, Melissa and I were finding it a bit hard going to church so far away (Lake Gwelup was a 25-30 minute drive from where we lived). So, I started looking up churches in our area wondering about some way of connecting with and serving multiple churches instead of being tied down at one. In doing so, I found out that Rocco (from The Cong) was now at a Pentecostal church 5 minutes away from where we lived. Rocco mentioned that he was preaching at the next evening service and invited us to come, so we did. It was quite different to what we were used to…

The next day I was in the office at Lake Gwelup. It so happened that a man with limited English came to the church office asking if we had an English class. I was able to contact Karrinyup Anglican to get the details of their class for him.

That same day, a lady came into the office looking for a retirement village with a Polish priest. Because of my ecumenical pursuits, I knew where this was and was able to help her (I knew that the priest was Polish because I had looked at the church’s website before I visited).

That same day, I found out that someone would be preaching about inter-church unity on Sunday, so I had to write up a short paragraph on this from the gospel of John.

I felt like it wasn’t a coincidence that all these things lined up, and concluded that it was an encouragement from God. Despite this, I haven’t done heaps regarding ecumenism since then, but I did make sure to write this down so that I wouldn’t forget.