Sunday, October 17, 2021

Anglican Paul Ais on Denominationalism

While optimistic about the benefits of ecumenical dialogue, Anglican Paul Ais wrote the following about denominationalism, including how it is a spiritual sickness and even sinful, being an explicit contradiction of Jesus' wish for believers to be truly "one" (cf. John 17:22):

 

Sometimes it is when we see ourselves as one church among others that we become disturbingly conscious of the disunity of the Church of Christ. With the realization that the disunity is rampant and that schism is a sin comes the desire to work for reunion. The fact of denominationalism is a standing rebuke to the churches. It is eloquent testimony to the fact that they have failed—failed to heed the prayer and command of Christ and the apostles in the New Testament that the Church should be visibly one. The divisions within the Church—which denominationalism is perhaps the most blatant manifestation—raise the question of whether the Church actually exists on earth, or whether what we have is an inferior substitute, a quasi-church. Only a miracle of grace can preserve the Church on earth in the teeth of human drive to assert difference and to mark separation. We cannot be complacent about denominations. To acquiesce in denominationalism is to confess failure; to glory it in is a sickness. (Paul Ais, “Denomination: An Anglican Appraisal,” in Paul M. Collins and Barry Ensign-George, eds., Denomination: Assessing An Ecclesiological Category [Ecclesiological Investigations 11; London: T&T Clark, 2011], 22-33, here, pp. 26-27)