{"id":1583,"date":"2007-07-16T08:27:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-16T08:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/some-of-my-best-friends-are-catholics.html"},"modified":"2007-07-16T08:27:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-16T08:27:00","slug":"some-of-my-best-friends-are-catholics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/some-of-my-best-friends-are-catholics.html","title":{"rendered":"Some of my best friends are Catholics"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Over at Busted Halo<\/a>, they’ve posted this compelling and interesting piece<\/a> by an Anglican priest (with the compelling and interesting name of Astrid Joy Storm). She writes about the Vatican’s recent document<\/a> on Catholicism as the “one true Church”: <\/p>\n

Much of the ecumenical work that is going on\u2014and will continue to go on\u2014at the grassroots level is at least as important as anything coming out of the Vatican. The Rev. Keith Pecklers, Jesuit liturgist at the Gregorian University, calls it \u201cunderreported practical ecumenism.\u201d Practical ecumenism refers to all the joint work between Catholics and Protestants (not to mention other faiths) that goes on every day in soup kitchens, thrift stores, homeless shelters, peace rallies, and church educational groups. It also refers to joint statements issued by church leaders against war and poverty, or to bishops of different denominations sharing responsibilities when need arises.<\/p>\n

In that same vein, I experience a lot of what I call \u201crelational ecumenism,\u201d as well. For instance, a Roman Catholic friend of mine routinely takes communion from me because we have a strong spiritual relationship that precedes our current denominational affiliations. She isn\u2019t going to wait until her church says I\u2019m legitimate; she already knows that. Likewise, I wouldn\u2019t for a moment think that the Catholic friend with whom I had dinner on Tuesday is somehow an unfit spiritual companion just because he doesn\u2019t agree with my views on, say, papal authority. <\/p>\n

Such relational ecumenism may be the strongest among us Christians in our 20s and 30s, the so-called \u201cpost-denominational\u201d set. Upwards of 60% of us no longer consider denominational affiliation as important as it was to previous generations, and we also get around more, experiencing different denominations before possibly committing to one\u2014if at all.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/i> There’s a lot there to provoke thought (or, in some quarters, dismay), but it’s worth reading and pondereing. (And I just love her name.) <\/p>\n

Photo: Astrid Joy Storm from Busted Halo <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at Busted Halo, they’ve posted this compelling and interesting piece by an Anglican priest (with the compelling and interesting name of Astrid Joy Storm). She writes about the Vatican’s recent document on Catholicism as the “one true Church”: Much of the ecumenical work that is going on\u2014and will continue to go on\u2014at the grassroots…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSome of my best friends are Catholics - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/some-of-my-best-friends-are-catholics.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Some of my best friends are Catholics - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over at Busted Halo, they’ve posted this compelling and interesting piece by an Anglican priest (with the compelling and interesting name of Astrid Joy Storm). 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