Ministering to the ecumenical family

(Wichurches) - Grassroots ecumenism is one of the under-explored aspects of ecumenism today, and no part of the church is more ecumenically "grassroots" than the ecumenical family. This Retreat will explore how the ecumenical family provides both a challenge and an opportunity for thinking pastorally and theologically about ecumenical relations today.

The "ecumenical family" designates those family situations in which Christian spouses continue to remain committed members in their respective traditions, while seeking to live in Christian unity with one another. I have never, from childhood to today ever seen this actually work. Further, this sort of idea belies a false ecclesiology - communion is not like club membership where you can join as many as you have time for. As such, they naturally find themselves accompanying spouses (and children) to their respective churches. That raises the question, how does their presence and experience in their congregations affect and inform their Christian traditions' theological and pastoral approach to ecumenism? It tells children that they can pick and choose what they like (or, as often as not, nothing at all) and throw away what they don't. It subordinates a salvific issue to level of every other choice in life. I commented on the idea of "personal faith" here. There are issues where the two churches will disagree. How do you pick which one to tell your children is the Truth?

By way of expert speakers and panel discussions, the Retreat will explore this topic from the experiential sequence that ecumenical couples experience and the ecumenical church: from wedding preparation (marriage as an ecumenical issue) to joining their spouse in worship (table fellowship as an ecumenical issue), to the rearing of children (baptism and the raising of children as an ecumenical issue). I find it difficult to approach the issue from this direction. For me. my faith informs my every decision. I hope that I can encourage my children to do the same. Does this sort of "sharing" strengthen the family or destabilize it?

Speaker Profile

Barbara Pappas, an Orthodox author, will present at a conference at Cardinal Stritch University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on September 27 and 28. The conference will discuss situations in which members of different Christian faiths come together for Marriages, Communions, Confirmation and Baptisms. Today we are faced with Orthodox marrying non-Orthodox and the appropriate response to these situations. The conference or retreat is to promote a mutual understanding.

Barbara Pappas will stress that these events are Sacraments – Mysteries and an entering into and participation in the Life of Christ – being the very Body of Christ. This Orthodox understanding is important and essential for all to understand, and Orthodox need to act accordingly. She will focus on salvation through being "in-Christ" (through Baptism) and staying "in-Christ" sacramentally, actualized through Theosis, with the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.

Barbara Pappas holds a B.A. degree from DePaul University in Chicago, with a concentration in early Church Fathers. A lay assistant at the Holy Apostles Greek Orthodox Church in Westchester, Illinois, she has, for many years, taught adults and children of all ages. She has also lectured in many areas of the United States and Russia, to Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike. Barbara has written several works, including Are You Saved: The Orthodox Christian Process of Salvation, now in its 5th Edition, with over 60,000 copies in circulation. She is also the author of First And Second Corinthians: A Study of Paul's Letters.