Ecumen In

Christian unity can be achieved only if it "takes root in the local communi ties," says Bishop Reuben H. Mueller, the new president of the National Council of Churches. The roots are already sprouting. Ecumenism -- until recently the private dream of theologians and the occasional public practice of rank ing clergymen -- has become a spirit-changing factor in the church life of every U.S. community. Every day more laymen join in a dialogue once reserved for ministers, and as one Washington, D.C., pastor puts it, "some of the best discussions take place in car pools and Laundromats." The example of Pope John XXIII and the presence of Protestant observers at the Vatican Council have dramatically changed the attitude of U.S. Roman Catholics toward men of other faiths. Boston Irish are no longer surprised when Richard Cardinal Cushing kneels in prayer in an Episcopal church. For the first time since he became Archbishop of New York, Francis Cardinal Spellman attended a Protestant funeral last week. The service was for Mrs. Robert F. Wagner, the Presbyterian wife of the city's Catholic mayor; the Cardinal also authorized her burial in a Catholic cemetery. The Episcopal Bishop of Colorado has spoken at a Knights of Columbus Mass in Pueblo, and last month Los Angeles' sternly conservative James Cardinal McIntyre astounded most of his flock by agreeing to address an Episcopal women's luncheon meeting.

Religious barriers hardly exist any more in church publishing. Presbyterian Theologian Robert McAfee Brown of Stanford writes for the lay-edited Catholic weekly Commonweal, and Lutheran Theologian Jaroslav Pelikan is a regular columnist for Denver's Catholic diocesan weekly, the Register. Last week Pittsburgh's Catholic Duquesne University Press published a new Journal of Ecumenical Studies; the editors include Brown, Catholic Theologians Hans Kung and Gregory Baum, Lutheran George Lindbeck.

Relaxing Tension. Trickling down to congregational level, ecumenism has notably relaxed sociological tension, created a national fad for visits to other people's churches. In Pittsburgh, estimates the Rev. Donald Prytherch of Bethel United Presbyterian Church, at least one-third of all Protestant sermons now make reference to Christian unity. "This simply couldn't have happened five years ago," he says. Kansas City's Country Club Christian Church has invited pastors from 31 different denominations to speak from its pulpit.

Christian ecumenism also spills over to include Jews: one recent Lenten speaker at the Kansas City church was Rabbi Alexander Graubart of Congregation Beth Shalom; Jewish and Protestant scholars lecture at an eight-week Catholic Bible course in Tulsa, and Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati has 25 Christian students working for graduate degrees.

Exchanging Collections. Interfaith ministerial conferences that meet regularly have sprung up all across the country. A number of Catholic institutions have organized summer retreats for Protestant ministers. Several churches have adopted Swiss Lutheran Theologian Oscar Cullman's proposal to exchange Sunday collections. In San Francisco recently, Sacred Heart High School gave a love offering for the poor to a nearby Lutheran church. The pastor responded by setting up an award for the outstanding student at Sacred Heart.

The pursuit of common understanding has led to common ecclesiastical action, notably in the fields of youth work and civil rights. In Chicago, the year-old interfaith Conference on Religion and Race has trained teams of ministers to help resolve tensions in racially mixed areas; it plans to put pressure on banks to use church funds only for projects that foster integration, such as unsegregated housing. This fall, 20,000 Catholic, Protestant and Jewish laymen in Houston will cooperate on a city-wide church census. Mutual concern for backsliders has tempered ecclesiastical competition somewhat. Undermanned Catholic dioceses in the Southwest no longer complain when Protestant missions minister to Mexican-Americans who may be Catholic by birth and baptism but not by any demonstrated devotions. Many local councils of churches are now planning carefully to avoid the organization of new Protestant congregations in small communities that can barely support the ones they already have.

The Need for Roots. Protestant fundamentalists--notably the Southern Baptists--are generally wary of the ecumenical trend; so are many conservative Catholics, who fear that the dream of unity can lead to "religious indifferentism." Beyond sectarianism, there are real problems of reconciling divergent views on such fundamental doctrinal issues as the role of bishops in the church and the meaning of the Lord's Supper. "Unless we impose some deep theological roots to the movement," warns the Rev. Charles von Euw of Cardinal Cushing's archdiocesan ecumenical committee, "there is a danger that it will become nothing more than handshaking, backslapping social get-togethers."

Yet even churchmen who do not want, or foresee, the ultimate creation of one great Christian church believe that the ecumenical tide cannot be stemmed, nor should it be. "What it really amounts to," says one Catholic priest in Pittsburgh, "is a diminution of suspicion and an acceleration of good will. We simply aren't fighting each other any more."

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