LOVING EACH OTHER
So the vicar gets to heaven, but asks for a guided tour. St Peter shows him around, but he’s aware of a party going on behind a wall. When asked by Peter if he has any questions, the vicar enquires who is behind there? “Oh, that’s the
Catholics,” St Peter smiles.”They think they’re the only ones up here!”
This is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity when Christians make a special effort to pray and come together, so that Jesus’ prayer that we should all be one may
become a reality. In some ways, after a time of great progress in the second half of the 20th century things have cooled off a little ecumenically. All the more reason to keep up the momentum on the local level, which is where most of the action is anyway.
I’d like to draw your attention to the two services happening this Sunday. One is on a diocesan level – in St David’s Cathedral at 4pm. Archbishop Stack invites the whole diocese to join him for Choral Evening Prayer, with Church in Wales Archbishop Barry Morgan and Rev Leslie Griffiths, well-known Methodist speaker. This should be something very special, and Dr Griffiths will address the topic of “The Religious Landscape in Wales at the Beginning of the Third Millennium”.
On an even more local level, at St Isan’s Church, Llanishen at 6pm, people come together from our local CYTUN Churches Together in Llanishen and District, for the annual Service for this Week of Prayer.
Let all of our three churches be well represented at both of these services. To be Catholic means to be ecumenically-minded. We may have different perspectives on the issues, but Vatican II committed us to work for that prayer of Jesus to come true.
So the vicar spots three rather nervous Catholic ladies standing at the back of his church for Evensong. When he asks the slightly deaf verger to get three chairs for them, the congregation are amused to hear the lovely old man shout “Three cheers for the Catholic ladies!”
Fr Matthew