I once heard of a parent who wasn’t baptised wanting to give their child the best start in life and so arranged for their child to be baptised. The toddler, in the ways that toddlers do, became so fascinated with baptism that bath-time became baptism time, and on more than one occasion the toddler wanted to share what had happened to them in church with their parent in the ritual of the bath. The toddler took water and baptised their parent ‘in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’, just as they themselves had been baptised. Seeing what baptism had meant for their child, the parent now also to want to be baptised. Telling this story to the Bishop before the service of Baptism and Confirmation, the Bishop stopped the parent and told them that it was likely they had in fact been baptised. The Bishop performed a conditional baptism and through the ministry of their child, the parent had found their way into the Body of Christ.
Eugene Schlesinger’s short volume is a reflection on the pain of separation that exists between members of that Body through the existence of distinct denominations, and the lack of full and visible unity and communion between those various denominations. Schlesinger’s starting point which he repeats a number of times is that the Church is called by Christ to be united, and that it’s lack of unity is an evil.
There is a tension that runs out through the volume. On the one hand, Schlesinger seems to assume the nature of what Church unity would look like – that we all could tell what a united Church would look like. This form of unity is expressed in Jesus’s prayer that we ‘all may be one’ (John 17:21). This comes out even in the valuable discussion in the first chapter, which rightly argues against the idea that there ever was such unity in the first place, a claim which he recognises would be shocking to some (p. 2). However, by rightly pointing out the persistent diversity of Christian expressions from the earliest Church to the present day, Schlesinger retains a concept of what this unity might look like that he recognises has never been expressed, which he regards as not only desirable but demanded by Christ’s injunction. That Schlesinger has such a concept of unity in mind throughout is reflected in passages such as ‘the “New Testament church” is hardly what we have in mind when we think of ecclesial unity’ (p. 27).
The second chapter, which includes reflection on the role of the Eucharist as a sign and instrument of unity, brings this tension to the fore. In discussing the problem of churches refusing to share in and recognise the communion celebrated by other churches, he argues:
‘at issue is not that there are multiple churches. Even in an undivided church there would be multiple churches, for the church is none other than the communion of particular churches. The problem is that these multiple churches live their lives out of communion with each other, either failing to refuse to recognise in each other the church, or able or willing to extend only partial recognition’ (p. 40).
This places the emphasis on what would bring about a united church on the agency of those churches who currently refuse to recognise other churches and denominations as part of ‘the’ Church. The underlying concept of unity with which Schlesinger seems to work rests in part on the agency of individuals and denominations to recognise in each other fellow members of the same Church, with the result that when that recognition is made, unity might be achieved.
What might it mean, however, if the unity of the Church bore no relation to the agency or recognition of particular denominations of individuals, that in fact the united Church exists despite our inability to recognise or perceive it. Some might wish to make retain the role of recognition in this realisation of unity but relocate it to an eschatological reality – the Church was united it turned out, but we only come to recognise each other as Christians when we see truly see Christ – and each other – face to face.
However, there are grounds for an understanding of unity that removes reliance on an individual or denomination’s recognition, and focusses instead on reassessing whether we in fact know what unity might look like and that such unity may already obtain despite our understanding, just like that parent whose child may already have baptised them with water, a Trinitarian formula, and intent.
Our readings of John 17:21 focus quickly on the call to be one that they skip the definition of ‘oneness’ that Jesus immediately provides ‘as we are one’. If there’s anything we know theologically it’s that conceptualising what it might mean to be one as the Trinitarian persons are one is a task that demands jettisoning our immediate and instinctive notions of what unity might be.
Schlesinger recognises this at points, noting that the diversity within the Godhead at the very least suggests that ‘there is no incompatibility between diversity and unity’ (p. 8). However, throughout he seems to revert to the hope of an instinctive understanding of unity that requires more critical reflection. If the unity of the Church, however, transcends our instinctive notion of unity, it may be that we are in some sense already united despite our disagreements and lack of formal recognition. It may be that the same Christ is already present as the source and summit of unity at the altars and in the lives of the various churches which refuse to recognise that he is present with the other, united in this presence despite their refusal.
The most valuable contribution of this work, and one which Schlesinger repeats at various places, is the argument that various minorities should not be made to pay the price for a false unity. He singles out the quest for LQBTQIA+ inclusion and affirmation, and the ordination of women, as two examples. The third chapter in which this is addressed at length is a particularly helpful contribution to debates raging in churches where ‘unity’ is being used as a device which delays enabling the full recognition of LGBTQIA+ people as members of the body in their own right.
Schlesinger’s desire for a united visible communion is powerful, and the reader finishes the volume with a renewed longing for the day that all shall be one as the Father and Son are one. Even if it is the case that such a unity may already exist, this book is a reminder that we cannot rest on our laurels. If it is the case that Christ is present and unites us with a form of Christianity that we would struggle to recognise or with whom we disagree, we are all called to recognise Christ there as much as we recognise Christ at our own altars and in our ways of thinking. Schlesinger notes that such a recognition would surely be bracing, but the price of love and the command to do so means that it’s up to each and every Christian to play their part until that day we see Christ and each other face to face. Or as they say in therapy, it’s up to us to ‘do the work’.
