Life

An ecumenical spring is coming

A recent prayer service hosted by the Catholic church in Donaghmore was an example of the sort of hope that Vatican II brought to the ecumenical world - but there is still much to be done, says the Rev Dr Lesley Carroll, who spoke at it

St Patrick's Church in Donaghmore hosted an ecumenical service during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Picture by Jim Hamill Photography
St Patrick's Church in Donaghmore hosted an ecumenical service during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Picture by Jim Hamill Photography St Patrick's Church in Donaghmore hosted an ecumenical service during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Picture by Jim Hamill Photography

EVER since the Hebrew people escaped Egypt and broke free from slavery, the glory of that moment has inspired the people of God.

This is not least because Moses was the most unlikely of people to be called into leadership and to do wonderful things - not because of who he was in himself or because of any great reputation he had, but because he relied on God.

Among the people of God across the generations who have relied on the Lord to do wonderful 'Moses work' through themselves and others was Harriet Tubman.

I have been watching a series on Netflix called Underground. It is the story of the underground railroad that helped somewhere in the region of 100,000 slaves to escape slavery in the southern United States of America in the 1800s.

An episode is given over to Harriet, told almost entirely in soliloquy.

She was a slave who grew up on a slave plantation in Maryland and went on to become an inspirational leader in the underground railroad movement.

As a teenager, she received a head injury which for the rest of her life caused her to fall into trances, her so-called 'sleeps'.

During these sleeps, Harriet would have dreams and visions which she believed came from God.

Who would have chosen an illiterate, injured slave girl to be a great leader? Maybe not many people - but maybe the Lord would.

Harriet eventually made her escape. As she crossed the line from the south, where slavery was common, into the north, where abolitionists flourished and slaves could be free, she said: "When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands to see if I was the same person.

Who would have chosen an illiterate, injured slave girl to be a great leader? Maybe not many people - but maybe the Lord would.

"There was such a glory over everything; the sun came like gold through the trees, and over the fields, and I felt like I was in heaven."

Her reaction was as joyous and overwhelming as that of Moses and the Hebrew people when they crossed the Red Sea.

Like Moses, Harriet had little to commend her. But with the power of God at work in her and through her, she helped free many slaves, earning herself the nickname 'Moses'.

"God's time is always near," she said.

"He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.

"I said to the Lord, I'm going to hold steady on to you, and I know you will see me through."

And see her through God did, as God had seen Moses through before her.

We have just had the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Fr Michael Hurley, who co-founded the Irish School of Ecumenics, once described the movement for unity as having entered "an ecumenical winter".

By that he meant that some of the life had gone out of it.

Today we are 'after' Vatican II, which brought such hope not only to Catholicism but also to the whole ecumenical world

In Underground, Harriet Tubman says: "There is a before and there is an after."

She was referring to the 'before' and 'after' moment of freedom; that even in the 'after', there is much to be done.

For Moses, it was the same. There was 'before' the Red Sea and there was 'after' the Red Sea, with so much still to happen and be done before the people of God would reach the Promised Land.

Today we are 'after' Vatican II, which brought such hope not only to Catholicism but also to the whole ecumenical world.

Yet we are, in this 'after', in something of the winter of ecumenism; there is still much to be done, still much to happen.

In this 'after time' we need, as was needed in times before, the glorious power of the right hand of God to save us and lead us, to raise up people who will take us into a new 'after' so that this ecumenical winter becomes the 'before'.

We are in something of the winter of ecumenism; there is still much to be done, still much to happen

In the beginning, the ecumenical movement existed not just for itself, even though unity itself is a noble concept.

The ecumenical movement, at its foundation, was focused on one theme: that the world would believe. It had a higher vision.

There is a 'before' and an 'after' in all our lives, something that marks a time that passes and a new beginning with a higher vision.

We pray for a time, a mark in the life of the church between a 'before' and an 'after', between an ecumenical winter and an ecumenical spring.

Perhaps it will be heralded by a big event like the visit of the Pope and perhaps it will be heralded in a quiet corner, as was Jesus' birth.

However it happens, our two 'Moseses' teach us that it will happen with people who have little to commend them - not natural leaders, literate and well spoken, but with people who are willing to let the power of God be at work in and through them.

The movement from 'before' to 'after' begins with people like you and me who share the same prayer, the prayer of Harriet Tubman: "Lord, I'm going to hold steady on to you and you're going to see us through."

  • Rev Dr Lesley Carroll worked as a Presbyterian minister in north Belfast for 25 years and is currently deputy chief commissioner of the Equality Commission. Abridged from her talk at an ecumenical prayer service in St Patrick's Church, Donaghmore to mark the Week of Prayer for Christianity.