The annual diocesan Ecumenical Service was held Jan. 15 at Sacred Heart Church in Massena.  Bishop LaValley presided at the service while Father  James J. Kane, director of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany. His homily follows:
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I am most grateful for Bishop Terry LaValley’s kind assent to the invitation to be your preacher, extended by my Diocese of Ogdensburg counterpart, Father Dan Chapin, and for the gracious hospitality of host pastor, Father Don Manfred. 

Parish resident, Father Joe Elliott, is a classmate (and I’m honored by his presence on his birthday!) 
Msgr. CJ McAvoy, present with us, was my pastor in Saranac Lake.

The stole I am wearing was a gift of a parishioner of Sacred Heart when I finished my term as Diocesan Liturgy Director in 1976.  Liturgy Commission Member, Margaret Woods, knitted this for me as a farewell gift.  The various hues remind me of our various denominations-yet one vestment.

The Episcopal Diocese of Albany includes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg, and so I asked Bishop William Love to share a greeting for this service:

“May God’s love and the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with each of you as you come together for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ogdensburg’s Church Unity Octave in Massena.  On behalf of myself and all the people of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, especially in the North Country and Saint Lawrence Region, we give thanks to God for you and the mighty work he is accomplishing in and through you in Christ’s name.  We look forward to working more closely with you for the building up of God’s Kingdom in whatever ways the Holy Spirit might lead”.

Welcome to all the Protestant Clergy and Congregants joining us.

Blessed Pope John XXIII brought the Roman Catholic Church into the modern Ecumenical movement that began a century ago among Protestants.  There was much hope for reunion and even a giddy optimism back in the ‘60’s. But, centuries of division do not resolve themselves in mere decades.  Perhaps Prophet Habbakkuk’s mood is ours: “Though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vines...though the flock is cut off from the fold...yet I will rejoice in the Lord”, for the progress that has been made. 

As Father Jim Loughran, Director of Graymoor’s Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, where the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity began in 1908: “Christian Unity is already a reality in so many ways: In our common proclamation of scriptures, in our united belief in the trinity, in our binding Dogma of Christ as Savior & God Incarnate...In the Sacrament of Baptism, and yes, in our belief that the world will be transformed by the 2nd coming.”

As prophet Habbakkuk proclaims: “God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, and makes me tread upon the heights” of the ecumenical movement that together will lead us to full communion with each other at the table of the Lord – Eucharistic Hospitality.  Faith in God keeps ecumenical hope alive.

The theme for the 2012 week of prayer for Christian unity, chosen by the Christian Churches and communities of Poland, “We will all be changed by the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ,” is taken from the 1st letter of Paul to the Corinthians.

We will need as individual Christians and Denominations to die to certain customs, traditions to rise to full unity. The present moment in the church is not all there is nor should be.  “Where is your victory, O Death,” of disunity?  “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

Dr. & St. Teresa of Avila puts it perfectly: We pray (like this afternoon) as if everything depended upon God; we work (like in the coming days & weeks) as if everything depended upon us.  It is like the agreement between the W.L.F. & the R.C.C. on justification, the dividing issue for Martin Luther: it is faith manifested through works, not either faith or works.

As we pray and work together on the path to full unity, again we look to that Ecumenical pioneer, BL. John XXIII, quoting St. Augustine: “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, diversity; in all things, charity.”

In the Gospel proclaimed in today’s service, we heard Jesus tell us that “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the Earth and dies, it remains just a single grain” – one congregation/ one denomination – “But if it dies,” to sin, selfishness, self-righteousness, self-sufficiency, Satan – “it bears much fruit” as the one, united Church of our Lord Jesus Christ!  “Those who love their life” in their narrow circle of church – “Lose it” but “whoever serves Me,” Christ, “Must follow Me”, the church’s one foundation, Jesus Christ, our way, our truth and our life to the one church He wills.

Allow me to end by again quoting EP. BP. William Love: “I pray that our Lord will pour out His Holy Spirit, guiding, empowering and blessing each of us as we go forth in His name sharing the love and good news of Jesus Christ.”
Amen

Photos by Pat Hendrick