Cause for Celebration

Question:What do you call 75 lawyers chained together at the bottom of the ocean?
Answer: A good start!

This is an old and mean-spirited joke, but sometimes I wonder if we should substitute the word lawyers with clergy. We don't always get along and we aren't the best witness as we accentuate our differences rather than celebrating that we are all grafted onto the vine who is Christ.

I am a member of the Bowmanville ministerial which has about fifteen members. We are unusual in that many communities have different ministerials for those of conservative and liberal persuasions. Our group has clergy from the Salvation Army, as well as Presbyterian, Christian Reformed, Baptist, Anglican churches. Although the two United Church congregations have a different theological flavour, both are represented. It means that we don't always see eye to eye and there have been times when I wondered whether it is worth attending.

Today encouraged me. We ate together, visited together, worked together. We agreed that we would hold an ecumenical service celebrating the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January. And that we would adopt a Celebrating Creation Care weekend close to Earth Day in April. Becoming one in Christ is a challenge for congregations, including their pastors and priests but we have recognized the importance of following Christ's lead.

Isn't that cause for celebration?