“An Ecumenical Service in Commemoration of the Festivals of Reformation and All Saints” -- that was the title given to a significant ecumenical event at Saint James United Methodist Church Sunday evening.

The event was just what the title said, a joint celebration of two feasts from Protestant and Catholic traditions - Reformation Sunday and All Saints’ Day.

The service was sponsored by five Northside congregations: Oglethorpe Presbyterian Church, Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, Peachtree Road Lutheran Church, Saint James United Methodist Church, Saint Martin-In-The-Fields Episcopal Church.

A congregational crowd of some 650 people from the various churches attended. A 75-voice mixed choir from congregations provided a magnificent musical contribution to the worship service. Under the leadership of Robert Krick, choir-master of Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, the choir offered several stirring hymns, most impressive of which was variants on “A Mighty Fortress” by W. Glen Darst.

Of particular importance for the Catholic community was the fact that Archbishop Thomas A. Donnellan was the preacher of the sermon, having been invited to do so by the Reverend Walter E. Pond, pastor of the Peachtree Road Lutheran Church. The archbishop began his sermon by saying:

“We come together this evening to pray, to join in an Ecumenical service in commemoration of the Festivals of Reformation and All Saints. Two apparently different festivals - from different religious traditions - and yet, in our day, not really separate. In history there were points of a parting of the ways; but for today, here and now, these are different threads from which the fabric of a new history is to be woven, history of unity, a history of coming-together, slowly, thread by thread, in our very midst. Indeed, if its fabric is to be woven at all then we must man the looms of our common faith, our shared hope, our fraternal love, and spin them toward the finished fabric. Our very coming-together tonight marks our shared pain at the divisions among the followers of Christ, but also our common hope that we can move toward that unity so ardently prayed for by Christ Himself.” Quoting from the Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism, he added:

“‘Christ summons the Church, as she goes her pilgrim way, to that continual reformation of which she always has need insofar as she is an institution of men here on earth.’”

Referring to the joining of the two themes, Reformation and All Saints, the archbishop said he felt there was a real convergence of ideas in the two and posed two rhetorical questions:

“For what is reformation today, if not the energetic visionary effort of the Church of Jesus Christ renewing itself by the guidance and vitality of the Spirit alive among us.”

“And who are all the saints, but those men and women of prayer, faith and dedication whose example and witness drive us to achieve the same quality of Christian living in our daily lives.” “Therefore, I see a happy blending of themes in this ecumenical observance - a theme of renewal and a theme of personal witness so essential to that renewal.”

Noting the Council’s imaging of the Church as a “Pilgrim People,” the archbishop reminded the group of the traveling, ecumenically, that remains: “Any experienced traveler knows that there are certain discomforts, certain inconveniences to be taken for granted. The secret of good traveling is always to remember that you are a traveler; that you are not at home. We are still on pilgrimage, still on the way, not yet arrived at the fullness of life that is to be ours as Christians. And bound up in the very process of pilgrimage toward this fullness is the dynamic of renewal, the challenge of change, the pain of passing over, into new and startling pastures where He, Our Shepherd, gives us not simply green grass for our resting place but also living water to refresh us for our journey.”

“The dynamic of renewal is a part of our lives as human beings; it is all the more important as part of our lives as Christians because it is the framework within which the Spirit can clarify our vision, sharpen our insight, and deepen our understanding of how, as part of God’s creation, we can grow into God’s people.”

Elaborating further on the need to keep moving ahead ecumenically, the archbishop pointed out that:

“The People of God then, must face up to the fact that they can never build lasting monuments to their particular success as believers, but instead must be willing to pitch the temporary tents of a pilgrim people, whose only certainty on the march is the Lord who dwells in their camp, it is the Lord who charts their journey, it is the Lord who sets the pace of their progress.” Such a process of change and renewal presupposes the active influence of the Holy Spirit, the archbishop stated, citing the Second Vatican Council.

Decree On The Church

“Still in pilgrimage upon Earth, we trace in trial, under oppression, the paths He trod. Made one with His suffering, we endure with Him that with Him we may be glorified. In order that we may be increasingly renewed in Him, He has shared His Spirit Who. - vivifies, unifies and moves the whole body.”

Shifting to his second theme of personal witness, the archbishop referred to the human need for encouragement and the strengthening example of those around us and emphasized that this was precisely the reason for celebrating the Feast of All Saints.

“The vitality of the Christian message has emerged in the lives of some men and women more forcefully than in others. By reason of their unflagging faith, their vibrant hope, their sacrificial love, they translated that message into the everyday language of lives like yours and mine. They demonstrated by the witness of their lives that they were ready to break camp and move on from the warm fires of merely mediocre living and expose themselves to the chilly roads ahead where a committed faith demanded a toll of pain and sacrifice. They took the Gospel as their standard and stood tall - with Christ formed in them.”

“Were they perfect? No, they simply tried to be. The beacon light of their lives affords us a glimpse of what is possible for us for they were men and women - not Gods. They were men and women who saw clearly that as individuals, and as Church, they must continually outgrow themselves in order to reach the full maturity of Christ. They were men and women who were willing to risk directing their lives by something as unselfish, as demanding, as paradoxical as the Gospel reading we heard tonight - namely, the Beatitudes. This pattern of values moved them to work to better the human conditions in which they and their less fortunate brothers lived out the divine gift of their faith.” Summing up his sermon in a prayerful closing, the archbishop said: “May God the Father grant us the insight and the wisdom, the courage and the faith - to see that renewal of the Christian Church demands renewal of ourselves, the Christian people. May He grant us the strength to imitate the saints. A Church in America composed of saints can achieve our intentions. Holy lives, charitable speech, kind actions - these are the means by which the Church is renewed and the saints imitated. Be conscious of your God-given responsibility: ‘Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth.’”

An offering taken up during the service was to be given to “Concerned Churches - Lynwood,” an ecumenical assistance group operating to help improve conditions in Lynwood Park, a poverty stricken area in DeKalb County.