By Eve Silver

Ecumenism has become a part of Christian life now, but the ultimate goal is unity among all Christians, Msgr. Bernard Law told about 600 worshippers Jan. 27 in the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Philip.

Monsignor Law is presently executive director of the U.S. Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs and a member of the Vatican Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity.

The solemn service at which Monsignor Law was main preacher this year replaced the banquet customary during previous gatherings of the annual council of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta.

"In a sense I think that what we do this evening in the context of this service is a sign of how far we have come," said Msgr. Law. "Because it is not simply a pageant of ecumenical hope, although certainly we are inspired by eternal hope, but rather it's a gathering of Christians, some of us Roman Catholic, some of us Presbyterian, some of us Methodist, some of us Lutheran, joined with many of you who are Episcopalian, begging the Holy Spirit to descend upon the heart and minds of those of you who are charged these days with what should be serious decisions for the Kingdom of God."

Pope Paul VI described the situation that Christians now find themselves as "strange or even absurd" because of disunity, Monsignor Law related.

In terms of the obligation of each individual toward ecumenism, Monsignor Law said, "The infidelity of the individual Christians -- my lack of holiness and your lack of holiness is what blocks the path of Christian unity."

Each individual Christian has the obligation to ask himself what service he is performing to serve the world he lives in," he added. If any man says that he loves God when he doesn't, and he loves his brother when he doesn't -- then this man is a liar.

"We show forth the love of God by the love we have for our fellow man. We are of God's world … We aren't of a black world, we aren't of a brown world, we aren't of a white world, we aren't of the Third World, we aren't of the northern part of the globe or from the southern part of the globe. We are Christ … " Monsignor Law asserted.

A one-sided religion is a disservice to God and one should add dimension to his belief by practicing Christian love, he added.

The ecumenical movement has been so dramatic over the last 10 years, he said, that it no longer "grabs the headlines."

The Catholic Church makes an attempt to establish a certain relationship with Judaism, other major religions, with non-believers and with all humanity, but the ecumenical movement really concerns "Christians of different churches of Communions," he added.