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January 20th, 2008

That which unites us

that which unites us

This is my drawing for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a special 8 day week which is currently taking place. The Churches Together in Britain and Ireland site has links to pamphlets and the BBC has a picture showing how doves are involved. Notably the week is 100 years old this time around, meaning that there will have been a total of 808 days of prayer for Christian unity, assuming that they started it on the 8 day basis and have continued ever since (I must confess to having done limited research).

Talking of unity, I have come to the conclusion that the current Anglican difficulties to do with sexuality are as of nought compared with the most pressing contentious issue of the day we face, that of Family Services. Thank you for your comments here and elsewhere by the way – really thought provoking and sincerely appreciated.

It seems to me that your response to the thorny family service issue depends upon a number of factors including but not limited to:

In a way I am pleased that you all think so differently. It shows that this site has a diverse readership, and for that I am grateful.

[By the way, please feel free to reuse this cartoon on your blog with a link. If anyone would like to reuse it anywhere else let me know and I'll post the high res version on the main site.]

20 Comments »



This is a single Cartoon Blog entry, posted by Dave on Sunday, January 20th, 2008 at 6:07 pm.

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20 Responses to “That which unites us”


  1. Ann says:

    I love this one – it could apply to most of life.

    January 20th, 2008 at 6:28 pm
  2. Sarah B says:

    Great cartoon for dyslexics!

    January 20th, 2008 at 8:15 pm
  3. joe says:

    I’m not sure that unity is desirable. There, I said it.

    Either we get into a fight where those with the biggest voices get to dictate to everyone else what unity means (on their terms) or we end up with a soggy mess where nobody really talks about their theology with passion as people might, well, disagree.

    What is so bad about believing different things?

    January 20th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
  4. Jean Wyber says:

    Tell me, were we united in not knowing the tunes we sang some of the hymns to in Westminster Abbey on Friday?

    January 20th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
  5. Easter Dates says:

    As an individual you can take a small step towards Christian Unity at http://www.onedate.org.

    It is an on line petition to unite the date of Easter that Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox would celebrate this Feast of Feasts all on One Date.

    January 21st, 2008 at 1:36 am
  6. Matt W says:

    >It is an on line petition to unite the date of Easter that Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox would celebrate this Feast of Feasts all on One Date.

    That I think is part of the problem.

    Red herrings, and imagining that they matter.

    January 21st, 2008 at 9:59 am
  7. Phelim McIntyre says:

    Oops – I am dyslexic and read the small section as unites and put a dis in front of the unites for the big section. When I was at college I had a wonderful lecturer who said “I have no problem with people disagreeing with me as long as they know what they are talking about”. In too much of what unties us the problem is people not knowing what they are talking about (just following the popular voice) and not listening to those who disagree. If people listened and actually researched their own viewpoint to know the facts what unties us would not be so devestating.

    January 21st, 2008 at 10:11 am
  8. Hilary says:

    I have just got back from a toddler service based on the story of the good Shepard and the lost sheep. We finished with a lost sheep hunt with about thirty sheep hiding around the church. The toy sheep were provided by friends from all the local churches. Christian Unity in action,Children at their best and a Church full of laughter. It was the best way to start the week.

    January 21st, 2008 at 11:55 am
  9. Phil says:

    Unity is desirable. In fact it is essential.

    Not that we act like sheep, dress like Rowan Williams, sing like Stuart Townend etc but that no matter where churches/individuals stand on various “secondary” theologies we know that Christ died for us. And more importantly, He died for the people on the housing estate just next to our church and he died for the people in the massive houses up the road with massive cars and 14 high definition TVs.

    If we are not united in bringing Christian hope to those around us, the church turns in to a pointless and irrelvant institution.

    January 21st, 2008 at 12:57 pm
  10. joe says:

    I fear we have more basic differences than that, Phil. I recognise others rights to other beliefs and to some extent glory in those differences, but these things are not secondary. I could never recognise the Pope as an authority, for example.

    Why do we pretend that square theology can be neatly cropped to fit round holes?

    January 21st, 2008 at 2:40 pm
  11. confessions of an episcopal grandmother on matters related to communion « seeking spirit says:

    [...] That which unites us [...]

    January 21st, 2008 at 2:56 pm
  12. David Keen says:

    I recently listed 9 of our local churches (4 Anglican, Baptist, Methodist, URC, Independent and house church) and asked the congregation if they could think of anything they agreed on. We struggled. The remarkable thing is that the 1 thing they are agreed on is a mission strategy to our new housing developments.

    I’d be interested to know if there’s anything that unites readers of this blog beyond our love for Dave’s cartoons. Trouble is, there’s roughly 1500 of us a day, so the fieldwork might be a bit tricky.

    I like to think that when we get ourselves in knots over Christian unity God unties us….

    January 21st, 2008 at 3:21 pm
  13. Jan says:

    Dave, this is another great image–which applies to almost every aspect of life. I’ve put it on my blog, and I thank you.

    January 21st, 2008 at 5:17 pm
  14. Phil says:

    All church politics which stops us from spreading the gospel message is surely secondary. And given that we are given a Spirit of unity (see early verses of Ephesians 4) it is something to be strived towards. Not that our human nature will ever allow us to acheive true unity this side of heaven, or that it is easy going.

    I went to a Catholic primary school, attend an Evangelical C of E church, regularly visit a Calvary Chapel (in my university town), am part of an ecumencical CU and sought advice from a Pentecostal minister when a cult group tried to recruit on our university campus. I hate being pigeonholed in to a denomination. What do these churches all have in common? The Bible. The very word of God to humankind. And I despair for David’s town if this cannot unite the churches.

    January 21st, 2008 at 5:38 pm
  15. Easter Dates says:

    >That I think is part of the problem. Red herrings, and imagining that they matter.

    Different Dates
    When Jesus sees Christians celebrating His Passion, Death and Resurrection twice almost every year, in a mystical way Jesus suffers to see such divisions among His Family for which He died and suffered to make them one Family.

    Inspiration for the one Date Site
    In her many visits to hundreds of countries, societies and communities around the world Vassula lets us know that Christ’s greatest desire concerning unity, and one which will also be the key to unity, is the unification of the date of Easter, done in humility and with love. This is echoed in the message of the 24th of October 1994 “My Spirit will bring you together; have you not heard that the East and West will be one kingdom? have you not heard that I shall settle for one date?”

    January 22nd, 2008 at 2:18 am
  16. joe says:

    I don’t accept the bible as the word of God (a title reserved for Jesus himself), so that is a difference to start with.

    January 22nd, 2008 at 8:04 am
  17. David Keen says:

    Phil
    You should come to our town – I’ve rarely seen such a sense of unity and common purpose across such a variety of churches. Maybe what contributes to this is that we’ve never sat down and compared our views on the Bible, worship, church order, cassock length etc. Instead we do stuff together: pray, distribute food to poor families, drink plenty of coffee, play golf, run Alpha courses etc. If we started working out what we all thought about the Bible, we spend centuries in meetings and then never talk to each other again.

    January 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
  18. Phil says:

    David: I agree.

    (General thought…) Maybe the difference is that what we all think about the Bible is different to what it actually says? Let’s work for the Kingdom not argue about it.

    Joe: would you be happier if I’d said words of God? Or are you just a fan of controversy?

    January 22nd, 2008 at 9:37 am
  19. joe says:

    I’m not sure calling Jesus the Word is particularly controversial.

    I can’t be bothered to get into a discussion about biblical exegesis (or whatever the proper theological term is). I’m just pointing out that you’ve highlighted a difference.

    January 22nd, 2008 at 9:58 am
  20. Sue says:

    Re the date of Easter. Although it might be nice in some ways to celebrate on the same date, I bet it would really cause problems in Jerusalem. Perhaps staggering is a good idea.

    January 23rd, 2008 at 9:17 am