Praying in Unity: Steward's Praying the Lord's Prayer

In the days leading up to the CEC assembly we, the stewards, were not just introduced to each other, but also participated in a number of ecumenical activities. One of the activities that we in small groups had to arrange together was the morning worship service. But how do you create a worship service together when you are separated by cultural and doctrinal borders? Should we focus on the things we agree on (convergence), essentially avoiding the classical theological controversies surrounding worship service, or rather talk about things we do disagree over, but attempt a compromise?
The approach of the stewards cannot so be “systematically categorized”. In observing the steward’s planning of morning's worship service one might be tempted to characterize it as "slightly chaotic". It was however not the sort of chaos from which tears, disagreements or resentment would “blossom”, but instead the end result was a fruitful and engaging one for all of us, I feel.
A group of 6-8 stewards with different or similar denominational background would come together to arrange the morning service. There was no moderators, no red tape, just intention. The steward services included typically, song, biblical readings, reflection, various symbolic gestures, silence and, here I get to my point, the Lord’s Prayer.
Vaterunser, Tatăl nostru, Isä meidän, Notre Père, Pater noster, Fadervor … and so on, or simply, in English, the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer, which was common to all of us, was a genuine example of a “unity in diversity”. Language separated us, but the prayer united us.
Never having prayed in this way it dawned on me the first time we prayed together that not only were we “simply” worshiping God, but in fact this was an “ecumenical activity”. It tied us together. I suppose I had imagined that “ecumenical progress” constituted officials meeting other officials, staff meetings, treaties, etc., that is that ecumenism is an activity enjoyed by the ecclesiastical authorities and the people just follow their church. Ecumenism is an activity enjoyed by all people, but the lay people especially, when they do get together, seem to achieve greater results at times than the ecclesiastical authorities, because the latter, at times, fancy doing “doctrinal border-patrolling” than actual ecumenical work…
Regardless there is plenty of hope for ecumenism if we look at the stewards of 2009 and for CEC. The stewards of today I hope will be the delegates of tomorrow.
Christian Bogh.
Stud. Teol. Uni of Copenhagen,

laudate...

Laudate, omnes gentes, laudate Dominum!

...Short, clear, concise. One message, one simple tune filling the room as the stewards of the 13th CEC Assembly stand up to praise the Lord at the evening prayer session.
The Assembly itself still lies ahead and the stewards are getting to know eachother, preparing for the upcoming busy days. Expectations, hopes, and also fears.
Laudate... the melody flows on and on. Whatever disagreements we may have had to face throughout the discussion that preceded, the voices have now all joined in one gentle chant. This moment, to me, is unity at its best.
The feeling of peace and understanding, however, is amplified just by the above mentioned: the different views that have come to light during the discussion.
Contemplating a Biblical text or quotations taken from famous philosophers and writers, one suddenly realizes that the word "tradition" bears quite different connotations for an orthodox and for a protestant. That the words one considers crucial for a text's message may indeed differ from the "key words" somebody else has underlined.
Listening and opening one's mind to these unexpected differences brings - an unexpected insight. And an unexpected pleasure when hearing the voices first collide in possible conflicts and then join in common praise.

The assembly has just begun.
Our expectations, hopes and fears are about to be fulfilled, turned into new experiences, or maybe prove totally wrong and inadequate.
In any case, one of the hopes of the steward currently sitting at the computer and writing up this blog has much to do with the paragraphs above. The feeling of unity, or if not, of a genuine attempt to reach it, only comes with true discussion: talks which do not only concern topics we all agree on. May the debates be lively, touch controversial topics, may they go deep and not try to avoid potential problems.
And may the evening prayers be filled with the spirit of the One common Hope, which remains One, however distant the various approaches may seem.