For the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (January 18–25), the members of the NC Conference Christian Unity and Interreligious Relationships (CUIR) committee are sharing daily devotions rooted in Ephesians 4.

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Day 5 – Ephesians 4:5
One Lord, one faith, one baptism.

Take any quick glance around the world today and one will find an endless supply of divisions. It is within such a divided world that the Church has no option but to bear witness to a different reality, one of unity. And yet, the Church finds itself just as divided, if not more, than the world it inhabits. If we are to take seriously the prayer which Jesus prayed in John 17 that “they may all be one,” we must come to realize Christian unity is not something we must manufacture, but is something we have received as a gift of the Spirit and are subsequently called to inhabit.

Any conception of Christian unity is inherently rooted in our common faith and baptism. The landmark 1982 World Council of Churches’ convergence document, Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry, affirms that “Baptism is the sign of new life through Jesus Christ. It unites the one baptized with Christ and with his people” (B.II.2). As United Methodists, the very first words of our baptismal liturgy attest to this cosmic reality:

Through the Sacrament of Baptism
we are initiated into Christ’s holy Church.
We are incorporated into God’s mighty acts of salvation
and given new birth through water and the Spirit.
All this is God’s gift, offered to us without price.

Baptism incorporates believers not first into a particular confession, but into the Church Universal. Within ecumenism, we often speak of a key conception of unity being one of spiritual unity. That is, that Christian unity is fundamentally a spiritual reality grounded in our shared participation in Christ grounded in baptism. When we focus our attention on the shared identity given to us through baptism, we are able to see beyond confessional boundaries that have historically divided the Church. May it be our prayer that we might live more fully into what we hold in common, trusting that our unity born from the flowing waters of baptism moves with a current stronger than all that which divides us.

A Question to Consider

What collaborative initiatives can our various communities undertake to celebrate our shared faith in Jesus Christ and the unity established through baptism?

Prayer

Spirit of God, and true God,
who descended on the river Jordan, and into the upper-room;
who enlightened us by the baptism of the Holy Font,
we have sinned against Heaven and before you,
purify us again with your divine fire,
as you did the Apostles with fiery tongues.
Have mercy on your creatures and especially on us.
Amen.

~ St. Nersess the Gracious (adapted)

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