It is an interesting concept, and I don’t intend to offer my personal opinion of the matter. However, in recent discussions in which I have participated the term ‘separated brethren’ has surfaced. There are two definitions offered for the term:
- The separation/divisions between members of the universal body of Christ.
- Believers separated from the only true church established by Christ, the Roman Catholic Church.
The first definition is one that ideally should be shared by all believers everywhere, but sadly is not, because of the sin that still resides in human nature and revolves around the unity of the Spirit. The second is different, in that it revolves around the idea of one specific religious organization being the possessor of genuine truth in all matters religious/spiritual and others having some truth, but residing outside the ‘fold’.
The question of Rome’s official position (1 or 2), in the spirit of ecumenism, has been a subject of debate. There is a Christianity Today article here that discusses exactly that, with links to the sources of quotations in the main article. It is worth an objective read.
The greater issue at hand concerning divisions and separations between organizations in the Body of Christ can be summarized in one question:
“What is the Gospel that is preached?”
The answer to that question might answer the question in the title of this blog post, and even goes to ‘Catholics and Catholics Together?’, and ‘Protestants and Protestants Together? There are separations and divisions even within both branches of the Faith.
One thing this old guy knows – there’s coming a day when all believers everywhere will enjoy complete unity of Spirit in the bond of peace!
The Battle Cry 
Amen!!! Let’s face it, we cannot bring the faith’s together, Jesus Christ can, and He will.
At the same time, it is up to us to actively try to reconcile the differences that we have through open discussion and dialogue….
This was a great post….I will read the article when time allows….
God bless…
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I just listened to a series of dialogues between some prominent Protestant theologians concerning the Evangelicals and Catholics Tpgether initiative. The are objective, loving, and very well done. They can be listened to online or downloaded from here. There are multiple sessions within two MP3 files, and worth listening to by both Protestants and Catholics.
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