An Oxymoron Sunday

Published: Jan. 29, 2008, 8:31 a.m.

b'In his Epiphany 3 sermon Clay Nelson focuses in on the oxymoron of "Christian Unity." He doesn\'t have much fire in his belly for the Ecumencial Movement but the issue of what is unity catches his interest because of what is happening in American politics and the Anglican Communion. He argues with the notion the unity means conformity.\\n\\n"Some words just shouldn\\u2019t be put together in the same sentence. We call them an oxymoron. All the same I get a kick out of them and so does anyone who enjoys irony. Some of my favourites are \\u201cmilitary intelligence,\\u201d \\u201ccompassionate conservative,\\u201d \\u201ccivil servant,\\u201d and \\u201creligious tolerance.\\u201d This Sunday is dedicated to one of the best of all oxymorons, \\u201cChristian Unity.\\u201d \\n\\nThis year is the 100th anniversary of praying for Christian Unity. In 1908 an Anglican priest and nun in a Franciscan order in a small New York town set aside the 8 days between the feasts of St Peter and St Paul to pray for Christian Unity. Unfortunately for their movement they later converted to Catholicism and the Protestants were no longer interested." Full text at http://www.stmatthews.org.nz/nav.php?sid=448&id=802'