Meditations on Christian Unity
When long-distance sailing, it is the size of the boat that counts. The bigger the boat the greater the surface-area of the sail so the faster you can sail. The bigger the boat the more provisions you can carry so the longer you can sail for. The bigger the boat the bigger the anchor has to be to hold you fast during storms. If life is a voyage, the bigger the boat the further we can go on this voyage. The bigger the boat the bigger the anchor has to be for when we encounter storms, or our troubles in life. As a God-loving boat, our anchor in times of trouble is the biggest: God. Connecting this anchor to our ship is a chain. Fast food chains, chain gangs, daisy-chains, they all have something unifying and the more unified they are the stronger they are; they are only as strong as their weakest link; they are only as long as their diversity.
Now let each link be a particular denomination. Each link starts life as a short steel bar, by itself it is an ineffective anchor link, a link that could perhaps be used in very shallow water or in very small waves. To link to another denomination this short steel bar must be willing to bend a little. Still an individual entity, it has discovered common ground, possibilities of interaction with other links, connecting on a few issues. This unclosed loop is then linked around another loop. Two crocodile clips are attached to either side of the gap in the steel link and 1000 amps of electricity is applied. A huge spark jumps the gap creating an immense heat that melts a little steel on either side of the gap and welds the gap closed. In this stage we see the hand of God, creating and strengthening bonds that would otherwise be impossible. This link is then filed down to smooth any rough edges, a process synonymous with time. As newly unified denominations join hands the relationship is not going to be perfect, but given time the rough edges will disappear and our unity will be strong enough to weather any storm.
The manufacturing process behind chains, the bending, linking, welding and filing away are only commercially viable through teamwork. If a unity of denominations is to succeed in the storms this world is throwing at us, everybody must be part of the team.