Unity not Uniformity

It may come as a surprise to many people to learn that there was only one christian Church for the first thousand years of christianity, and though its sad that there are so many denominations today, I find the Lord working through all the fragmentation and confusion, as there are some strengths in one denomination which are not there in another and also each denominational tradition adds to the myriad hues of the GOOD NEWS. This is because, as I see it, no one denomination can exhaust the infinately different ways in which the Holy Spirit inspires people to present and live the Gospel message in the world of today. Besides, having one super Church would create massive problems for the reordering of all the exizting ecclesiastical structures. Coming to think of it all christians are really one anyway, by are common baptism into Christ. Now, on the lighter side, like it or not, there will be no special enclosures in heaven for all the different denominations.

Finally, there is a lotta work being done for unity between the denominations, especially uniting for mission n evangelisation, so I guess we are infact moving towards unity but the only thing is that we shouldn't be threatened by differences and should rather celebrate them, as we need UNITY not UNIFORMITY, but just to be clear I don't mean that the Anglican Communion is the ideal, as it has its own structural flaws too, but I guess as we continue working and praying together the Holy Spirit will guide us to a model of unity which will come as a surprise to everyone for its beauty and perfection. I think we can already see something of that in Taize where each denomination maintains its identity while coming together as one family in faith. So we must keep praying that the Lords words "that they may all be one" - John 17:11 will one day become visible and the scandal of seperation will end as we are filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.