Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, Since Pete was kind enough to post the earlier messages to the list, and also got the whole flow of discussion started with Bro. Mario for starting an International prayer group website for people to pray specifically for International, Interdenominational World Wide Christian Unity, I thought I would post the follow-up message as well. As Pete said, it *is* a wonderful thing for the kind of spiritual Christian unity in love we agree together in here on the list. I also thought I would put the messages in forward order using some sofware I have that removes carats > and unnecesary carriage returns, just to make them easier to read, as well as an earlier message, so you could see the gist of the thing in forward order, reading from top down. Again, thanks to Pete, for getting it all started, and like Pete said, "Awesome!" Love in Jesus, Tim *********************************************** - ---- Original Message ----- From: "Br Mario Attard OFMCap" <macglobal@...> To: <cuprayer@...> Sent: Saturday, November 02, 2002 6:27 PM Subject: Peace my brother Tim My brother Tim: May God's loving peace be with you! I thank the Lord for your Spirit filled e-mail you wrote to me. I firmly agree with you that we are after via this global prayer group for christian unity is a "spiritual Christian unity in love". That is and must be the primary objective of the group. That is what is called the spiritual ecumenism. The excellent way how Jesus of the bible is to be experienced is exactly to this type of christian unity, the unity in spirt and in one accord with the One and the same Spirit who works in all Christians, irrespective of denomination, believes, dogmas. Via this group a space should be given to all those who cherish this desire for Christian unity to experience this loving fellowship and reconciliation, which only God offers, via prayer. Hence, by their unity in prayer, they are already living the mystery of the Church, the body of Christ, through the unity of the same Holy Spirit who unites them together. Another suggestion I would add to this global prayer group for Christian Unity is that of organizing a one week conference every year in different country on an aspect of the spiritual heritage of each denomination.For instance, one may choose the theme of faith, and delve deeper into it during that week. This kind of conference will give opportunity for those who are in this group to meet one another, worship together and experience the deep fellowship they experience in prayer via the world prayer group. I know that this is a big thing, but if it is God's idea it will work. God will provide the volunteers. Praise be to his holy name. Now that Pete, Claudia, you Tim and myself agree and are ready to do something about this dream, I suggest that we four fast and pray so that the Lord will continue to show us the way. I also would like to thankyou and congratulate you for your inciteful ideas about how this project would work. I pray that these could be realised in the best possible way be it God's will. My brother may the Lord's peace and love continue to accompany you always. I shall very much appreciate your reactions about what I have written to you, especially the idea of the annual spiritual conference. Till I hear from you, Shalom! Your brother in Christ Bro Mario Attard ******************************************************* Hello Pete, I just had to share this fantastic email with you, especially since you're the one in it from the beginning, and he refers to you and Claudia specifically. I'ts going to take me a day or two just to put into words how terrific this email makes me feel, and I bet it does the same for you, doesn't it? We finally found another brother in Christ who's as nuts about this kind of Christian unity as we are! We may have some minor differences here and there, but so far he seems to be in full agreement with the kind of Christian unity we believe in. Is this awesome, or is it just me! I'm just floored! Thanks again, Pete, I appreciate so much, for you responding so well to establish good relations for us both with this great brother in Christ! I think the Spirit will soon move all through this thing with power none of us can imagine! I had to share it with you now, Bro' just so you could enjoy it with me! And of course, I'll copy you and Claudia with my response to him when I get it ready, so maybe we can all keep a three way conversation going in the future. Love in Jesus, Bro', Tim ******************************************************* My dear brother Mario, Praise God for the fantastic work of His Holy Spirit in all our brothers and sisters in Christ! Your last email makes our spirits just soar together in the Lord! It took me a while, Mario, to find the words to try to say how good your email makes me feel, and I know Pete feels the same. We both know that this is a wonderful step in the right direction toward Unity in the Body of Christ, for all followers of Jesus, in all denominations, or non-denominations, home Churches, home gatherings, street preachers, ALL members of the Body of Christ. To find a brother in Christ, such as yourself, a man of God and member of the Catholic clergy, who is just as excited as we are about the cause of spiritual Christian unity in love, is one of the best rewards I know of in many years of considering the subject. I don't know exactly what form it will eventually take for all of us, but it is a tremendous joy now to see each gift of the Spirit, such as yourself, that comes to us along the way as it develops. I know that your contact with us is a great gift from God, and I pray that we may all fulfill His will in working together, by the power His Spirit in each of us. Pete and I are so elated at your great message, we wanted to share it with the folks on the Christian Unity email list in which we are involved together, and so took the liberty of sending your terrific email response for them to read as well: https://associate.com/digests/christianunity/ We're a small email list of about 40 persons, many of whom are vitally interested in such spiritual Christian unity in love. At least two are Catholics that I know of, and may be several more. It might be good to note here that we pray that there is nothing on our list that should be offensive either to Catholics, Protestants, or any other Christian group. For the purpose of Christian unity, we ask, for instance, those who require the sacrament of baptism to forgive those who do not require it as such, and we ask those who believe in "faith plus nothing", to forgive those who do require some form of baptism, especially since Jesus forgave us all while we were yet in our sins. Our intent is not to resolve or "preach" that issue of water baptism one way or the other, but simply to start together at a point of common understanding, in our shared belief to repentance in Jesus of the Bible, which all Christians do understand to be required for the Spirit of Christ to be in us in the first place. We tried to cover that in an acceptable way to all in our Christian unity statement of faith, developed with significant input by both Catholics and others on the list. Excerpt: * to forgive all our brethren in Christ of their failure to understand and agree with us fully in the truth of any further Christian doctrine than that described and agreed to here in this Statement, while we reserve the right to teach and promote any and all truth of God as we understand it, including that which we may believe to be additionally required for salvation, (such as water baptism, etc) or any other doctrine as we deem fit to edify the body, speaking the truth always in love; and, The whole document is here: https://associate.com/digests/christianunity/files/stmt/StmtCU.htm But we don't know their group or denomination unless someone just happens to mention it in the course of discussions. We all believe in spiritual Christian unity in love, in the word, name, and blood of Jesus, and so as long as we're Christian by those means, we just don't care what denomination or other group one might belong to. Most of the conversation on the list is initiated by Pete and myself, without a lot of discussion. There's a reason for so little discussion. I just don't do much to stimulate conversations right at this time. It has to do with my writing. For the last year or so, I've been involved in a writing project, which is still in progress, writing an update to the Christian Unity Prophecy, which includes both the subject of spiritual Chrisitan unity in love, as well as my interpretation of "prophecy of the scripture" regarding end times events related to Christian unity. This writing project has resctricted the time I have available to try to stimulate, or even participate in much discussion on the list, or for me to work on other efforts for Christian unity, a number of which I have in mind to do, including a considerable rework of the websites I'm involved in. As I've mentioned to others several times, I feel as if a portion of my life is on hold, as I try to avoid other distractions, even those for Christian unity, in order to focus on the effort at hand to finish the Christian Unity Prophecy update effort. But your email about a world wide Christian unity prayer website is a wonderful ray of light that brightens all I see for spiritual Christian unity in love, and thrills my heart to no end. Pete has already started a website using an available free online guestbook system, although we may have some reservations about using that particular guestbook long term, due to some of the limitations of the host involved. Still, it is a good start and shows what can be done with an investment of time, but not much money. http://guestbooks.christiansunite.com/view.cgi?u=pjrcmr We are especially excited, Mario, with your suggestion of a yearly meeting for world wide spiritual Christian unity in love. What a thrill that would be! You're right, it's a big thing, but it's not too big for our Lord, and it's so wonderful to hear from a brother in Christ who believes in spiritual Christian unity in love so much as to suggest such a fantastic occurence. I know Pete and I would be beside ourselves to participate in such a gathering, and I suspect that several of our list members would feel the same way. As the old saying says, Mario, "from your mouth to God's ears", may the Lord make it so someday. It would be nothing short of marvelous! Zechariah 4:10 For who hath despised the day of small things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the LORD, which run to and fro through the whole earth. I'm going to copy Pete with this email, Mario, and I hope you feel free to do the same, in reply, although Pete and I would also be glad to hear from you privately if you prefer. We just want you to know that for any subject that might involve us all, we are perfectly comfortable with a sort of three-way email conversation if you like. Also, I am posting at least this reply to our christianunity email list, because I know some there will be just as elated to see this situation develop as we are. For the time being, I know we all join you, Mario, in prayers for what we should do next to further this effort for spiritual Christian unity in love. I must admit it's been some months since I fasted for Christian unity, and it is a truly good idea. I also admit I haven't started fasting on this yet, but I will join you in that effort also in the not-too-distant future. But know that we are all truly, truly joyous here, Mario, to hear of your interest and agreement with us in spiritual Christian unity in love. May God continue to bless you in all you do for His glory, that we may all be one in Him, who is the Father's eternal love to all who believe to repentance in Jesus of the Bible. Love in Jesus, Brother, Tim ************************************************