For many years a major tension has existed in the Catholic charismatic renewal (CCR) between, on the one hand, the need for the renewal to be authentically Catholic and to contribute in a significant way to the renewal of the Catholic Church, and, on the other hand, to do justice to the ecumenical character of the charismatic movement from its beginnings and to realize its major potential for Christian unity.
Both concerns have a fundamental legitimacy. From this angle, the tension is necessary.
In this article I suggest ways to maintain this tension so that neither tendency takes over from the other: either the unity concern becomes so dominant that the need for CCR as an identifiable expression of charismatic renewal is called into question, or the concern to be Catholic leads to an ignoring or playing down of its ecumenical character and potential. |