It’s the friendship, they said – that’s what binds us. The head knowledge is one thing: we are all the Body of Christ, and unity is what Jesus wants. The joy of growing together in relationships is another.

In late March I travelled west, initially at the invitation of Dalby Churches Together, who had asked me to speak at their monthly meeting. It gave me a great opportunity to keep going – to Chinchilla, Roma, and (on the way back) Miles, with a detour to Wandoan. The trip took five days.

Everywhere I went, the people I met with emphasized what a gift it was to come together in worship and friendship. Right now, with some of those communities affected directly by the floods, those bonds will provide some desperately needed support.

Dalby Churches Together
Dalby Churches Together was a real surprise. These keen people – they are from the Anglican, Catholic, Lutheran and Uniting churches – meet every month on a Wednesday evening. The member churches take turns to host the gathering. First they share a meal – and the rule is that people sit at mixed tables, not just in their own groups. The meal is followed by announcements, then a service in the host church (this time it was the Lutheran Church). After that they hold their meeting with a speaker and discussion. There were approximately forty people at the gathering. Some of them have to travel quite a distance to get home, so their motivation must be high.

I told them about QCT, explaining that we were all – they too – part of the bigger ecumenical picture. I spoke about the beginnings of the ecumenical movement in the mission movement and the concern of churches at the time to be a credible witness to the world by working together in mission. During WWII it looked as if the careful ecumenical endeavours that had been building up since WWI had been shattered – yet it turned out that the war increased the sense of urgency for churches particularly in Europe and North America to work together after the war. The World Council of Churches was set up in 1948. There has been close collaboration with the Roman Catholic Church ever since (e.g. Week of Prayer for Christian Unity). In other words, I told them, it may sometimes look as if our ecumenical endeavours are threatened by circumstance or a lack of will, but it is God who gives the growth.

Chinchilla
In Chinchilla the group that gathered in the Anglican Church was small (you can see some of them pictured, with Rev. Val Graydon in the centre), but they were passionate about seeing churches work together. They seemed to think nothing was really happening – but as they listed their ecumenical endeavours, I wondered if they realized how much they were actually doing: celebrating the Anglican-Catholic Covenant together in 2009; sharing a Good Friday service; a combined Christmas Carols event; a combined blessing of pets; ecumenical pastoral care; combined services when a commemoration is called for in the town; and in late 2009, a combined service of healing for those who had experienced loss or grief.

With Rev. Val Graydon (Anglican priest) I drove down to the local weir as evening was approaching. As the clouds shuffled together and parted again, there was a dramatic alternation of light and darkness. I can understand people who do not wish to move to the city. Yet the floods of the past week have illustrated the precariousness of life in the west.

Churches and community in Roma
In Roma it was good to see some familiar faces – people whom I had met there five years ago or met at ecumenical gatherings since then. Roma Combined Churches, which brings together almost all the denominations in the town, is an active group and anchored firmly in the community. They organize the annual Mayor’s Breakfast every year on Maundy Thursday, hold monthly prayer meetings, get together for the World Day of Prayer service each March, combine for services on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and hold a Carols night together. This was not the first ecumenical group to tell me they had realized it was time to spend a few more hours together simply socializing. They saw that cultivating relationships is a key element in bringing about Christian unity.

I wonder how the churches are involved together now in Roma, when the clean-up is in full swing after the floods.

Miles – and their own covenant
It was a pleasure to stop for the night in Miles. Rev. Kathy and Jack Hammer were my hosts, along with Shadow (the cat) and Lulu (the dog, who seemed to have a permanent smile on her face). Lulu loves attending church. Jack said, “When I am preaching and I start to ramble on a bit she comes up beside me and starts chasing her tail.” I had no chance to test the veracity of that statement because I myself delivered the sermon on Sunday morning. I suppose it says something for the sermon that Lulu did not join me at the lectern.

Apart from the Anglican Church in Miles there are three other churches: Catholic, Lutheran and Presbyterian. Rev. Kathy Hammer writes:
“On the 31st May, 2009, to affirm the re-signing of the Covenant between the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba, a local covenant was signed between Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church and St Luke’s Anglican Church.  As the parishioners of both denominations have been sharing Ecumenical worship and study for many, many years it was decided that the two denominations would sign a covenant reflecting the terms of the covenant signed by the Heads of the Churches but translated into practice at the local level.  Currently, the Anglicans and the Catholics worship together every fifth Sunday and take it in turns to worship in each other’s church and to create relevant and caring liturgies.  While the local Lutheran Church has been invited to join in with the Anglicans and Catholics on these Sundays, as yet they have not accepted the invitation, but we are looking forward to worshipping with them.  The only other denomination in Miles is the Presbyterian, but at this stage, they have advised us that it is not convenient for them to be part of this shared worship.  The Anglicans and the Catholics also share Lenten and Advent Studies, Palm Sunday March, youth activities and as many activities as possible. “

At the close of the service at St Luke’s on Sunday morning, 28th February, a framed copy of the Covenant between the Miles Anglican and Catholic churches was hung in the church. It was a great privilege to be part of that act.

Strong bonds in Wandoan
“You will notice that the UCA church is marked with a cross and is in a very aptly named street for your memory to retain,” wrote Wandoan resident Rodney Patch when he sent me a map of the town. I was to speak at 10:30am on Sunday morning in the Uniting Church. The church turned out to be in Hamlyn Street. And yes, there is a connection. The first ones to travel from England in that line were Primitive Methodists, I am told.

About twenty people – Uniting, Lutheran, Catholic - gathered after the service, which on the board outside the church is called “Uniting-Lutheran worship”. And that’s what it is. The Lutherans sold their church building and moved in with the Uniting Church, providing a pastor to take services. Now that pastor has left, but the two congregations regard themselves as one, so they endeavour to find retired ministers of either denomination to take worship each week. They could do with a little prayer. Nevertheless their enthusiasm is remarkable. Older members of both congregations marvel at what is now possible, considering what it used to be like years ago. The fellowship, they all emphasize, motivates them to accept the differences that still exist. And there are added benefits: a church musician praised the joining of the two congregations because it strengthened the hymn-singing.

The meeting was called by the group that has adopted the name of Wandoan Churches Together, in which the Uniting/Lutheran members participate. It was a long meeting, full of lively discussion and sharing. I listened to their stories of the journey, stories of discovery, of learning how to worship ecumenically, rejoicing in the witness that this brings, stepping out boldly with churches that are quite different from their own (the Presbyterian Church and the Assemblies of God are also involved), noting setbacks at times but learning to talk about these. The purpose of the group is to prepare joint services in the Civic Centre every fifth Sunday of the month. The denominations take turns in organizing the service, providing someone to speak each time. As in other places, I saw that organizing worship that is truly ecumenical is one of the most challenging and yet rewarding undertakings for churches working together.

Wandoan and mining
One major hurdle facing Wandoan as a whole is the start of a big new mining venture, for which successively properties are being resumed. Some families have already left the town, and more will follow. A community that has held together for generations is being torn apart. Strange how we hear relatively little about these big new coal-mining ventures in the media – or have I missed something?

Driving back through the little town of Warra, and in other parts of that area, I saw too how the locals are protesting against the destruction of good agricultural land for mining. Do we know the extent of how Queensland is changing?

Bonds that last
I drove back with a sense of being blessed. These people have courage. They try things. They want to learn. Some of the people I spoke to in the towns I visited had undertaken several courses of ecumenical studies. It is so obvious in small towns that there is no alternative to Christian unity, and they want to underpin their ecumenical efforts with good theology and understanding. When I see how busy people are in many community activities, I find this engagement humbling.

It’s the friendships – yes, that is what I too experienced, and I am grateful for the richness of the encounters I had along the way. Queensland Churches Together is richer for it, as I am – and I hope the links will bear fruit for a long time.