Silence Is Better

Many Churches in this sense imply many Lords, many Spirits, many Gods.  There is no question about it: to the degree to which Christendom exists in Churches which are really different and opposed to each other, to that degree she is denying in practice what she acknowledges in theory, the unity and uniqueness of God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost.

Whatever good reasons there may be for the beginning of such schisms, whatever serious obstacles there may be to ending them, whatever interpretations and extenuations may be made of them, nothing alters the fact that every schism is as such a dark riddle, a scandal.

And in regard to this scandal, the whole of Christendom ought at least to be one in this, that we can think of it only as a constant subject of repentance, and not, on any of our parts, a repentance to be expected from others, but one in which we are willing to go meet the others, cost what it may.

Anyone who is prepared to come to terms with schism in the Church, anyone capable of being at ease with it, anyone to whom the sight of the obvious faults and errors in the other side, and hence their responsibility for it, provides a reason for being tranquil about it, may be a good, loyal believer in some sense that belongs to his particular denomination — a good Roman or Calvinist or Orthodox or Baptist– but he must not think that he can possibly be a good Christian.