Vugt: Ecumenism

ECUMENISM can be described as a religious interaction between different Christian churches and denominations. The Catholic Church encouraged the practice of ecumenism during the Second Vatican Council, but after the Council it remained generally a dead letter, at least as far as the Catholic Church in the Philippines is concerned.

My fellow-columnist Ric F. Maulion dedicated his column last September 1 to this idea of ecumenism when he wrote about his participation as a musician in the Music Festival at the occasion of the Silver Anniversary of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI) in Malitbog, Bukidnon. Maulion calls himself a convert to Catholicism. I was struck by the way he related his experience of his ecumenical interaction with the IFI. He said: "I may be Roman Catholic by religious affiliation but it is safe to say I am also an IFI by heart."

I sympathize with Ric Maulion. Recently, I had a similar experience of ecumenical interaction, not with the IFI but with the UCCP. I am an ex priest of the Catholic Church, since I decided to get married and had to leave the priesthood. That means, I am still a priest but I don't exercise anymore my priestly functions, such as saying Mass and distributing the sacraments.

It so happened that the daughter of my sister-in-law wanted to get married and since I couldn't perform the wedding ceremony she invited me to be one of the principal sponsors. Because she was already pregnant (something that happens more often with couples who are in love with each other) the couple decided to have a civil wedding before the judge and to have a wedding in the church after she would have delivered her baby.

The wedding turned out to be very much different from expected. Since the judge was not available because it was a Saturday, they found a Pastor of the United Church of Christ (UCCP) willing to perform the wedding in a venue outside the church. It became an ecumenical wedding. The Pastor and his wife, who is also a Pastor, presided alternately over the wedding ceremony. The exchange of the marital vows was done in a beautiful ceremony in which the whole congregation, including the Pastors, served as witnesses. It turned out to be a grand celebration in close union with the relatives and friends of the bride and the groom.

After the ceremony, I was asked to give my comment on the exceptional celebration and also my advice to the couple. I told them there would be no need for them anymore to have another marriage in the church later. This wedding was much more than just a civil marriage. According to an ancient belief of the Church it is not the priest who administers the sacrament of matrimony but it is the couple themselves that gives the sacrament to each other, while the priest, or anybody else who presides in the wedding ceremony, is only a witness. The principal witness, however, is God himself, who has said: "What God has joined together, let no man put asunder."

Did Christ not say, "Where there are two or three gathered in my name, I am in their midst." What more do you want? Only God can read the real intention of the bride and the groom when they exchange their marital vows. Clearly, they were married before God and certainly they cannot divorce because it was "just a civil marriage". In no way it was.

My advice to the couple was to put into practice what they had just promised to each other. Live your love-life together in your family and show it in practice through a commitment of service to the wider community and society. To the bride in particular, I reminded her of her late father, who had given his life in the service of the people. She never has known her father. He was an active church worker in our parish in San Francisco, Agusan. He became a victim of the infamous Ahos campaign in the years 1985-86 in the mountains near Butuan City. He died as a martyr in the service of the people.

Speaking earlier about the PIC, I remember during the martial law years in Manila, we had a strong ecumenical interaction with the PIC in the anti-Marcos resistance movement. I had a close friend who was a Pastor in the PIC by the name of Gerry Aquino. Gerry met a fatal accident in the middle of the night when he was hit in the head by a tackle block of a big tow truck that was crossing Espana Ave. in front of UST.

He was brought to the hospital in coma and never woke up from it. He died also as a martyr in the service of the people, joining the long list of the nationalist and patriotic heroes of the Philippine Independent Church. Mabuhay sila!

(For your comments email: arnvv@yahoo.com or call: # 851-9809)

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