Faith and Light was born in Catholic soil, at Lourdes, close to Mary. The movement has spread to countries where most people belong to other Christian churches.
In Switzerland, England, the Scandinavian countries, the United States, Canada, Australia, India, and South Africa, Anglican and Protestant communities have emerged. Others are interdenominational.
More recently, Orthodox communities have taken root.
After centuries of division and conflict, Christians of different faiths are beginning to meet. They are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They belong to Jesus and want to follow him. What unites them is far stronger than what divides them!
In Faith and Light's early years, when communities were founded on Catholic faith alone, some Protestant families joined us. They were happy to be part of a real community where their children could be welcomed and find their place. But the Eucharist — the Body of Jesus — the source of unity and love, could sometimes become a source of division. For some, not receiving Communion was unbearable. And people with disabilities struggled to understand the divisions and resistance between different faiths.
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Some communities have moved toward intercommunion. But this is only an apparent solution, since our faith in the Eucharist is not always the same. Unfortunately, divisions still exist on essential matters. It is important that members of each faith remain loyal to the direction of their bishop or leader. For communities whose members come from different faiths, it is necessary to know how to live together everything that can be lived together: times of prayer nourished by God's word, silence, the celebration of baptism we all share, and that love of Jesus lived daily with the poor and with members of our communities. These moments of unity must not prevent members of different faiths from being rooted in their own parishes. An interdenominational community should not become like a new Church; it wants to be a sign of the love and unity that Jesus deeply desires. But at the same time, it also wants its members to live the richness and love of their own Christian traditions.* * *
Other Faith and Light communities are rooted in their own parishes. Whether Catholic, Anglican, or Protestant, these communities will then be nourished by their Church's tradition and receive God's gift through it. As deeper friendship and contact develop between communities belonging to different Churches, we will walk toward that unity to which we all aspire — and the "little ones" in our communities perhaps more than anyone. It is clear that this road will be woven with suffering, misunderstandings, and mistakes. But it matters little if we move forward in the desire of Jesus: "That they may be one." - Jean Vanier, 1990