At Faith and Light, we began walking the ecumenical path to respond to the needs of people with disabilities in our communities—people who belonged to different Christian and religious traditions. They called us to discover how to help them fully participate in community life while deepening their own faith traditions, and how to celebrate certain feasts together as one family.
My understanding grew through many encounters and deep friendships with men and women from different Christian denominations.
Luke's Gospel tells us that Jesus marveled at the faith of the Roman centurion who asked him not to trouble himself but simply to speak a word so his servant would be healed: "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith!" (Luke 7:6-9). Jesus admired this man's faith and the Father's work within him. It was as if Jesus discovered a new dimension of the mission the Father had entrusted to him, and he was struck by it. I too have often marveled at the faith in Jesus, the love for Jesus, and the fidelity to the Holy Spirit I have witnessed in the hearts of men and women from Christian churches and communities different from my own.
In the early 1970s, I participated in an ecumenical retreat in Northern Ireland. There were about sixty of us—roughly thirty from Methodist and Presbyterian churches and thirty from the Catholic Church.
On the last day, a Presbyterian deaconess said: "Last evening I spoke with a Catholic nun. I was surprised to discover that she too loves Jesus." Then she added: "I think she loves Jesus more than I do!" The humility of this woman struck me deeply. She seemed filled with the Holy Spirit.
These moments of wonder shifted me from a closed vision—my Church is the only one, the others have no value—to a recognition of the Holy Spirit's work in other churches and Christian communities. Through these encounters, I came to see how profoundly people like this deaconess and the members of her community are sources of grace and instruments of the Holy Spirit for me, as for all of us.
When we enter into God's heart and his love for each of us, we discover that working for unity and peace is a mission entrusted to us by Jesus: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20:21).
Jesus sends us to work for this unity among peoples and among Christians. This mission belongs to us both as individuals and as communities of faith. The particular mission of the Ark and of Faith and Light is to create communities where people with disabilities can discover the Good News of Jesus—not because they belong to one church or another, but because they belong to Jesus. In community, they discover this Good News, which helps them find new inner freedom, liberation from fear, greater trust in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and the ability to love their brothers and sisters with forgiveness and compassion.
Every disciple of Jesus, each of us, is called to take part in this mission of Jesus. God is wounded by divisions and oppression, by hatred and war. God is wounded by lies and the absence of truth. Everything that diminishes or destroys life comes from the spirit of evil. Everything that gives life and serves life comes from God, because God is the God of life. To follow Jesus means to share in this life-giving mission and to work for peace and unity.
The Faith and Light Ecumenical Commission
In 1998, the international ecumenical commission of Faith and Light was created. It consists of seven members (Catholic, Orthodox, Methodist, and Anglican) from England, Argentina, Switzerland, France, Russia, and Zimbabwe.
The commission's task is to remind every Faith and Light community worldwide of the importance of ecumenism: in initiatives, in documents, in formation sessions, in retreats. It invites everyone—even those living in countries where one confession predominates—to recognize the importance of living ecumenism within the movement and to pray earnestly for the unity of Christians.