Letter from the President of CTIS, Rev. Mark Thomas.
I have always believed strongly in the cause of Christian unity, and it has been a great privilege to take over the Chair of CTIS. I have enjoyed working with the Executive, and I am grateful to them and to all of you for your support. Having this responsibility has forced me to consider what the first principles of our movement are - what are we for? - and I want to share my thoughts with you in this short report.
Our unity does not take its origin from the fact that we should be aiming to do things in the same way, but from the fact that there is one call to us from God our Father in Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4). We are called therefore to seek to be a sign in the world of the love and life of God who calls us - God the Holy Trinity; our calling as Christians in Shrewsbury is to be a visible sign of the love and fellowhip that flows between the three persons of God. The core belief, the touchstone of Churches Together is the Trinity, and we must challenge fellow Christians who seek to divide us on the basis of other Christian doctrines, for example the purpose of Good Friday and the Cross, about which it is quite legitimate to hold different views
Because we don't have to worry about matters of fabric and finance like our constituent churches, we are freed to concentrate on our core tasks, which are not to agree with one another about everything or to do things in the same way, but rather to speak the truth in love, to grow to maturity, and to look outwards in love to a divided and wounded world. Mutual learning is at the core of all ecumenical ventures, and the task of growing to maturity which Paul speaks about in Ephesians 4 is something we are called towards always in company with others. So the more opportunities we provide for fellowship, discussion and learning the better. But we are also called to look out: our divided and wounded world needs a Church that is striving towards reconciliation and unity, and needs to see our unity in Christ if it is to believe (John 17). The major challenges the world faces - climate change, terrorism, wealth and poverty, family life and its break up etc - need a reconciled church and an ecumenical outlook.
So I welcome the news that the news that the Shrewsbury Christian Centre Association (of which CTIS is the parent body) has found a new premises and is planning to open a day centre in December for the homeless and others on the margins of society, and I am confident it will have the practical and financial support of member churches and of you as individuals. And as I welcome the Revd Derrick Lander, the new Methodist Minister of St John's Hill, I continue to welcome the opportunities for working together between our two churches that using the same building provides. Those are both powerful Christian witnesses to this town.
I have been granted a Sabbatical between January and March next year, but look forward to taking up the cause of Christian unity again with all of you when I return. The Executive has set CTIS the challenge of putting together a mission statement at its first meeting of 2008, and I hope that these thoughts might feed into that important task.
Mark Thomas. October 2007