De facto ecumenism

I've been reflecting on the fact that some of the goals of the ecumenical movement have already been achieved among many evangelical Protestants, and we don't even realize it.

In my experience, it's a common practice for American evangelicals of different denominations to recognize each other as Christians in the fullest possible sense. We generally feel free to visit each other's churches, receive each other's sacraments, recognize each other's pastors and deacons as validly ordained, and have fellowship with each other without worrying about minor differences of belief or practice. Evangelicals have a core set of beliefs about the Trinity, the Bible, salvation, obedience, and eternal life that is remarkably similar from church to church, and even across what have historically been major dividing lines (the charismatic movement comes to mind). Parachurch organizations have often been helpful here, paradoxically perhaps. Although on the one hand they have caused many people to devalue the institutional Church for the sake of "non-churchly" fellowship and action, on the other hand they have helped Christians from different churches to recognize that we truly belong to one Lord and one body.

It will take a long time for the old mainline churches -- Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and so forth -- to achieve formally what we already have informally, in terms of intercommunion and even practical cooperation. In the midst of all our institutional divisions and petty theological squabbles, God has been very merciful to us. He has preserved a unity in Christ that is far greater and deeper than we know.