George Lindbeck on Church Unity, Ecumenism, and Nazarenes

Just stumbled across this gem of a quote, at least for those of us in the Church of the Nazarene. An encouraging and hopeful word for my denomination, while at the same time a wise word of caution against over identifying with "Nazarene" such that we forsake the better goal - church unity.

"What the good God is doing to the church, it seems to me, is destroying us bit by bit. And I think that God insists God wants us to be united. And destroying each denomination's identity is precisely the way in which eventually we'll have to be united. But, nevertheless, if you are going to be really ecumenical, you are going to have to know your own tradition and love it to its depths. I don't know what that means in Nazarene terms, but for those of you who are Nazarene, I've discovered one wonderful thing about [it] in the last day - namely, that you are trying to keep together internationally. Outside of the Roman Catholics, the Nazarenes are the only ones who are trying to keep together internationally. I hope that you succeed, and I hope that you succeed even if this means that Americans become a minority and have to let newer and newer mission extensions of the Nazarenes be the dominant group. If you succeed in that you will be doing the type of Christian sacrifice that brings us closer to Christ."

- George Lindbeck in Postliberal Theology and the Church Catholic, ed. John Wright, 118ff.