Trinity and Ecumenical Church Thought

Some hundred years from inception the ecumenical movement is stagnating. William C. Ingle-Gillis argues that the problem lies in modern ecumenism’s treatment of denominational Churches as provisional entities requiring reunion to be more fully Christ’s Body. In a work unique both to ecumenical studies and to trinitarian theology the author redefines ecclesial life from the premise that God’s essence is personhood-in-communion and that the ultimate calling of human persons is to share as fully in the divine life as Christ himself. Concluding that the Churches are by the Spirit’s action a tangible dynamic event wherein God makes visible his on-going reconciliation of the world to himself Ingle-Gillis argues that the Churches’ true life lies in coming-together rather than being-together. This conclusion places ecumenism at the heart of Church life and witness.