I grew up in a small town on the Mississippi River in Wisconsin.  From the time I was very young I knew there were lots of different churches.  In my neighborhood everyone claimed theirs was the best or even the only right one.  In deference to the Roman Catholics, we children named the three bushes in my front yard like this:  The smooth spruce was heaven, the leafy one was purgatory and the prickly one was hell.

My family attended the Episcopal Church but when their Sunday School closed, I began attending the Methodist Church.  I felt a loyalty to both churches so I would daydream and even pray that those two denominations would join together so I wouldn’t have to choose.

In the end I joined the Methodist Church and a few years later went to Malaysia as a short-term missionary.  There I visited a remote area on the east coast and found to my surprise that the Roman Catholics, Methodists and Pentecostals all met together as one church on Fridays.  From that time on I have believed strongly in the unity of the churches as one body in Jesus Christ.

When I became a United Methodist pastor, I was serving in a three-point charge, which means three different churches, all  in a rural area.  In the four years I was there I performed seventy-five funerals because I was the only pastor in town who would bury folks who weren’t a member.  

About ten years later, now in Indiana I became convinced that God really wants all his churches to be as ONE.  One day I was out driving in the small town where I had just been appointed, I felt Holy Spirit showing me the churches in town one by one.  As I passed each one, I had such a strong sense that we were in unity.  

In that small town, nearly every church pastor in town met together once a month and had really excellent fellowship and support—the Lutherans, the Baptists, the Catholics and the United Methodists. It was one of the best groups I’ve ever been in. 

I was in charge of charity. We pooled our resources. If someone came to town in need, all the churches would send them to me. 

Then I felt inclined to drive by a church whose pastor did not want to meet with the rest of us and I knew that Holy Spirit included them in His loving circle.

In 2000 my husband and I were invited by a pastor who was like the Billy Graham of Romania to come to his country and stay with his niece and nephew who were Baptists. I was there for four months and did a lot of teaching and counseling.  

 I have had many years being ecumenical.  These days I pray in groups with people from many churches.  I attend a Church of God and teach ESL (English as a Second Language) at a Roman Catholic church.  

Here is what Jesus said in the WORD: “I have given them the glory that you (Father) gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.  Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”  John 17:22-23