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book Reviews
Together met,
together bound by John Reardon
Published by The United Reformed Church
ISBN: 978-0-85346-262-0 £12.99
Click here to purchase this book from the URC Bookshop
A feature of post
World War Two church life in Britain has been the growing number of
contacts between congregations and traditions in this country with
sister churches in mainland Europe and beyond.
In Together met, together bound John Reardon chronicles more than 50
years of links with the Evangelical Church of the Palatinate, the major
relationship with a European mainland church handed on by
Congregationalism to the United Reformed Church.
This book uncovers the unlikely beginnings which can foster ecumenical
partnerships, with the sending of food and clothing parcels in 1946 from
Shelley Road Congregational Church, Worthing to the Protestant Church in
Wolfstein, Germany. The book shows how big a part was played by
practical help, soon followed by personal visits, in building
friendships between people whose nations had recently been at war.
This blend of church history, theology and travelogue could be a
valuable preparation for anyone going on a 'Belonging to the World
Church' visit, so they understand the potential value of what they are
doing.
Following this story also provides something of a 'Who was who' for post
war Congregationalism and the URC, many of whose central players have
figured in it. We read how, in the early 1950s, the Congregational Union
of England and Wales looked for a suitable German denomination with
which to build links. The Palatinate Church had been the first union
between Lutheran and Calvinist Christians in Germany when it was formed
in 1818. Despite not having been the obvious first choice to pair with
the CUEW 150 years later, one may wonder whether the ecumenical
experience of the German Church had a later influence on the leadership
of Congregationalism in England and Wales. Did these links give
confidence to those who worked for the 1972 union to form the United
Reformed Church?
Accounts of the work of Congregational minister Ernest Dawe, whose
involvement in an early youth exchange in the 1950s extended to a
lifelong ministry in Germany, of the theological consultations,
teachers' conferences and women's links which have sustained this long
relationship, all make for interesting reading.
As well as story telling, the book could have benefited from more first
hand accounts of the personal friendships we hear about. Questions
remain as to how many people will now keep alive the ecumenical vision
from which this unique partnership grew, and whether the United Reformed
Church's current policy of pursuing such links through individual Synods
is workable long-term. No doubt John Reardon, on the basis of many years
of visits and personal contact, would argue that reconciliation and
ecumenism are just as valuable now as they ever have been since this
special relationship began.
Kirsty Thorpe
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