Together in unity

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! Psalm 133:1

We’ve all heard these words many times. But too often we allow secondary doctrinal differences to keep us from standing together.

Yet through CSW’s work, I’ve seen in every country the importance
of Christians overcoming theological disagreements in order to fight injustice and persecution. Simply from a numbers perspective, a government is more likely to listen to the whole Christian community than each denomination individually.

Along with my colleague Ben Rogers, I visited The Mandalay District Christian Fellowship (MDCF) which was established in 2014, and has 22 members across denominations including Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, Evangelical and Baptist.

The group communicates with the government and other religions on behalf of Christians in Mandalay, and they asked us for advice on how to influence the government and other decision-makers to help tackle injustice.

The MDCF has six sub-committees dealing with economic issues, education, health, media, social welfare, and the legal system. These issues affect everyone in Burma, including the Christian minority – which makes up just 4% of the majority-Buddhist population.

Reverend JoJo is a Pentecostal minister, and he told me, “We can all come together to fight for our rights. If we, as Christians, join together we can make real change.”

I found Reverend David TuTu’s testimony inspirational. He said, “I used to only be interested in spiritual issues and felt that social things were worldly. Now I know that as Christians we should ask for our rights. It’s the time of Moses: ‘Let my people go!’”

I found it incredibly encouraging to see a group of Christian leaders in Burma deciding that their unity was more important than their minor theological differences. Perhaps there’s something we can learn here in the UK?