What is Deep Ecumenism?
Excerpts from One River, Many Wells, by Matthew Fox
In practicing Deep Ecumenism we find joint truth in religious faiths, common ground on which to face the very survival issues of morality and celebration, grief and forgiveness and letting go. We move into common action, common non-action, common prayer and common celebration.
There is a meeting of hearts and minds at a deeper place, a place of wells and watering and wisdom and mystery, not of judgment, relating heart to heart and creative mind to creative mind about issues that concern our species profoundly. Deep Ecumenism ushers in a social vision that might seize the moral and spiritual imagination of our species.
We come to see that “Divinity is an Underground river that no one can stop and no one can dam up.” There is one underground river- but there are many wells into that river: an African well, a Taoist well, a Buddhist well, a Jewish well, a Muslim well, a goddess well, a Christian well, and aboriginal wells. Many wells, one river.
Another metaphor for Deep Ecumenism: Look at your fingers. If you look at their top side, you see five distinct entities, each waving in the breeze. But if you follow them down to their origin, they all merge in the palm of the hand. So, too, with our religions. If you look at their source, they all come from the same center.
It is necessary to travel deeper, to let the superficial go, to go to the center, the cave, if we are to connect to the underground river. This is the meaning of Deep Ecumenism.
