Rev Jim Murray (right) and Peter Lalor Philip have developed a strong friendship built around faith.
By Peter Lalor Philp
What does a practising Catholic do on a Sunday morning?
I attend the local Union Church (Uniting-Anglican) with my wife.
However, my story goes a lot further than visiting the liturgy at the other end of town.
This is Fish Creek, in South Gippsland, with a church building at each end of our little village: on the Melbourne side, the Union community, at the other end the Catholic church.
Visiting Protestant churches and participating in their services has been part of my life since the birth of the Uniting Church, but today’s participation is vastly different.
A couple of years ago I met up with Rev Jim Murray, now a retired Uniting Church minister who leads Sunday services at Fish Creek a couple of Sundays each month.
To describe our individual theologies, it is bit of ‘chalk and cheese’.
He has a strong Presbyterian heritage, and mine is Irish Catholic.
I hate labels so I’ll put it this way: Jim’s is soundly conservatively evangelical, mine has undergone a renewal through working alongside the Latin American prophets of liberation theology.
Jim will strongly argue that our theologies are not ‘chalk and cheese’, our faith beliefs are very similar, and he is probably correct.
The more I sit and talk with my mate Jim, barriers between the old denominations fade away.
Jim’s homilies are very challenging and his liturgy extremely meaningful.
During the ceremony, he gives time for open discussion and has encouraged this visitor to speak up.
There are many issues that we disagree on. However, both of us have built a relationship where we both listen to each other and, for me, it has been a learning experience.
After the service, over a cup of tea, we discuss the issues further, including the touchy ones like ‘who is saved’.
Jim never comes over as the ministerial authority nor suggests that I should return to the heritage of my great-grandfather, Rev Robert Philp, once the President of the Methodist Church, Victoria and Tasmania.
The most important contribution to our relationship is ‘faith in God’ and Jim is a person of steadfast faith, something I deeply appreciate.
I sense that the Australian ecumenical movement has come to a partial standstill.
We visit each other and partake in one or two annual services which have been going on for 60 years.
But there are still barriers that we can’t easily confront like inter communion.
I believe that Jim and I have ventured a little further, discussing, listening, respecting and hopefully learning more about Jesus, and all this has been achieved, not at major assemblies of moderators and cardinals but in a tiny country church.
Nothing in our discussions is out of bounds.
I believe that Jim has helped me in my ongoing Catholic faith, (which I still practise on a Saturday night), not puzzling over our differences but rejoicing that those differences don’t really matter.
During Jim’s services we regularly prayed for Pope Francis during his illness and celebrated the election of Pope Leo.
From a cuppa after the service, the next step is to go out for a decent cappuccino coffee or a cup of herbal tea.
Peter Lalor Philp is a former managing editor of Melbourne’s ‘Catholic Advocate’ and religious affairs writer for the Melbourne ‘Sunday Herald’. He also worked in Central America during the civil wars of the 1980s.
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