Modernity provided an ideal framework for denominational growth (we now count denominations by the tens of thousands). I am hopeful that postmodernity will provide an opportunity to move from fragmentation toward unity. There are encouraging signs all around from the way postmoderns engage one another and experience religion to the reform underway or being discussed by multiple denominations.
So What?
A Prayer for Christian Unity
God of Many Names, may this new era we are naming postmodern be marked by historians in later centuries as a season of Christian unity. Starting today, let us set aside or place as secondary our varied names — Anglican, Bible, Church of God, Disciples of Christ, Emergent, Friends, GARB (General Association of Regular Baptist Churches), House Church . . . — and begin identifying primarily as followers of Jesus. Retaining our stories, we recognize and give thanks for the formative influences of specific people and communities of faith while opening ourselves to the possibilities of ever widening inclusivity and genuine Christian unity. Amen.