[MuttTheHoople]

As a contrarian point of view, it's good to see the two groups of Christians uniting (Protestants and Catholics), not in some namby-pamby "ecumenical" sense (like what you see in liberal "mainstream" American churches), but truly uniting for the cause of Christ.

One of the things we should remember is this- the Protestant Reformation didn't start until AFTER the Christians drove the Muslim heathen from most of Europe. Now, for the first time since the Reformation, we're facing a Second Islamic Invasion of the world, and it's now time for Catholics and Protestants to see what they have in common (worship of the Savior Jesus Christ), downplay the differences, and fight the common enemy.

[wideawake]

Not exactly accurate.

The Battle of Tours, the Reconquista and the overthrow of the Emirate of Sicily all occurred before the Reformation.

The siege of Vienna, the Battle of Lepanto and the Great Turkish War all occurred after the Reformation, and were characterized by the refusal of the Protestant powers to aid the Catholic and Orthodox powers in their struggle.

[Vanders9]

I agree. The ecumenical movement is really growing stronger in the UK - and the main driving factor is that with declining congregations, dwindling financial and personnel resources and increasing competition from secularists, muslims and neo-pagans its becoming increasingly obvious that if we don't stick together we are going to be history in the very near future.

Hey and guess what? Since we have actually been talking to each other, we've found that most of what we "knew" about each other before was wrong.