One Body

“One Body”

A Review of That They May Be One by Nick Olszyk

Distribution Service: Fathom Entertainment

FCC Rating, G

O SV Rating, Not rated at the time of this review

R eel Rating,

The Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity may be a recent development, but its roots go much deeper, all the way back to Christ’s priestly prayer in John 17, that “they may be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You.” That They May Be One, which takes its name from this passage, is a new documentary that looks at the history of the ecumenical movement and its role in the church. While slow and somewhat vague in parts, it does capture the desire of the Church to bridge the divides between Christian groups in meaningful way. What is less clear, but more urgent, is how this movement will continue into the 21^st century.

The film starts with an intriguing coincidence. In the 2^nd half of the 19^th century, an Italian nun named Elena Guerra, who was canonized by Pope Francis just two years ago, felt a strong call to spread devotion to the Holy Spirit. She started a religious order devoted to the third person of the Trinity and wrote to Pope Leo XIII in 1885, encouraging the Holy Father to invoke and dedicate the 20^th century to Him. On January 1^st, 1901, Leo XIII did just that, beginning the year with the classic prayer “Veni Sanctus Spiritus.” On the exact same day, a group of preachers, including William Seymor and Agnes Ozman, were praying at a church in Topeka, Kansas when there was a “sudden outpouring of the Holy Spirit,” and they began speaking in tongues. This is generally considered the start of the Pentecostal movement in the United States. Thus began John Paul II’s hope that as “the 2^nd millennium was the era of Christian disunity, the 3^rd millennium would be the era of Christian re-unity.”

Using these events as a springboard, the film traces the history of the ecumenical movement through this last century to the present, interviewing many Catholic and Protestant leaders, though the Orthodox seem largely absent. For the first time in centuries, there is real, serious dialogue between multiple parties that lead to profound events such as the lifting of mutual excommunications between the Pope and ecumenical patriarch in 1965 or Joint Statement on Justification in 1999. More than these declarations, however, is the common love for Jesus expressed mutual prayer and charity. The ultimate mark of a Christian is love, and when Christians of all stripes can love together, it will bring not just unity in structure but deepen holiness.

This does negate pitfalls or difficulties along the way. The film readily acknowledges the fear that ecumenical hopes could lead to a watering down of faith or even denial of doctrine. The key is not changing the true teachings of the faith but willing to engage the other and building faith in Jesus Christ. This includes being honest about theological differences and accepting where lines cannot be crossed. If someone will not believe the Eucharist is Body and Blood of Christ, they should not receive Him. That would hinder unity through sacrilege rather than build faith. However, we can pray together and serve together.

The first act of the documentary that covers the Holy Spirit is quite compelling, but the film quickly loses momentum and never recovers. The second act drags on terribly with multiple interviewers repeating the same message. It also leans heavily on personal experience rather than examining concrete actions by the Church and misses several key developments like the rise of apologetics, social media, the Eastern Catholic churches, or the Anglican ordinariates. While the intentions of the documentary are sound, it is light on solutions. Yes, Christ does will that all Christians “be one,” yet this will happen under the mantle of His Church. It would be interesting exploration to envision how this will occur in the future, but we’ll have to wait for another documentary for that.