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Introductory comments by Web Master:
 
The book below, which was written by Charles W. Moore, presents historical background and arguments concerning restoration of Christian unity. It is extremely wellwritten and except for expected differences, due to faith backgrounds, I highly endorse it as being informative to Catholics, Orthodox, and other Christian believers. NOTE:Colorization has been added.
THAT THEY MAY BE ONE 
To heal the scandal of the
 fragmented 
Church
By CHARLES W. MOORE1997 Copyright © 1997 -- All rights reserved.Web published here by permission.
PREFACEPART I CHRISTIANITY IN CRISIS
Chapter 1: HOW DID CHRISTIANITY GO OFF THE RAILS?Chapter 2: THE PROBLEM WITH PROTESTANTISMChapter 3: RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATIONChapter 4: THE END OF CATHOLIC CULTUREChapter 5: THE SPIRIT OF SKEPTICISMChapter 6: SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE REFORMATIONChapter 7: LIBERAL HUMANISMChapter 8: THE LONG ROAD BACK TO CHRISTIAN UNITYChapter 9: The strange case of how 2,000 protestant Evangelicals ended up joining theOrthodox churchChapter 10: ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISMChapter 11: What the Church Is Not: Liberal Mainline Protestantism and "Protestantized" North American Catholicism
PART II DIFFICULTIES
CHAPTER 12: AUTHORITYChapter 13: SACRAMENTAL GRACEChapter 14: THE EUCHARISTChapter 15: THE APOSTOLIC SUCCESSIONChapter 16: CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTIONChapter 17: LITURGICAL WORSHIPChapter 18: VENERATION OF MARY AND THE SAINTSChapter 19: PRAYERS TO MARY AND THE SAINTSChapter 20: MANDATORY CELIBACY IN THE PRIESTHOODChapter 21: "CALL NO MAN FATHER"Chapter 22: PURGATORYChapter 23: ICONS, RELICS, AND IMAGESChapter 24: THE TRADITION
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Part III WHAT IS THE CHURCH?
Chapter 25: THE TASK "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you allspeak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same judgment."(1 Cor. 1: 10)"The Christian Church is in one hell of a situation."Fr. William DeWitt ClintonThe
Anglican Catholic
Church of Canada
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PREFACE
 
"And one might therefore say of me that in this book I have only made up a bunch of other people's flowers, and that of my own I have only provided the string that ties themtogether."Monteigne
 
This book is about a big idea -the oneness of the Christian Faith- nothing less thanrestoring the doctrinally unified, undivided Christian Church that existed prior to the GreatEast-West Schism of c.1054 AD. It may be too big an idea for one little book; but I hopewhat follows here will serve as a catalyst for thought and discussion. This much I am sureof: having His Church divided, let alone fragmented into literally thousands of competing--all too often warring--denominational factions cannot possibly be God's will.
 
Jesus prayed: "Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have givenMe, that they may be one as We are." (St. John 17: 11) So, while the idea that this book articulates and advocates may be overly optimistic, I believe that it is worthy. The dividedChurch is a tragedy and a scandal. It is sinful. It needs to be healed.
 
A divided Church presents a disastrous witness to the unity in Christ we purport toaffirm. No one in his right mind would argue that the voice of a unified Church would not be vastly more effective in witnessing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to a broken and sinfulworld, than is the cacophonous babel of contradictory Christian positions that exist today.
 
It was not always so of course. Throughout the first Christian millennium, the Churchspoke with one voice. Divers heresies cropped up to challenge unity and sound doctrineduring those thousand years, but the Church managed to stay one--as Christ desires. Thefirst great Christian schism, between Rome and Constantinople, accrued honour to neither  party, but at least it could be said that both sides in the dispute retained orthodoxdoctrine--the sacred Deposit of Faith.
 
The second schismatic wave that occurred 500 years later inadvertently precipitateda descent into heresy and apostasy that destroyed Christian culture and set in motion a process of philosophical and moral decay, from which it is as yet unclear whether theChurch will survive as more than a tiny, culturally irrelevant, island of faith in a vast roilingsea of pagan secular barbarism.
 
In this book I shall attempt to explain how we got into these regrettablecircumstances. It is necessary to have some understanding of the Church's history in order 
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to make an informed evaluation of what caused the fragmentation of Christendom, and todecide whether those reasons stand up to scrutiny. What I have to say on the pages thatfollow will not be a comfortable message for many, and it is certainly inadequate as a prescription for healing the Church. I do hope however that my thesis herein might serve asa catalyst for further thought, and ultimately, action, toward restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ as One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, unified body. I invite you to join me in thisquest.Part I:
CHRISTIANITY IN CRISIS'
Chapter 1:
HOW DID CHRISTIANITY GO OFF THE RAILS?
 
Christianity is in crisis at the end of the second Christian millennium, The Church'scultural purchase is melting away like ice-cream in the hot August sun, its moral authorityover what used to be Christendom all but spent. How did the Christian Faith lose its rightful place at the head of the civilization it established and built? A complex concatenation of factors led to this sorry pass, chief among them being the fact that for the past 500 yearsChristianity has addressed the world with an ever more fragmented and incoherent babel of often contradictory voices. The weakening, destructive effect this has had on the Church'seffectiveness as a witness to the risen Christ, cannot be underestimated or overstated. It is atragedy that has exponentially aided the forces of wickedness in the world. The unfortunatespectacle of literally thousands of Christian sects, frequently hostile to one another, allsimultaneously claiming to be the true Church founded on the love of Christ, does not tendto encourage thoughtful people to wish to join or even seriously listen to any of them.
 
Of course the troublesome question is: which of the multiple banners flown byfragmented Christianity as it marches and staggers and retreats these days can the Faith berestored to unity under? The only logical answer to that is a return to the true, undividedFaith that existed in essential doctrinal unity for the first thousand years of Christendom,and which continues in the Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic traditions today. For over 1,000 years, from Christ's ministry to A.D. 1054, there was ONE Church, and at leastfrom the Council of Chaledon in A.D. 451 to 1054, doctrinal stability prevailed in thatChurch. There really was a time when the same Universal (Catholic) Faith could be definedas "what was believed by all men everywhere" throughout the undivided Church. Anylogical-thinking Christian absolutely must regard the sundering of Church unity that beganwith the great east/west schism of 1,054 as a tragedy of cosmic proportions.
 
Christ founded a Church against which He declared the gates of hell would not prevail, and He promised to abide with that Church until he comes again. It simply cannot be a matter of indifference to Him whether the human beings He desires to save from sinand its consequences are a part of that Church or not. Jesus did not say: "The gates of hellwill not prevail against my churches." He referred to His Church in the singular.SomeProtestants recite the Apostles' and/or the Nicene creeds, which affirm belief in "The HolyCatholic Church;" and "One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church;" respectively. Thework around rationalization is that the real universal or "catholic" Church is not any visiblecommunion but rather an "invisible fellowship of true believers in all churches." However,this argument doesn't stand up convincingly under historical scrutiny.
 
Early Christians regarded the visible Church as not only the form, but quite literallythe context of Christianity. The Church was one; with one doctrine, and exercising oneauthority. Dissent within the communion was not tolerated. A universal union of local
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