208 PART TWO: AN EMPIRICAL ACCOUNT that they usually respect the canonical regulations of the churches involved, even when their personal desire would dictate otherwise, especially if breaking the rules would stir controversy. At the same time, some indicate that they would break the rules, or have done so, occasionally. These testimonies indicate how the monastics try to balance obedience towards ecclesial authorities and their desire for Eucharistic communion with fellow Christians. From the above, it can be deduced that they would not interpret the latter necessarily as unfaithfulness, as it combines adherence to one’s own tradition, which is a key element of the ecumenical communities, with openness towards another. The consequences of such a double interpretation of faithfulness will become clearer in section 7.3. However, in the next section I will focus on another issue first: the reinterpretation of the relationship between Baptism, denominational identity, and the church universal. 7.2 BAPTISM, CHURCH, AND THE DENOMINATIONS A pivotal moment in the process of the monastics has been their reinterpretation of the relationship between the universal church and their own denominational tradition, inspired by their experiences in Taizé and Bose. As we have seen in the previous section, they do value the particularities of their own traditions, to which they try to remain faithful. Without discarding this identity as insignificant, they have come to prioritize a Baptismal identity and differentiate between church on a general level and on a denominational level. In their view, the denominational adherence is important as the concrete form in which one lives his Christian identity. Yet, as such, it only has relative and secondary relevance; the monastics stress the significance of the wider, more general Christian identity founded in the sacrament of Baptism. In BF’s life story, it is quite clear that he needed the ecumenical experience of Bose to reinterpret his relationship towards other Christians. Hardly aware of their presence in his own context, he drew only from books. Speaking of meeting other Christians in Bose, and especially in the small community in Neufchâtel, he says: “So, after two years and a half, uh, for me it became normal to consider uh… … other Christians just as Christians.”472 BE had a similar experience when he visited Taizé. To his surprise, he encountered a reality in which it seemed of secondary importance to which denomination one belongs: 472 BF-1,2e.
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