And Mary Alice, I want to say a special word of thanks to you as you step down from your role as President of this Council. You have provided a comfort and confidence to the conduct of our ecumenical business. Your competence in leading this remarkable array of church representatives has enabled us to accomplish some very significant achievements during your tenure. The history of the ecumenical movement reveals how whole generations of Christians labored for unity and sometimes saw little fruit. Then another generation came and took a quantum leap because of all that had gone before.
Ecumenical progress comes in jerky lunges rather than in a steady forward progression.
But if this is of God, and it is, we should do what we can where we are, and trust that it will bear fruit in God's good time. That bowl is a parable of our shared life. Before the panels in stained glass are soldered together, they are bits of broken glass-beautiful and rich in color, nevertheless, isolated. They enhance each other while allowing the light to shine through. So it can be with our churches.