When that oneness with God is disturbed, the unity of all reality is disturbed. Alienation from God issues in alienation within reality. This understanding of unity which takes God as its starting point is about more than the unity of churches or Christians. It is about all peoples and, more than that, about all of creation. It is truly ecumenical and ecological.
Unity only makes sense in the context of accepting and valuing difference and distinctiveness.
Difference becomes destructive division where this is denied and unity, a deceit. The New Testament writers and Jesus to whom they testify acknowledge a state of sinfulness and alienation, especially among human beings and human communities, as a state of not being at one with God. He extrapolated from prophetic hopes that looked to a day when God's will would be established in reality. The vision of the kingdom was a vision of unity, of reconciliation. It envisaged people in their differences finding oneness again with God.