Ecumenism? Why?

I'm not sure what drives ecumenical efforts.

Is it to heal the schisms?

Is it so we simply get along? Or is it to create a universal communion among all Christianities?

As a Catholic, I find that the vocabulary and even some of the concepts of the more evangelical Protestant groups is foreign to my own experience and beliefs.

I don't even think we speak the same language half the time.

(No, I'm not pretending to speak for all Catholics.)

Are we all Christians? I remember someone in a class I was taking tell the professor that he would like to write a paper discussing the differences in marriage ceremonies between Catholics and Christians.

I thought, hey, I'm a Christian. What are you implying?

But it doesn't matter. "Christian" is just a word. I don't really care if we all agree. My suspicion is that we all have different means to effectively approach God. What I need for that endeavor is not going to be realized at a Sunday service which is predominantly a pastor spending an hour analyzing a chapter of the bible verse-by-verse, or through speaking in tongues. A lot of people I know cannot handle the sitting and standing and kneeling that happens in a Catholic Mass.

All well and good.

They do their thing, I do my thing. It doesn't even matter if it's to the same end.

I'd rather have the divisions than have people all try to fit into the same church to the point wherein there is one church that somehow incorporates everything into it. If a priest at a Mass started having altar calls I'd have to stop going.

Just sayin'. Hey, look at what's happening in the Roman Catholic church now, from the Vatican itself. It's going as conservative as it can. If one believes EWTN, party-line television for the modern Catholic fuddy duddy (though I do love their music programs, and the Rosary programs they feature), we're about as fun-loving as a plastic-covered couch.

Try to integrate the rest of conservative Christianity into the Church, and good grief. Well, let me just say no thanks.

I tend to think there are good reasons we have different Christianities. Let's just keep it that way. I know I find it hard enough as a gay liberal cradle Catholic who finds comfort in his home church and either ignores, rejects, or "gives to God" the more dictatorial aspects of the Magisterium. No additional pressure. Please and thank you.