The Sacrament of Dialogue

Thomas Steininger speaks at the Breakwater Festival‍

Some months ago, Dr. Thomas Steininger spoke at Breakwater Festival in Mannheim, Germany led by Rev. Paul Vanderklay. For this Christian conference, Thomas opened up the question of sacrament. How do different Christian churches celebrate the sacred? Are there new forms of sacred practice emerging in our secular culture?

Thomas explored the different ways that the Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches each focus on the relationship the sacred. The Orthodox Church has a strong focus on liturgy. The Catholic Church has a strong emphasis on the Eucharist and the Protestant churches have a strong emphasis on the word of the Bible.

He raised the question: In our post-Christian global era, is the sacred finding a new way to show itself through the emergent new dialogue practices that are being developed in many places around the world? Maybe these new dialogue practices, from a Christian point of view, could become something like a new sacrament: The sacrament of global mutual understanding.