Recently, I have been a recipient of criticism and calls to repentance from old friends and a number of people whom I know not based upon what they call my “softness” or ‘support” of the Roman Catholic Church.
I was raised in the United Methodist Church and was taught to revere the name John Wesley. When I actually was converted in 1972, I studied the life and teachings of Wesley and he remains one of my primary influences.
Wesley was sometimes accused of being a Papist or a Jesuit by more hard-core Protestants. Wesley wrote a sermon which he called, “The Catholic Spirit,” which today would be comparable to promoting an ecumenical spirit. Wesley sought to find a common ground between Protestants and Catholics.
In Wesley’s “Letter to a Roman Catholic,” he writes one of his more famous quotes, “If we cannot as yet think alike in all things, as least we may love alike.”
What sayest my Roman Catholic friends and what sayest my Protestant friends, does Wesley find a common ground by which we can extend the right hand of fellowship or not?
Remember when Wesley wrote this letter in 1749, the fires between Protestants and Catholics were much hotter than today.
The following is the link to Wesley’s letter:
https://johnwesley.wordpress.com/john-wesleys-letter-to-a-roman-catholic/