1. www. g l e nma r y. o rg Wi n t e r 2 0 1 4  G l e n m a r y C h a l l e n g e 15
Ecumenical Light
“I pray…that they may all be one, as you, Father,
are in me and I in you, that they also may be in
us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”
—Jn 17:20-21
Ecumenism is the effort to bring Christians
together to work and pray in a spirit of
harmony, respect and hope for eventual
unity. Glenmary’s Catholic-Evangelical relations
initiative is another chapter in ecumenical efforts
that have been an integral facet of its ministry for
75 years. This initiative, says Father Neil Pezzulo,
is true to God’s call, the Church’s teachings, and
Glenmary’s charism.
“We can’ t
ignore Jesus’
prayer for unity
in Scripture,”
says Father Neil,
chair of the
Glenmary Com-mission
on Ecu-menism.
“We are
called to share
our unique gifts
and experiences
in ecumenism
with others to
help bring about
this unity. Our
goal is for Glen-mary
to again
take its place
as a leader in
ecumenical rela-tions.”
The commis-sion—
with inter- 
SHARING IDEAS: Frank Lesko, Glenmary’s director of
Catholic-Evangelical relations, talks with an attendee at
the 2014 Wild Goose Festival in North Carolina, hosted by
the Emerging Church movement. Glenmary was the first
Catholic group ever to sponsor a table at this gathering.
church membership—was established “to enhance
understanding, reduce alienation and foster rec-onciliation
between Catholics and Evangelicals,
primarily in the southeastern United States.”
The June 2014 hiring of Frank Lesko as direc-tor
of Catholic-Evangelical relations was the key
step in launching the grass-roots-based initiative.
He’s an experienced leader in outreach, justice
and ecumenical efforts—for instance, as a founder
and director of the Catholic Worker in Columbus,
Ohio.
The launch of this ministry also coincides with
the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Coun-cil’s
1964 Decree on Ecumenism—which says “the
attainment of
union is the con-cern
of the whole
Church…Thi s
concern extends
to everyone, ac-cording
to his
talent….”
Father Neil ex-plains
why Glen-mary
is uniquely
suited to ecu-menical
work:
“Our charism
takes our mis-sioners
to areas
where they and
their mission
members are a
small Catholic
minority. But by
building friend-ly,
prayerful re-lationships
CHRISTIAN UNITY
By Dale Hanson
Shining an
Glenmary is embarking on an initiative to build ecumenical relations,
and to seek out and share successful grass-roots ecumenical approaches,
to assist in the cause of Christian unity.
PHOTOS / COURTESY FRANK LESKO

2. 16 G l e n m a r y C h a l l e n g e  Wi n t e r 2 0 1 4 www.glenmary. o rg

EDUCATING: Frank Lesko points
out some of the areas where
Glenmary missioners serve in
the United States to a Wild Goose
Festival participant.
 with non-Catholic ministers and congrega-tions
and partnering with them to serve those
in need, Glenmary missioners and parishioners
overcome prejudices and become respected, val-ued
members of the larger community.”
That’s the ecumenical foundation on which
Frank hopes to build. As an undergraduate at a
small Protestant college, he studied, volunteered,
prayed and
dialogued with
mainline Prot-estants,
Evan-gelicals
and
other Catholics.
“Some of those
folks have be-come
my clos-est
friends,” he
says. Ecumen-ism
has been a
central theme
in Frank’s life.
Hi s rural
roots help him
relate to Glen-mary
missions.
He grew up in
an immigrant
farming com-munity
where his family’s small Catholic parish
helped form his faith.
“I’ve been amazed by how well Glenmary de-velops
ecumenical relations in innovative ways,”
he says. “Being a missionary group puts them in a
unique position to be pioneers. It’s a tremendous
story that needs to be shared. Glenmary can be an
ecumenical light for the whole Church.”
Frank and Father Neil are working collabor-atively
to plan the ecumenical initiative in
three overlapping phases. The first phase
involves learning as much as possible about the
ecumenical “best practices” used at Glenmary
mission and ministry sites. Frank is talking and
walking with missioners and their non-Catholic
ecumenical partners to gain a deeper understand-ing
of their rich experiences in ecumenism.
“I ask them: What does ecumenism mean to
you? How do you live out Jesus’ prayer for unity?
How do you foster ecumenism? What is the es-sence
of your ecumenical partnerships?
“This helps me pull stories out of these mission
areas for future sharing. In the meantime, I’m re-lating
these individual experiences and other in-formation
through my blog (travelingecumenist.
blogspot.com) and Facebook page (Together-in-
Mission-Evangelicals-and-Catholics).”
Some ecumenical best practices may sound
deceptively simple, but they can be powerful:
praying together and for each other, visiting each
others’ churches and collaborating on social out-reach.
For the tentative second phase, Frank will dis-till
the information and narratives from his expe-riences
at the Glenmary sites. He will then cre-ate
documents, workshop/training materials and
published materials for sharing.
Ultimately, in the proposed third phase, Frank
and others will share this information at every op-portunity
with Glenmary and the larger Church
and community—to provide ecumenical models
and inspiration for their future lives and minis-tries.
“Our first audience will be Glenmary mission-ers
and students, and then possibly Catholic and
Evangelical Christian seminaries, clergy, congre-gations
and conferences.”
A planned Web site will also offer ecumenical
resources, links and online discussions. “One of
my responsibilities,” says Frank, “is to provide on-line
support for people in ecumenical marriages.”
In addition, he’ll work to further develop re-lationships
with regional and national Christian
groups/movements. Examples include the South-ern
Baptist Convention, the Emerging Church
movement, the Charismatic movement and more.
He and Father Neil will also participate in the
2015 National Conference on Christian Unity.
Vatican II stated that “the movement toward
unity is the work of the Holy Spirit,” Frank
says. “The Decree on Ecumenism says divi-sion
between Christians ‘openly contradicts the
will of Christ.’ St. John Paul II cited the same pas-sage
30 years later. And he and Pope Benedict
XVI both expressed their strong commitment to
ecumenism. These statements reinforce the im-portance
of our ecumenical efforts.
“The mainstream culture will say this work
is against all odds. But I’ve seen through Glen-mary
the amazing, visible signs of the kingdom.
I’ve seen Glenmarians who have won the trust of
the local community and who have become close
friends with Evangelical pastors, leaning on and
trusting one another.
“Some Glenmarians say their ecumenical min-isterial
alliances are their lifeblood. I think these
experiences can help Christians everywhere figure
out how to build relationships.”
Unity will occur in God’s time, Frank says. He
quotes Pope Francis from his recent video address
to an Evangelical group: “A famous Italian author
named Manzoni once wrote in a novel of a simple
man…who said this: ‘I’ve never seen God begin a
miracle without finishing it well.’ He will com-plete
this miracle of unity.”