Byassee's account of Schlabach is most interesting to me because of his background as an evangelical Mennonite. Byassee writes, "Schlabach worries that Protestant churches have become ends in themselves rather than reform movements dedicated to the church universal. Schlabach sees the Catholic Church as the best hope for a reunion of 'liberal' and 'conservative,' 'protestant' and 'catholic' visions of the church: 'Imagine a church . . . that could not sing without feeding the poor, nor feed the poor without nourishment from the Eucharist, nor pass the peace without living peaceably inthe world, nor be peacemakers without depending on prayer, nor pray without joining in robust song." And I might add, all of these practice presuppose a robust orthodoxy of Christian convictions.

Byassee ends by quoting Stanley Hauerwas why shouldn't everyone become Roman Catholic. As typical Professor Hauerwas is very quotable in a penetrating and wise manner. He "prefers loyalty to one's church of origin: 'I feel like you need to stay with the people who harmed you.' At the theological level, Hauerwas cites the remark by Cardinal Walter Kasper . . . . 'In the ecumenical movement the question is conversion to Christ. In him we move closer to one another.'"

I cannot and have no desire to deny the historical contingency of my own biography. My life fits well within the historical trends that have influenced the six scholars noted by Byassee. I studied theology at a Roman Catholic institution, a center at the time of "postliberal" thought. My encountering Stanley Hauerwas and his students such as Simon Harak, SJ, at Notre Dame, and Professor Hauerwas's and his students' writings and friendships have been extremely important to me. Yet I remain, unapologetically, consciously, and intentionally, within the Church of the Nazarene as an ordained elder. Baptized by William Prince who became a General Superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene, it is this people that the Spirit used to transmit the faith given to the saints to me. No one is more aware of the foiables, struggles, and sinfulness of this people, but I too believe that it is important to "stay with the people who harmed me."

Yet I have a deeper conviction grounded in a critical faith and a faithful reason. It is my conviction that the Methodist/Holiness tradition in which the Church of the Nazarene stands has particular gifts to offer the church catholic to help all of our conversion to Christ. I have to argue that the center of the Wesleyan/holiness movement is to be "evangelical, Catholic, and orthodox." The Wesleyan/holiness tradition may only sustain its coherence and faithful witness precisely in so far as it is evangelical (in the classical sense of Christologically-focused), Catholic, and orthodox -- something it has struggled to keep because of its experiential focus in its assimilation to American revivalism. I am increasingly convinced that we should regard John Wesley as the first (non)modern "return to the sources" (Ressourcement) theologian, a position that has since come to characterize the post-Vatican II papacy. I think that the early Methodists and then the holiness movement bears strong affinities to the new religious movements such as Communion and Liberation as well as those within the Catholic Worker who keep to Dorothy Day's teachings, rather than being carried off into a progressive political agenda for the United States that leaves her unflinching evangelical, catholic, and orthodox witness behind.

Our ministry and witness at the Church of the Nazarene in Mid-City has always focused on remaining evangelical, catholic, and orthodox. If one examines our mission statement, one finds the statement that our mission is in accordance to "the Spirit of the early church, the Wesleyan vision, and the mission of the Church of the Nazarene." We have always been about the return to the sources of the faith and our particular tradition as a means of addressing contemporary secularist environment that the church faces. That is why we named ourselves "The Church of the Nazarene in . . . " We wanted to emphasize, not a denominational identity, but the anchorage of our mission in the evangelic, catholic, and orthodox tradition that is the faith that has been handed down through the saints.

I deeply respect and have learned from contemporary renewal movements in Roman Catholic thought and life. I need, and I believe that my congregation needs, to journey with particularly these folk to keep us to keep from splintering from falling into a cultural Christianity whether it be a conservative bourgeoise Christian evangelicalism or a progressive neighborhood Christian communitarianism. I am not sure that we can keep evangelical, catholic, and orthodox without such conversations and friendships amidst strong social and intellectual forces that would move us away from these commitments. But unlike these six theologians, I believe that the Church of the Nazarene, and the Church of the Nazarene in Mid-City, San Diego, in particular, affords a place to build a evangelical, Catholic, and orthodox witness. In this way, maybe we can participate in a deeper catholicity of conversion to Christ -- to find out that in Him, we are drawn closer to each other.