Margaret O’Gara, Michael Vertin, ed., No Turning Back. The Future of Ecumenism. Forwards by Richard J. Sklba and David M. Thompson. Collegeville, The Liturgical Press, 2014, xxvi-253 p.

Ogara died in 2012 at the age of sixty-five after thirty-six years as member of the Faculty of theology at St. Michael’s College in Toronto. She also served on six different ecumenical dialogues. She was considered an Ecumenical Theologian, whose writings, according to Vertin, were the product of painstaking research, careful argumentation, and ecumenical scholarship. Bishop Richard J. Sklba points out in his forward that “Margaret knew all too well that ecumenical pilgrimage requires hard work”, adding that she was both creative and careful in her approach. Although Rev. Lowell G. Almen, in his promotional comments, states that O’Gara “recognized that the unity of the church is not ours to create. It is a gift”, it did not prevent her from working hard, writing prolifically, praying much and suffering much in her indefatigable attempt to promote understanding and unity among the various church families. She goes as far as to describe ecumenical dialogue is a “form of asceticism” (p. 35). There are two forwards in the book ; one by Bishop Sklba and the other by a professor (David M. Thompson) indicating that this particular work intends on being pastoral as well as academic and practical as well as theoretical. The introductory quotes (first pages and back cover) complimenting the book and highlighting its beneficial contribution also include pastors, professors, seminary directors, and conference leaders from a variety of movements and church families — even including a Pentecostal, not historically reputed for ecumenical effort — reflecting academic and pastoral opinions as well as ecumenical collaboration and input. The compilation of articles is divided into two distinct parts, with eight articles in each section. The first eight articles aim at introducing the ecumenical perspective to general readers, whereas the final eight aim at presenting a deeper perspective for ecumenical specialists. Some articles (chapters) are captivating, inspiring and beneficial (i.e. chapter one where her purpose is well stated and illustrated), whereas other are less interesting and beneficial (i.e. chapter two, which is brief and uninformative). O’Gara’s appeal, in chapters five, six and seven, for all churches and denominations to not only pray, but pray together, listen to God and to each other, in a non-competitive environment of friendship and collaboration, citing the prophets, Jesus and certain Pauline Epistles is certainly inspiring and possibly more effective as a method in achieving unity than debate and argumentation. The last eight chapters do not offer anything more profound than the first eight, and are somewhat repetitive. The repetition and overlap of ideas can be excused by the fact that these are a compilation of articles and not an individual and unique thesis, as explained by the editor (p. xxii). There are some interesting practical principles regarding pastoring the sheep, as well as pastoring the pastors in the last section of the book. O’Gara’s description of the role of the Holy Spirit in chapter is interesting, at times inspiring, but also very practical avoiding the extremes of mysticism, where the “Holy Spirit dispenses with human process” and rationalism, where “the action of the Holy Spirit is simply identified as the shrewdest thinkers in the community”. O’Gara sums up her point of view well when she states ; “the Holy Spirit always assists the church precisely through its cognitional process of communal questioning and discovery rather than replacing them with some type of privileged intuition.” It is evident that due to O’Gara being “thoroughly Catholic” (Sklba’s description), she is not hesitant to be hard, or even harsh, with the Catholic Church, more so than with the Protestant or Evangelical Church. This is no more evident …