Scott Warden
Editor-In-Chief
January 14, 2025 // Diocese

A Bridge Toward Christian Unity

Scott Warden
Editor-In-Chief

Shema Culture Aims to Bring Catholics, Protestants Together

Each year from January 18 through January 25 – the feast of the conversion of St. Paul – Christian churches around the world celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity to pray, as Christ prayed, that all may be one (cf. Jn 17:21).

At the conclusion of last year’s Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Pope Francis didn’t mince words or pull punches, calling prayer for unity “the primary responsibility in our journey together.” He continued by saying such prayer “is a sacred responsibility, because it means being in communion with the Lord, who prayed above all to the Father for unity.”

For the past several years, three young adults in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend have found a passion in pursuing this “sacred responsibility” of bringing Catholics and Protestants together to worship and praise Our Lord through music.

‘A Happy Accident’

Natali and Caleb Perkins came into the Church during the Easter Vigil at St. Charles Borromeo Church in Fort Wayne in March of 2021. Before their conversion, the married couple had led music worship at their church. Through a mutual friend who knew their shared passion for music ministry, they met lifelong Catholic and fellow St. Charles parishioner Gloria Perkins (who, last spring, married Caleb’s brother). Together, the three formed their ministry, Shema Culture, and began leading praise and worship music at St. Charles and various retreats.

Because they were still close with many of their Protestant friends and had a strong desire to share the beauty of their newfound Catholic faith, Natali and Caleb organized a night of praise and worship music at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Fort Wayne, where Caleb now works as the parish’s praise team coordinator and youth ministry assistant.

Finding this mission toward unity was a grace they now call “a happy accident” – a term coined by the late painter Bob Ross. And since that first Unity Night was held in January of 2022, it’s clear that Shema Culture has created a masterpiece of ecumenism for the city of Fort Wayne and the local Church. That first Unity Night, which brought together old friends and new ones, Protestants and Catholics, was the spark that caught fire in their hearts and gave Shema Culture a unique sense of mission in the local Church.

“We felt the Lord call us to teach other Catholics how to do praise and worship and to use that to help revive the Church and ignite a passion for Jesus, and then, finally, to help unite the Body of Christ,” Natali told Today’s Catholic. “The three of us were just burning with this desire to unify with our brothers and sisters, especially as we were building more relationships with our Protestant friends. And we were just like, we need places and spaces to be able to get to know them better, to invite them in, to show them the beauty of the Catholic faith, and for them to ask questions, and for us to get to know them better. We needed to create a place where we could pursue the Lord together.”

After that first “loosely structured” evening of praise and worship at St. Vincent, Gloria, Natali, and Caleb told Today’s Catholic that the ministry began to find its stride in November of 2022 when St. Charles hosted a Unity Night and asked leaders from Kingdom Collective, a nondenominational evangelical church in Fort Wayne, to co-host and invite their members. The pastors at Kingdom Collective jumped on the opportunity.

“They loved the idea of being a part of it,” Gloria said. “That night went so beautifully, having both congregations support the evening together, and then having Shema be the bridge to bringing everyone together and allowing everyone to just dwell together in unity.”

‘The Fruit of Christ’s Prayer’

Following the collaboration between St. Charles and Kingdom Collective, the trio from Shema Culture prayerfully discerned what other Catholic parishes – and what other Protestant communities – might be open to glorifying God together through evenings of praise and worship music.

One of the first pairings was St. Vincent de Paul and Grace Gathering – a nondenominational community with three locations in and around Fort Wayne. Father Brian Isenbarger, a parochial vicar at St. Vincent at the time, who is now pastor at St. Joseph Parish in Garrett, had become friends with Grace Gathering’s Chris Norman, who the members of Shema Culture said became “a really huge player in helping us create something a little bit more structured but also tailored to the majority of Christians.”

Gloria, Natali, and Caleb said that Unity Night, held at Grace Gathering in New Haven, helped to show them the possibilities for ecumenism in and around Fort Wayne.

“The core of the Unity Nights comes from the heart of Jesus Himself,” Father Isenbarger told Today’s Catholic. “On the night before He died, Jesus prayed to the Father that all would be one (cf. John 17:21). It is the very prayer of Jesus that His Church would be one – and we profess this belief in the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church every time we profess the Nicene Creed at Mass.”

In an email interview with Today’s Catholic, Grace Gathering’s Norman agreed, saying, “Unity Nights, worshipping together, honest dialogue, and relationship building all contribute to implementing the prayer Jesus prayed for us all,” Norman said, echoing the passage from John 17.

Norman added that ahead of his church’s first Unity Night in May of 2023, some in his congregation “were very excited, a few were skeptical, and some were curious. We did not receive any resistance, but no one really knew what to expect.”

However, Norman said, “Those who have gone have experienced a great deal of love and an increased holy imagination for what unity looks like in the Body of Christ. … Pursuing unity together within the Christian faith among Protestants and Catholics has been both costly and beautiful. It has been costly because when you go beyond the surface, it can feel heavy and difficult because the depth of differences is real. It has been beautiful because I have established deep relationships with my brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church and have grown to love them so much. I know how much grace we have for each other, and that has impacted me greatly.”

Caleb said seeing the playful interaction between Father Isenbarger and Norman – and the reaction by those in the Grace Gathering community – has been one of the highlights of the past couple of years.

“Father Brian and Chris getting up together and sharing their testimony and just cracking jokes, and having our Protestant family seeing this and being like, whoa, priests are not these weird dudes. [Father Isenbarger], I think, helped dispel [some negative perceptions] about priests. And we’ve heard multiple testimonies from him, Father Mark Hellinger, Father Thomas Zahr, Father Jake Schneider – they’ve just eliminated the perception that many have about priests.”

‘This Isn’t a Covert Mission’

In April of 2024, members of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish participated in a Unity Night gathering with their southwest Fort Wayne neighbors at Sonrise Church. Father Schneider, parochial vicar at St. Elizabeth, said his parish community “embraced the opportunity to pray alongside our Protestant brothers and sisters.”

“Unity Nights are the first steps to help us become a missionary Church,” Father Schneider told Today’s Catholic, adding that “our faith is not for ourselves, and our call to holiness isn’t just for our own salvation but for the salvation of the world, but most particularly our small community. … The Unity Nights help us to discover those small communities of Christians around us. This reaching out helps us become missionaries to our neighbors who are already Christians, meaning if we can share our faith with our brothers and sisters in Christ, then it will become easier to share it with those who do not yet know Christ.”

Father Schneider added that “the way we move forward is through authentic friendships. … Find those whom you have common interests and pursue those things together, and slowly, our faith mixes within those activities and we find that our lives as Catholics begin to inspire their lives and vice versa. It is a lifelong pilgrimage in which we need many to walk with along the narrow path.”

Before the first Unity Night was held – even before Shema Culture was officially formed – Caleb, Natali, and Gloria each emphatically say their mission has been rooted not in converting Protestants to Catholicism but in forming relationships in order learn from and love one another more fully as fellow humans and fellow Christians.

I don’t know how a lot of people have been receiving this, the mission of our work,” Natali said, “but I know our heart is that we see our Protestant brothers and sisters truly as family, and we treat them that way, and we desire them to know Jesus in the Eucharist, and so we do everything that we can to testify to that belief and to live that out and to encourage them to be a part of it, but also not push them into a conversion … but rather see them as a friend first and see them for who they are first.”

Caleb added: “This isn’t a covert mission to immediately convert everyone. As much as we want everyone to have what we have, that’s not our mission here. Our mission is to bring people together, to tear down the walls that have separated us for far too long.”

Father Isenbarger concurred, saying: “There are a variety of reasons for division within the Church, but none of them arise from the heart of Christ. I think in a time in which our culture has become more secularized, Christians are now recognizing the need for one another. We recognize that we have a genuine love for Jesus and that we have much more in common than perhaps we once thought. Ultimately, unity is the fruit of Christ’s prayer and the action of the Holy Spirit. The more we pursue Christ and yield to the Holy Spirit, unity will follow.”

To learn more about Shema Culture and its ministry, and to be informed of any upcoming Unity Nights, follow them on social media or visit their website at shemaculture.org.

Scott Warden is editor-in-chief of Today’s Catholic.


Bishop Rhoades to Participate in Love Fort Wayne’s Prayer Gathering

From 7-8 a.m. on the first Wednesday of every month, officials with the ecumenical initiative Love Fort Wayne invite Christian leaders and members of the faithful from around the Fort Wayne area to gather at the Parkview Mirro Center (10622 Parkview Plaza Dr., Fort Wayne) to pray “for the dreams and needs of the city.”

At the invitation of leaders of Love Fort Wayne, delivered by the members of Shema Culture, Bishop Rhoades will participate in the prayer gathering on Wednesday, February 5. The gathering is free and open to the public. To learn more, visit lovefortwayne.com/pray-fort-wayne.


Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Each year from January 18 through January 25, Christians across the world mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – an ecumenical initiative that has spanned more than 100 years in which Christians around the world have taken part in an octave of prayer for visible Christian unity.  By annually observing the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, Christians move toward the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper “that they all may be one” (Jn 17:21).

The Scriptural theme of this year’s Week of Prayer is “Do You Believe,” taken from John 11:26. For daily themes, prayers, and other resources, visit the Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute’s website at geii.org.

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