Things are busy for Glenmary’s Director of Ecumenism Nathan Smith. Among Nathan’s many projects, two in recent months point out the scope of his work. He led a dialogue on Eucharist at a Glenmary mission, then flew to Africa for an international gathering.

The workshop Eucharist and Mission was at Glenmary’s Holy Family Parish in Macon County, Tennessee. Father Charles Aketch gathered parishioners for the event one weekend. Nathan gave a talk in English; Glenmary’s Spanish-language communications coordinator, Omar Cabrera, presented Nathan’s talk in Spanish. (A little more than a dozen parishioners who came are Anglo; about four times as many are Hispanic.) A lively and constructive dialogue was followed by Eucharistic adoration. The essence of his talk was that the Eucharist is a gift from God that ties all Christians to each other, and the shared outreach that flows from that.

Halfway across the world, in Accra, Ghana, the Vatican’s ecumenical office was participating in a worldwide gathering of 240 Christians of various denominations from 60 countries, the Global Christian Forum. Glenmary, specifically Nathan, had been tapped by Bishop Brian Farrell, head of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity. Nathan was the only representative selected from North America for a four-day faith-sharing event. Discussions there centered on building unity in our shared experience of Christ.