Don't be afraid!

This from a colleague from the Reformed tradition of Protestantism, on the obstacles to ecumenism, specifically on "guarding the Table" by preventing intercommunion (or insisting some people shouldn't be allowed to receive communion at all):

"The fear of grace, I think, gets in the way of Protestants and Catholics working together."

One reason I think the Catholic church (and maybe the Orthodox as well) are so dead-set against intercommunion is that the experience of sharing eucharist will indeed spark real Christian unity before church leaders are ready for it.

Of course, you can constrain God's grace only for so long.