wfn.org | CCU board explores new models for doing ecumenism

[DISCNEWS.parti@ecunet.org]

Date: April 29, 1997
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the web: http//www.disciples.org

97b-25                   

     INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- New models for doing
ecumenism in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
and next steps in the partnership with the United Church
of Christ highlighted a recent meeting of  the Council
on Christian Unity board of directors.  

     While meeting here April 15-17, directors
discussed the first national "spiritual retreat"
sponsored by the board in February. The group also
considered a proposal asking Disciples congregations to
sponsor "unity feasts" as a way of doing local
ecumenism.

     Forty Disciples pastors and lay leaders gathered
in Nashville in February for the initial spiritual
retreat, according to the Rev. Paul A. Crow Jr., CCU
president. The agenda comprised 48 hours of prayer,
Bible study, worship, dialogue and learning about
biblical insights into the unity of the church. 

     "This retreat model illustrates the indelible link
between spirituality and Christian unity," said board
member Sally Paulsell, Columbus, Ind. The board
subsequently endorsed a series of annual retreats on
Christian unity for diverse groups from across the
denomination. 

     The unity feast proposal calls for Disciples
congregations to sponsor ecumenical fellowship suppers
with neighboring churches. The gatherings also would
involve Bible study, reflection on the churches'
ecumenical heritage and Communion. Ten Disciples
congregations will participate in the pilot project,
offered by board member Lee Yates. He is a student at
Lexington (Ky.) Theological Seminary.  

     With celebrations in July marking the "reconciled"
ministries between the Disciples and United Church of
Christ, "all the marks of ecumenical partnership have
been achieved," said Crow. "The work of the Ecumenical
Partnership Committee is done." Board members approved
the liturgy for celebrating the reconciliation of
ministries during the Disciples General Assembly.  

     The board commended the partnership committee's
work "with deep appreciation and celebration." The group
discussed holding annual or biennial national
consultations as a means of continuing the ecumenical
dialogue. The consultations would bring together
Disciples and UCC regional and general leaders "to find
common purposes and do common mission," Crow said. 

     In other action the CCU board reviewed a proposal
to develop camps and conferences with a Christian unity
theme. Members also explored the idea of appointing
"unity summer interns" to assist the camp and conference
effort.

     The board also reviewed a document reexamining the
nature and purpose of the World Council of Churches. In
its responses to the visioning document, "Toward a
Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of
Churches," the board urged that the WCC:
  
     * remain a fellowship of churches. The
     WCC should not be a fellowship of
     councils or Christian social action
     groups, said the board. "Unity will
     come not by the actions of councils,
     but as the churches live ecumenically
     through councils and other models of
     unity," said the Rev. Robert K. Welsh.
     He is a Disciples associate general
     minister, and president of the Church
     Finance Council.  

     * maintain its Christological (Christ-centered) 
     and Trinitarian bases and allow interfaith 
     dialogue to take place in other arenas. 

     * have only national church bodies in
     its membership, as it has from the
     beginning. Some church groups have
     advocated making WCC membership
     available through Christian world
     communions or national or regional
     councils of churches, according to
     Crow. Such a move "would diminish the
     role of small churches and churches in
     the Third World," said the CCU
     president. 

     Several appointments to ecumenical bodies and
gatherings were approved by the CCU board. Gwendolyn
Gray, Montgomery, Ala., was elected secretary of the
board and the Rev. Suzanne Webb, Carbondale, Ill., was
named an observer to the September WCC Central Committee
meeting in Geneva. The Rev. Roy Griggs, Tulsa, Okla.,
was named as the Disciples representative to the General
Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches,
meeting in Hungary.

     Griggs also was named as chairperson of the search
committee for a new CCU president. Other search
committee members are: Sally Paulsell, Columbus, Ind; G.
Hugh Wilson, Norman, Okla.; Gwendolyn Gray, Montgomery,
Ala.; General Minister and President Richard L Hamm,
Indianapolis; the Rev. C. Roy Stauffer, Memphis; and
Delores Highbaugh, Chicago.

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