wfn.org | Debate over Latest COCU Proposal Heats up

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

4-February-2000 
00060 
 
    Debate over Latest COCU Proposal Heats up 
 
    COCU delegation rebuts "sellout" charges 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-The long-dormant debate over "Churches Uniting in Christ" 
(CUiC) - the latest proposal from the Consultation on Church Union (COCU) 
-- has sprung briskly back to life in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) with 
the mailing of an anti-CUiC publication to all pastors and clerks of 
session and an immediate rebuttal by the PC(U.S.A.) COCU delegation. 
 
    The 173 presbyteries of the PC(USA) are currently voting on the CUiC 
proposal, which was approved by last summer's General Assembly with an 80 
percent affirmative vote.  As of Feb. 3, the vote was 22 in favor, 11 
opposed and 1 "no action."  A simple majority of presbyteries is required 
for the CUiC proposal to be adopted as a "statement of ecumenical 
consensus." 
 
    The CUiC agreement - modeled on the "full communion" agreement between 
the Lutherans, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ and the Reformed 
Church in America that was affirmed by 95 percent of the presbyteries in 
voting last year - calls the 10 member churches into closer cooperation 
without requiring any changes in PC(USA) polity or governance. 
 
    No constitutional amendments are necessary to implement CUiC, unlike 
the previous COCU proposal, which was defeated by the presbyteries in 1997. 
 
    Nevertheless, "Theology Matters" - a bi-monthly publication of 
Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry - devoted 15 pages of its 
Nov/Dec 1999 issue to its opposition to CUiC, arguing that "...the 
Presbyterian Church will be significantly changed.  Local congregations 
will loose (sic) their independence." 
 
    That issue of "Theology Matters" was mailed to every pastor and clerk 
of session in the PC(USA).  The nine-member PC(USA) COCU delegation 
immediately sent a six-page rebuttal to all presbytery executives and 
stated clerks ("We couldn't afford a mailing to every church," said the 
Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, General Assembly stated clerk and COCU delegation 
member), insisting that the CUiC proposal "presents us an exciting 
opportunity to express Christian unity in common worship and mission." 
 
    In an article entitled "Selling Our Birthright," "Theology Matters" 
writer the Rev. Paul Leggett of Grace Presbyterian Church in Montclair, 
N.J., argues that "CUiC proposes a union which threatens the historic 
autonomy of PC(USA) congregations" by "calling for 'appropriate structures 
of accountability' which would hold member churches 'mutually 
accountable.'" 
 
    The COCU delegation countered that "no new structures are required by 
the proposal. ... Presbyterian participation in the new relationship would 
be governed by our PC(USA) constitution. ... any substantive change to 
procedures in the congregations or governing bodies...would require further 
amendments" to the constitution. 
 
    Ironically, two issues which caused the presbyteries to reject the 1997 
COCU proposal - the necessity for bishops in the PC(USA) and a diminished 
role for elders - were resolved in the current CUiC proposal so much to the 
satisfaction of the Presbyterian delegation that the Episcopal Church 
delegation announced when the CUiC proposal was approved by COCU last 
January that they could not recommend it to the Episcopal Church for 
ratification.  The Episcopal Church has bishops "in historic succession" to 
apostolic times and does not have an office of ordained elder. 
 
    Leggett also charged that "CUiC asks us to abandon our fundamental 
criteria for recognizing a true church of Jesus Christ."  He argued that 
"no criteria are offered or even suggested to verify that a particular 
church communion is actually true to the apostolic faith."  CUiC, he 
stated, "proposes a union that is theologically inadequate." 
 
    Specifically, Leggett noted, the CuiC statement about God - "faith in 
the one God who through the Word and in the Spirit creates, redeems and 
sanctifies" - is "not really a Trinitarian one," though he acknowledges 
that "we certainly can't ask for a full statement of faith in a brief 
catalogue such as this."  He also argued that the divinity of Christ is 
implied but not explicit in the CUiC statement affirming "commitment to 
Jesus Christ as Savior and as the incarnate and risen Lord." 
 
    The COCU delegation countered that "the Trinitarian doctrine of the 
Nicene and Apostles' Creeds are shared by all these traditions."  Moreover, 
the delegation noted, "The Reformed tradition is one strand of a Christian 
Tradition which runs through the 'Visible Marks of the Church' outlined in 
the [CUiC] statement" and "we recognize that our partners bring their own 
insights and theological perspectives on our common Tradition." 
 
    Finally, Leggett questioned the missiological focus of CUiC on 
combating racism: "Is the issue really racism? Or is it a particularly 
ideological reading of the Gospel?"  Theology, he concluded, "is being 
redefined as social policy." 
 
    The choice to focus CuiC's common mission activities on combating 
racism, the COCU delegation replied, is due to "the unique blend of ethnic 
diversity in CUiC, unparalleled in contemporary unity agreements."  Three 
historically all-black churches are COCU members - the Christian Methodist 
Episcopal Church (CME), the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and 
the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ). 
 
    Also, the delegation added, "this concern for racial justice is part of 
our Presbyterian confessional heritage: 'the church labors for the 
abolition of all racial discrimination and ministers to those injured by 
it' (Book of Confessions, 9.44)." 
 
    The ecumenical proposal for "Churches Uniting in Christ" [CuiC] is 
available at <http://horeb.pcusa.org/oga/amend99/statement.htm>  A booklet, 
"A New Creation In Christ:  A Study Guide for Churches Uniting in Christ," 
PDS number 74-290-99-003, is available by calling 1-800-524-2612, or on the 
Web at <http://www.pcusa.org/pcusa/wmd/eir/study.htm>. 
 
    More information about Presbyterians for Faith, Family and Ministry 
and/or "Theology Matters" is available from the Rev. Susan Cyre at P.O. Box 
10249, Blacksburg, VA 24062; phone (540) 552-5325; e-mail <scyre@swva.net>. 
 
    Members of the PC(USA) COCU delegation are Kirkpatrick; former General 
Assembly moderator Dorothy Barnard of St. Louis; the Rev. Bruce Gillette of 
Pitman, N.J.; the Rev. A.M. "Mac" Hart of Hendersonville, N.C.; the Rev. 
Duane Holm of Cincinnati; the Rev. Alyce M. Kelly of Atlanta; the Rev. 
Linda J. Morgan-Clement of Wooster, Ohio; the Rev. Jay P. OlsonKetchum of 
Juneau, Alaska; and the Rev. Robina Marie Winbush of Hollis, N.Y. 

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