wfn.org | Workshop celebrates new ecumenical agreements

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Note #5914 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

24-May-2000
00210

	Workshop celebrates new ecumenical agreements

	Churches  coalesce around worship and doctrine rather than social issues

	by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The rapidly changing ecumenical movement -- focusing on
areas of agreement, such as worship and doctrine, rather than on divisive
social issues -- was on full display here May 15-18, as more than 300
Christians from all over the country gathered for the 37th annual National
Workshop on Christian Unity (NWCU).

	The event was sponsored by the Kentucky Council of Churches, the
Kentuckiana Interfaith Community and the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Louisville.

	The shift away from social issues and toward partnership as churches was
most noticeable in worship, with common liturgies that have grown out of
recent theological agreements.

	On May 17, for instance, Louisville's Roman Catholic Cathedral of the
Assumption was the scene of a eucharistic service marking the "full
communion" agreement endorsed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America,
the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America and the
United Church of Christ. Provision was made in the service for those who
have not established full communion with those churches to receive a
"pastoral blessing" rather than the sacrament.

	Later in the day, a service at Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church
utilized a new liturgy developed by the Consultation on Church Union (COCU),
which in 2002 is scheduled to inaugurate a full-communion relationship of
nine Christian churches in the United States.

	Other recent theological accords include a landmark pact last fall in which
the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation announced that
they had agreed on the very doctrine that triggered the Protestant
Reformation -- justification by faith.

	And the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Episcopal Church are
putting  finishing touches on a full-communion accord.

	The National Workshop affirmed once again what grass-roots ecumenists have
said for years -- that ecumenical relations are local and practical,
intended to strengthen the ministries of congregations.

	Seminars focused on such topics as local ecumenical ministries, the impact
of national ecumenical agreements on local churches, interchurch and
interreligious marriage, and baptism.

	Christian community -- born of the Holy Spirit and founded on principles of
unity and solidarity found in the Bible -- was a common theme of NWCU
keynote speakers.

	"Those who love God must love their brothers and sisters," United Methodist
Bishop Leontine Kelly said in her sermon during an opening worship service. 
"We can pretend to be a righteous people. But not until we love our brothers
and sisters -- and that is all human beings ... only then can we claim any
degree of righteousness."

	Kelly, the first African-American woman ordained a bishop by any U.S.
denomination, challenged Christians to put aside the fear and suspicion that
have arisen as churches disagree on controversial issues such as
homosexuality. "We can't step forward together in mission when we're
spending time and energy second-guessing the motives of everyone," she said.

	A Cuban theologian, the Rev. Ofelia Ortega Suarez, said the Pauline
communities of the New Testament were "built not on words or laws, but on
the presence of the Holy Spirit." Because they were united by their
experience of the Holy Spirit, she said, those communities "were enabled to
face danger, disunity and false doctrines."

	Quoting extensively from the Epistle to the Galatians, Ortega said: "This
oneness in Christ and life in the Spirit gives us the freedom to love the
other. God's grace opens new opportunities for new forms of Christian
community ... from the slavery of the law to the slavery of love."
						
	The Rev. Thomas Hoyt, a Christian Methodist Episcopal Church bishop,
insisted that the ecumenical movement's "historic struggle for justice and
freedom is a unifying issue – but there will be no sustaining unity unless
there is unity in the Spirit."

	Furthermore, Hoyt insisted, "The unity of the church and the unity of
humankind go together -- you can't have one without the other."  If this
dual unity "is not in the heart, in the guts, and in our belief structures,"
he said, "then it is mere faddism, and cannot be sustained."

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