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Ecumenical Friendship
Date: July 26, 2002
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Robert Welsh, Council on Christian Unity
Phone: (317) 713-2586
E-mail: rwelsh@ccu.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

            
BALTIMORE, MD, July 26, 2002 -- At the half-way mark in the
current round
of ecumenical conversations involving the Alliance of
Baptists, the United
Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ), members of
the joint dialogue team have reached agreement on the
nature of the ongoing
relationship they plan to recommend to all three bodies
next year.
            
Although several models of potential partnership have been
explored, the
team agreed during its last meeting, held May 7-8 in
Baltimore, to
 recommend an ongoing relationship built on a "deepening
ecumenical
friendship" between and among the three participating
bodies. The decision
followed a brief presentation during the closing session in
Baltimore by
Robert K. Welsh, ecumenical officer of the Disciples of
Christ.
            
In his remarks, Welsh pointed to the passage in the Gospel
of John (15:12ff.)
in which Jesus declared to his disciples: "You are my
friends if you do what I
command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because
the servant
does not know what the master is doing; but I have called
you friends,
because I have made known to you everything I have heard
from my Father."
           
Welsh is one of two Disciples representatives who have
participated as
observers in the current round of talks involving the UCC
and the Alliance of
Baptists. Both these bodies, whose representatives have
been talking since
1997 about the shape of an ongoing ecumenical relationship,
invited
Disciples participation in formal actions last year.
            
Following the May meeting of the dialogue team, Welsh
stated: "Based upon
our participation as observers in the past two dialogue
sessions ... Disciples
are encouraged to look at the possibility of becoming full
partners in this
dialogue that offers such promise for the future of the
ecumenical
movement." He said his board would consider the matter when
it meets in
November.
            
UCC Ecumenical Officer Lydia Veliko and Alliance of
Baptists Executive
Director Stan Hastey, co-conveners of the dialogue team,
welcomed Welsh's
willingness to pursue the possibility of Disciples
involvement as a full partner
in the talks.
            
Noting that Disciples and Baptists are finding each other
locally in the same
way Baptists and UCC folks have done, Veliko observed: "The
dialogue
between the Alliance of Baptists and the UCC is such a
vital one because it
touches at the heart of local ecumenical energy and
efforts. The work of the
local, regional, and national leaders on behalf of the
relationship between the
Alliance and the UCC is done for the sake of the mission
and ministry of the
congregations. This is an ecumenical development to
celebrate, not least
because it models an intentional commitment to brothers and
sisters in
Christ."
            
Hastey agreed, saying: "These conversations are gaining
momentum, not
because our evolving friendship was dreamed up in a
conference room in
Cleveland, Indianapolis or Washington," referring to the
cities where the
UCC, Disciples and Alliance are headquartered. "Rather, our
ecumenical
friendship is evolving naturally, as like-minded people
from these three
bodies find one another in their own communities," he
elaborated. "It seems
our task is to encourage and facilitate such encounters,
always remembering
that God's Spirit moves where it will and that we must
hurry along to catch up
with what God is already doing in the churches."
          
Two additional sessions in the current round of talks have
been scheduled,
both to be held in Baltimore and hosted by the UCC's
Central Atlantic
Conference -- Oct. 30-31 and Jan. 16-17, 2003.
          
                      -- end --

 02-74           
            
Council on Christian Unity
Contact: Robert Welsh
(317) 713-2586
rwelsh@ccu.disciples.org