wfn.org | [ENS] New ecumenical organization launches in June

["Matthew Davies" <mdavies@mail.epicom.org>]

Tuesday, March 8, 2005

New ecumenical organization launches in June

ENS 030805-3

[ENS] A new ecumenical organization known as Christian Churches Together
in
the United States of America (CCT-USA) will be launched June 1-3,
2005 at El
Retiro, the Jesuit Retreat Center in Los Altos, California. 

Executive Council, meeting in Austin, Texas, February 11-14, 2005,
committed
the Episcopal Church to be a founding member of a new organization.

The Episcopal Church has been involved in discussions for several years,
with the National Council of Churches and others, about how to
"broaden the
ecumenical table" in the US, bringing together Roman Catholics,
Orthodox,
mainline Protestants, primarily ethnic churches, Evangelicals and
Pentecostals in a new forum for prayer, dialogue, and action.

For the foreseeable future, CCT-USA will not replace the National
Council of
Churches, but will exist alongside it with its full support.

"Obviously, it is too soon to know what will become of this new
initiative,
but CCT-USA could have the potential of moving beyond the old,
institutional
structures and bureaucracies of the ecumenical movement and tap into the
new
energies of a spiritual ecumenism which would realistically reflect the
entire Christian landscape today in this country and beyond," observed
Bishop Christopher Epting, ecumenical officer for the Episcopal Church.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops recently committed the Roman
Catholic Church to membership, making CCT-USA the first national
ecumenical
organization in the US they have joined. In addition, full members now
include the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Church of God,
the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Cooperative Baptist
Fellowship
(CBF), the United Methodist Church, several Orthodox bodies, the
Salvation
Army, the United Church of Christ, Open Bible Churches, International
Pentecostal Holiness Church, Evangelicals for Social Action, World
Vision,
and a number of others.

The membership dues for ECUSA's membership in CCT-USA will come from the
existing budget of the Office for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
and
will have no overall budget impact for ECUSA.

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