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General Synod Update from the UCC Web Site

Committee approves plan for full communion among four U.S. churches 

Also:
Resolutions going to the Synod floor 

Contact:
Andy Lang 
UCC Office of Communication 
July 5, 1997 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A plan for full communion among four separate
Reformed and Lutheran churches in the United States was approved
unanimously Friday by a committee of the UCC's General Synod. The
issue is scheduled to come to the Synod floor tonight (July 5). 

Delegates will vote on a "Formula of Agreement" - a declaration of
full communion among three Reformed churches, including the United
Church of Christ, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The
ELCA is the largest Lutheran body in the United States. 

Several delegates told the committee they had strong reservations
about the Formula - on issues ranging from the doctrine of the
Eucharist to ordination of lesbian and gay pastors. But other
delegates said those reservations can be worked out in the
relationship between the four churches. 

"The Formula doesn't decide everything in advance," said the Rev.
Frank Dietz of Texas, chair of the UCC's Council on Ecumenism. "It
creates a foundation on which the four churches will build. Issues
will be resolved as we live our life together." 

Delegates say the vote is an opportunity for General Synod to live up
to the UCC's history as the first "united" church in the United
States.

"Either our denominational motto, 'That We May All be One,' is the
truth or a lie," Synod delegate Dave Plant said at a hearing on the
proposal Thursday night. "I hope it's the truth." 

Other delegates reminded the committee that the UCC already includes a
Lutheran tradition through the Evangelical Synod of the West - one of
the UCC's ancestor churches. The Evangelical Synod was organized by
Lutheran and Reformed immigrants from Germany. 

The plan will fail unless all of the churches adopt the Formula. Two
of the four - the Reformed Church in America and the Presbyterian
Church (USA) - approved the formula by decisive margins last month.
The ELCA's vote is scheduled for its Churchwide Assembly in
Philadelphia next month. 

Among other changes, the Formula provides for the orderly exchange of
ministers among the four churches. This has been a point of tension
for many Lutherans and members of both the PCUSA and RCA. The UCC is
the only one of the four denominations that permits the ordination of
lesbian and gay ministers without requiring a pledge of celibacy -
although policies are not uniform throughout the UCC. The Formula,
however, does not change the standards of ordination already in
force in each of the denominations. That means that openly gay and
lesbian ministers in the UCC probably will not be authorized to serve
in congregations of the other three churches. 

"There is nothing in the Formula that imposes a church order on us,"
Dietz said to the committee. "It is exceedingly respectful of the
integrity of each of the communions with the expectation that there
will be a shared life, that we will live out this relationship." 

If ordination of gay and lesbian ministers is a new controversy in the
relationship among the four churches, a much older one  - the doctrine
of the Eucharist - also concerns many delegates here. Lutherans
historically have emphasized the objective presence of Christ in the
sacrament, a doctrine that is difficult for some Reformed Christians
to accept. 

The Rev. John Thomas, the UCC's ecumenical officer, explained how
dialogue between the Lutheran and Reformed churches resolved the
conflict. 

"A Lutheran yearning is to express the reality of Christ's presence,"
he said. "The Reformed concern was that this perspective, if pushed
too far, could reduce God to the finite. So the Reformed stressed the
sovereignty of God and the Spirit's role in drawing the believer to
Christ. 

"But Lutherans were uneasy that this perspective, if pushed too far,
might remove Christ entirely from the Table. So we discovered that
there was truth on the other side. We said to each other: Your truth,
if held apart from our truth, is incomplete, and our truth also is
incomplete without yours. Lutherans remind the church of God's descent
in Christ into the midst of human life. The Reformed remind the church
of the Spirit's power to unite us in Christ." 

The accent in both traditions is on Christ. The Formula describes
Christ as the "host" of the Lord's Supper and the one who, in the
sacrament, gives himself fully - in his body and blood - to the world.

"I have been very frustrated by this discussion about what the
Eucharist means," said delegate Paul Braun of Minnesota. "We'll never
know for sure until we die and meet Jesus and he tells us what he
meant. Now we see in a glass dimly. 

"Lutherans say Christ is 'in, with, and under' the bread and wine,"
Braun said. "I think that's a good way to say it."

Quotes of the Day:

"Constitutions are not so dull and boring as you might think." 
-- Mary Ann Neevel, Chair of the UCC's Constitution and By-Laws
Revision Team during a committee meeting on proposed amendments to the
UCC Constitution. 

"We want to undo the UCC's low self-image - our theological
inferiority complex - and instill confidence that the United Church of
Christ does have a heritage that is distinctive and of which we can be
proud. 'Living Theological Heritage' is a library of history and
theology - a quarry which we can mine over and over again." 
-- Barbara Brown Zikmund, President, Hartford Seminary, speaking on
"The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ," a
series of core documents drawing from 20 centuries of Christian
history, published by Pilgrim Press. 

Other Synod Actions:

Jonathan Knight of the Ohio Conference had just passed cookies around
a committee hearing on a proposed pronouncement, "Renewed by God's
Spirit." "It's not the spiritual tools we need to worry about," said
Knight. "It's how we use them." Instantly, the lights in the meeting
room went out. Without missing a beat, Knight's voice broke through
the sudden silence: "But maybe I'm wrong." 

Several committees finished discussing their assigned resolutions on
Saturday morning. Scheduled for the July 5 evening plenary are votes
on:

The Formula of Agreement (Lutheran Reformed Full Communion) 

Partnership Between the Congregational Christian Church in American
Samoa and the UCC 

Cloning of Mammalian Species 

Toward a New Vision of Giving (New Patterns of Giving in the UCC) 

Martin Luther King Picture Project.

Laurie Bartels, Michelle Carter, W. Evan Golder, Hans Holznagel, Tim
Kershner, Andy Lang, Barb Powell, Alice Scott and Irwin Smallwood
participated in news gathering, writing and editing for this update. 

http://www.ucc.org