wfn.org | Renowned Disciples ecumenist speaks on the state of Christian

["Wilma Shuffitt"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

unity
Date: November 18, 1998
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
Email: CMiller@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

98a-68

	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- "I am the luckiest man on the face of the 
earth" -- the words of retiring baseball legend Lou Gehrig echoed by 
a retiring Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) leader who's 
traversed a good deal of the earth's face in his 40 year career as an 
ecumenist.  A wide variety of activities Nov. 5-9 honored the Rev. 
Paul A. Crow, Jr., Council on Christian Unity president for the last 
quarter of a century. 

	"It's been a marvelous, marvelous, experience," Crow told the CCU 
directors in his final board meeting with them.  He recounted for the 
board some of the highlights of his career, including his 
participation in the inauguration of the Church of India in 1970, his 
1986 trip to Assisi, Italy to pray for world peace with Pope John 
Paul II, and his years (1968-1974) as the first general secretary of 
the Consultation on Church Union. 

	More than two dozen of Crow's world ecumenical community colleagues 
spent part of the weekend in an off-the-record symposium on the state 
of global Christian unity work. Many of them attended an ecumenical 
Eucharistic service and joined about 250 other colleagues, relatives 
and friends at a dinner in Crow's honor.    

	On Sunday, Nov. 8, Crow delivered the 17th annual Peter Ainslie 
lecture at Christ Apostolic Church, Indianapolis.  While the retiring 
CCU president was instrumental in establishing the lecture series and 
inviting world-renowned ecumenists to speak over the years, this was 
his first time at the lecture podium. Ainslie, a Disciples minister, 
was a prominent ecumenist of the early 20th century and founded the 
Council on Christian Unity. 

	"Christian unity -- God's gift and our calling -- in a dramatically 
different world" was Crow's lecture theme.  "If you take this 
ecumenical century and compare it to the four previous centuries, 
we're living in a different part of the galaxy," he said.  He 
celebrated a host of 20th century accomplishments, among them the 
transformation of the Roman Catholic Church from a position of 
resistance to ecumenical leadership; the alliance of Protestant and 
Orthodox churches in the World Council of Churches; the rise of 
ecumenical leadership among Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, and 
Caribbean and Pacific Christians; the emergence of the United Church 
in South India in 1948 and subsequent unity efforts that have led to 
65 United Churches around the world; and wide-ranging agreements in 
talks between and among various Protestant denominations.  
"Unbelievable!" he exclaimed. 

	Still, as the 20th century draws to a close, some express the 
sentiment that the best work of ecumenism has passed -- that the 
ecumenical movement is stagnant. "Has the ecumenical vision died? Has 
the ecumenical movement as we know it lost its momentum?" he asked. 

	He acknowledged that the cause of Christian unity may have entered  
"wintertime," but chose to interpret "winter" as a time of waiting -- 
a time of rest before spring.  "God was in Christ reconciling the 
world to God's self, and entrusting to us the ministry of 
reconciliation. That is not a wintertime statement," Crow challenged. 

	He asserted that the ecumenical movement has progressed beyond 
talking to the moment of deciding. "When the moment comes when your 
talking must eventuate in decisions that change lives and 
institutions, people get very anxious, very fearful and very 
negative. But I name that as a good moment in the ecumenical 
movement. If people care enough to articulate their fears, if people 
care enough to debate the issues and the goals and the visions that 
are being proposed, there is life in the Church. I fear apathy more 
than I fear conflict." 

	Crow enumerated three late 20th century challenges to Christian 
unity: radical localism, a new pluralism, and the secularization of 
the church.  Radical localism is expressed in the attitude "Don't 
bother me with the problems of the world. The only thing that counts 
for me is my congregation," Crow said. 

	Human diversity is a gift of God, said Crow.  But it becomes 
problematic when "difference becomes the only definition of who we 
are...we name our ethnic identity, our racial identity, our national 
identity as our fundamental identity -- and all the rest has no 
meaning and has no claim upon our lives."  

	The secularized church, Crow said, "looks to the culture to define 
what is important for it. It does not look to the Gospel. The church 
begins to be reformed by this kind of secular decision-making."

	"The ecumenical movement challenges localism. It says the church is 
the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is never captive to a 
particular place.  Indeed, the Body of Christ draws every place into 
communion and fellowship.  The ecumenical movement challenges 
isolating pluralism. When people define their unity as only with 
people ‘like us,' there is not that vision of wholeness that can 
transform the world," said Crow.  

	The faithful church, Crow said, "can proclaim what God did in Jesus 
Christ -- and in the context of that Gospel -- try to discover what 
it means to be one -- to try to discover how we transcend our 
differences. The Gospel announces to us that God in Jesus Christ has 
made us one. So may it be." 

	The Rev. Crow officially retires at the end of the year.  The Rev. 
Robert K. Welsh has been named to succeed Crow.  

	-- end --

{Note to Editors: Photo of Rev. Crow will be mailed}

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