wfn.org | St. Louis Catholic Archbishop Welcomes Ecumenical Group

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22-January-1999 
99029 
 
    St. Louis Catholic Archbishop 
    Welcomes Ecumenical Group 
 
    by Jean Caffey Lyles 
 
ST. LOUIS - Roman Catholic Archbishop Justin Regali took a break from 
preparing for a papal visit to attend Wednesday's opening Eucharist service 
of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), which is holding its 18th 
Plenary here. 
 
    Regali, the archbishop of St. Louis and the chief host for Pope John 
Paul II's pastoral visit to the city next week, welcomed COCU delegates 
from nine U.S. Protestant and Anglican churches, calling himself a "friend 
and fellow servant in Christ." He also thanked members of the local 
ecumenical community for helping with preparations for the papal visit. 
 
    Regali said he and other Roman Catholic leaders are "real spiritual 
partners in your passage toward unity," noting the "happy coincidence" that 
the COCU plenary and the papal visit are both taking place around the time 
of the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which is celebrated each 
January by Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Protestants and Anglicans. 
 
    COCU's five-day Plenary, its first in a decade, ends Sunday, two days 
before the pope is scheduled to arrive. 
 
    A procession of colorfully robed clergy and lay leaders followed cross- 
and flag-bearers to and from Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral for the 
evening service. 
 
    Worshipers from six predominantly white and three predominantly black 
denominations left their seats and went to stations at the front of the 
church to receive the sacramental bread and either wine or grape juice, 
depending on their church tradition. The liturgy used was one written by 
COCU participants at an earlier gathering and approved by member churches 
for ecumenical use. 
 
    The COCU has been trying since the 1960s to bring the nine 
denominations into a workable form of  "visible unity." 
 
    The preacher for the Eucharist service was Rev. Cynthia Campbell, the 
president of Presbyterian-related McCormick Theological Seminary in 
Chicago. She spoke about the "entrepreneurial religious culture" in 
America, where churches "have had the luxury to create denominational 
variety and to engage in religious competition - and, occasionally, 
discord." 
 
    U.S. churches, she said, have learned that they need not "present a 
united Christian witness," but can go their separate ways, because American 
culture "still provides a vaguely Christian backdrop to American life." 
 
    But times have changed for the churches, Campbell said, with staggering 
membership losses, a widespread new "search for spirituality," and a rise 
in religious pluralism. In Chicago, she noted,  Muslims now outnumber 
Presbyterians and Episcopalians combined. 
 
    The Presbyterian clergywoman called on member churches and the COCU 
itself to "Get a life!" - and to decide whether it will be a life together. 
She said the churches must decide "if there is still a vocation for us" as 
a movement toward unity - "Or is it time to pack up and go our separate 
ways?" 

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