wfn.org | Disciples step out in faith, approve new unity recommendation

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

Date: January 27, 1999
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

99c-3

	ST. LOUIS (DNS) --  The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 
joined eight other Protestant communions in the unanimous approval of 
new Christian unity recommendations and a plan to combat racism at 
the 18th Plenary of the Consultation on Christian Union, Jan. 20-24.  

	The communions of the consultation are: the Christian Church 
(Disciples of Christ), the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian 
Church (USA), the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the 
International Council of Community Churches, the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church 
and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Each communion will 
present the recommendations to its governing body for consideration 
and official action.   

	The recommendations in the final plenary report call for the 
inauguration of  a new relationship called Churches Uniting in Christ 
during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January 2002. The 
communions that decide to join in the 2002 public declaration and 
liturgical celebration would commit to expressing their new 
relationship in nine visible ways:

 	-- Mutual recognition of each other as authentic expressions of the 
one church of Jesus Christ;

 	-- Mutual recognition of members in one baptism;

 	-- Mutual recognition of ordained ministry;

 	-- Mutual recognition that each affirms the apostolic faith of 
scripture and tradition which is expressed in the Apostles' and 
Nicene creeds and that each seeks to give witness to the apostolic 
faith in its life and mission;

 	-- Provision for the celebration of the Eucharist together with 
intentional regularity;

 	-- Engagement together in Christ's mission on a regular and 
intentional basis, especially a shared mission to combat racism;

 	-- Intentional commitment to promote unity with wholeness and to 
oppose all marginalization and exclusion in church and society based 
on such things as race, age, gender, forms of disability, sexual 
orientation and class;

 	-- An ongoing process of theological dialogue on continuing issues, 
especially related to the full reconciliation of ordained ministries; 
and

 	-- Appropriate structures of accountability and appropriate means 
for consultation and decision making.

	Several of these marks have already been claimed by the consultation 
churches over the past 15 years. This new relationship gathers them 
up in a comprehensive and focused way. 

	Key issues

	The Call to Christian Commitment and Action to Combat Racism 
component of the Plenary report maintains that "the sin of racism is 
the most divisive issue confronting Churches Uniting in Christ. The 
Plenary names racial justice as a primary hallmark of this new 
relationship."

	The 18th Plenary called on the consultation communions to make 
strategic anti-racism commitments and to implement them together.  
They include: continuing to make a compelling theological case 
against racism; sharing information on how each communion is 
combating racism; claiming Martin Luther King, Jr., Day observances 
for dialogue leading to change; witnessing against racism in worship; 
strengthening Christian education on the demands of racial justice; 
rigorous self-examination for racism in the member churches and goals 
for measuring progress toward dismantling institutional racism; human 
rights and criminal justice reform advocacy; and addressing racism 
toward new immigrant groups.  

	The report calls for a "jointly-sponsored analytical study of the 
workings and effects of systematic white skin color privilege in 
America." It also recommends a meeting soon of persons responsible 
for racial justice ministries in their respective communions and 
other leaders   to "explore the implications of injustice and suggest 
future actions." A later meeting of the consultation churches would 
identify action they can take together.  

	The 1995 General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of 
Christ) approved the foundational documents that emerged from more 
than 25 years of discussion of the theology of Christian unity among 
members of the Consultation on Church Union.  The Rev. Robert K. 
Welsh, president of the Disciples Council on Christian Unity, said a 
2001 Disciples General Assembly vote in favor of the new report and 
recommendations "would approve how we will set those (foundational) 
documents to music in the life of the church. The understanding in 
the Churches Uniting in Christ report is that the initiative will be 
from the congregations -- joining with the whole church in these 
endeavors and not something that is imposed ‘top-down.'"

	Welsh thinks the consultation made three key affirmations that 
promise to move the participating communions beyond the talking stage 
toward action on visible unity.  The communions that approve the 
plenary recommendations would affirm that "Yes, there is a full 
commitment to move together in a new relationship in the future. With 
that new relationship, there's a commitment to even greater unity as 
we live together and work together on the issues still before us. And 
the breakthrough point in our new commitment is the common focus on 
dealing with racial justice within our churches, between our churches 
and in society," the CCU president observed. 

	The most vexing of the unsettled issues has been clergy oversight 
and decision-making authority. The nine consultation communions have 
different traditions in those areas.  It has always been the goal of 
the consultation to work it out so that all the communions have 
ordained ministries that correspond to three categories: bishop, 
presbyter and deacon -- even if they don't employ those titles in 
exactly the same way. Working that out is called reconciliation of 
ministries. 

	The recommendation of the 18th COCU Plenary is to live with, for the 
time being, the mutual recognition of ministry -- but to work toward 
reconciliation by the year 2007. Even with that provision, the 
Episcopal Church delegation, while voting in favor of the Plenary 
recommendations, said it could not present them to its General 
Convention until the reconciliation of ministries question is 
clarified.  Not only is the Episcopal Church deeply rooted in the 
three-fold ministry and the apostolic succession of bishops, those 
concepts are the foundation of its ecumenical discussions outside of 
COCU. 

	"What the Episcopalians want to know is that we're serious about 
reconciliation, and that we're at least open to receiving the gift of 
apostolic succession and we're serious about having a recognizable  
three-fold ministry," said the Rev. Michael Kinnamon, director, 
Center for Lay Education and Ecumenical Leadership, Lexington, Ky., 
and a plenary report drafter. 

	The plenary report instructs the COCU executive committee to 
initiate theological discussion on the order of ministry and clergy 
oversight and decision-making. The nine member communions are hopeful 
that the discussions will begin very soon -- and will give the 
Episcopalians enough clarity to take the new report to their General 
Convention in 2000. That could allow the Episcopal Church to 
participate in the 2002 inauguration of the Churches Uniting in 
Christ. 

	The Presbyterian Church (USA) delegation voted in favor of the 
plenary report without comment on a previously voiced theological 
difficulty with the title and function of a "bishop" resting on a 
single person. In the Presbyterian Church, oversight authority 
resides in bodies called "presbyteries," not with one person. "That 
{theological discussion} could {also} leave open for the 
Presbyterians that other forms of episcopal oversight could be 
recognized," Kinnamon said.

	If any of the churches are unable to participate in the 2002 
inauguration, the new plenary document would invite them to "be 
partners in continuing relationship."  Short of the public 
declaration and liturgical celebration, these communions would be 
encouraged to express as many of the visible marks of unity as 
possible.

	New thought on "covenanting councils"

	The 18th Plenary recognized varying degrees of resistance, 
identified in the official actions of the consultation churches, to 
the earlier call for local covenanting councils to coordinate 
ecumenical activities and commitments in regions and among 
congregations.  The 18th Plenary report recommendations modify the 
council idea -- calling instead for "structures of mutual empowerment 
and accountability." The phrase acknowledges that not all communities 
need or want a narrowly defined council. "The aim is to provide forms 
appropriate to the local situation and to the specific tasks in which 
the churches in that place are involved," the report says.  The chief 
recommendations for the formation of local ecumenical groups among 
the Churches Uniting in Christ are broader and brief. The groups 
should be diverse, inclusive, and visible. The plenary report says 
the COCU Executive Committee is to help make this clear for 
congregations and regional bodies.  

	Whatever they're named, the local groups will foster visible unity 
by coordinating regular joint mission projects; shared worship, 
pulpit exchanges and exchanges of church representatives  for 
baptisms and other sacramental observances; mutual struggle against 
racism; programs that teach about the other churches; and 
participation by delegated members in the life of  a partner church's 
congregation. Nothing in the new recommendations would stand in the 
way of congregations fostering or continuing ecumenical initiatives 
or relationships with communions not part of Churches Uniting in 
Christ. 

	The Consultation on Church Union has been underway since 1962.  The 
January 1999 recommendations mean "We would be committing ourselves 
to a new relationship that's no longer simply dialogue (consultation) 
but a living relationship to manifest our unity in Christ," Welsh 
said.  

	"I believe it will help us present a united face of the Gospel to a 
culture that suffers from brokenness and disunity -- and which has a 
hard time hearing the Gospel from divided witnesses," said the Rev. 
Richard L. Hamm, Disciples general minister and president, and a 
consultation delegate.  

	18th Plenary keynote speaker Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., Christian 
Methodist Episcopal Church (CME), said the central question of the 
St. Louis meetings was "Are you committed to the covenant and promise 
of unity ... or are you not?" Hoyt suggested that unity among the 
nine consultation churches is like childbirth.  He hoped the baby 
that finally is born would have "features of each of us without being 
an exact replica of any of us."

	"We're committed to giving birth to this baby!" said CME Bishop 
Nathaniel Lindsey.

	-- end --