wfn.org | Disciples Minister is Named COCU General Secretary

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

20-October-1999 
99349 
 
    Disciples Minister is Named COCU General Secretary 
 
    Episcopalian Pastor is Appointed Associate General Secretary 
 
    by Jerry L. Van Marter 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-The Consultation on Church Union (COCU) has named the Rev. 
Michael Kinnamon, a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 
and theology professor at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky, as 
its new General Secretary. 
 
    Kinnamon, who has been a key COCU advocate for many years, takes the 
helm of the 40-year-old ecumenical organization at a key time in its 
history.  At its most recent plenary last February in St. Louis, the nine 
COCU member churches approved a new cooperative relationship - without any 
structural changes in the member churches - that will take effect in 2002 
if the governing bodies of the churches endorse it. 
 
    Also announced by COCU in early October was the appointment of the Rev. 
K. Gordon White, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Lowell, Mass., as 
associate general secretary. 
 
    White's appointment is key, as he will assume administrative 
responsibility for COCU, allowing Kinnamon, who will remain at Lexington 
Seminary, to devote his time to the programmatic work of the consultation. 
 
    The administrative offices of COCU will move from their longtime home 
in Princeton, N.J., to Lowell. 
 
    White's appointment is also important because it gives COCU a strong 
voice within the Episcopal Church, which, with the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.)  has the most problematic relationship with COCU.  A number of 
COCU proposals have floundered as a result of either the  Episcopalians' 
insistence on the "historic episcopate" - an unbroken line of bishops 
dating back to apostolic times - or Presbyterian concerns over the 
diminished role of ordained elders. 
 
    Kinnamon's experience in ecumenical relations is extensive.  From 
1980-1983 he served as executive secretary of the World Council of 
Churches' Commission on Faith and Order.  He has also served on the Faith 
and Order Commission of the National Council of Churches and chaired its 
Ecclesiological Study Task Force from 1993-1997.  Kinnamon was the keynote 
speaker at COCU's 1988 plenary and chaired the drafting committee that 
proposed the new COCU agreement in February of this year. 
 
    White also has vast ecumenical experience, including the past 16 years 
as executive secretary to the Massachusetts Commission on Christian Unity, 
which encompasses 21 governing bodies in that state. 
 
    Kinnamon and White succeed the Rev. Lewis Lancaster of the PC(USA) who 
has served for the past year as interim general secretary. 
 
    The COCU member churches are the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Church (Disciples of 
Christ), Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Episcopal Church, 
International Council of Community Churches, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) 
and the United Church of Christ. 

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