wfn.org | COCU leaders issue statement on racism

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Note #6330 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

16-January-2001
01012

COCU leaders issue statement on racism

Race relations will be primary focus of new relationship

by Jerry L. Van Marter

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Leaders of the nine member churches of the Consultation
on Church Union (COCU) have issued a statement on racism to their members.

	The statement comes as the nine churches approach their new relationship,
"Churches Uniting in Christ" (CUIC), which is scheduled to be inaugurated in
January, 2002.

	At the 18th COCU plenary in early 1999 which proposed CUIC, the churches
also agreed to focus their combined efforts on combating racism. That move
was particularly significant for Presbyterians as COCU is the only
ecumenical unity forum in which the PC(USA) and the historically black U.S.
churches are partners.

	The full text of the statement:

January 2001 

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ: 

In January of 2002, God willing, nine churches will enter a new relationship
with one another, to be called Churches Uniting in Christ. These churches --
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 (USA), United Church of Christ, and United Methodist
Church -- have been together for more than thirty years in the Consultation
on Church Union. Seven of these churches have already officially voted to
become Churches Uniting in Christ; and the other two, the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ, will act on the
proposal next summer.
We, the undersigned leaders, believe that the new relationship will bring
our churches closer to that unity for which our Lord prayed on the last
night of his life: "May they (the disciples and those who follow them) all
be one ... that the world may believe that you have sent me" (John 17:20).
We give thanks to God for having brought us this far.

While the new relationship will be based on eight visible marks of unity and
will include a number of commitments, none is more important than the shared
resolve to combat racism. Our churches have been divided by confessional
differences, and these are important; but surely our deepest and most
painful separations have stemmed from the experience of slavery and racism.
Any effort to realize visible communion among us must pay primary attention
to this reality. Thus, one of the marks of unity to which the churches bind
themselves is "intentional commitment to promote unity with wholeness and to
oppose all marginalization and exclusion in church and society based upon
such things as race…" Combating racism will be a hallmark of Churches
Uniting in Christ.

We who sign this letter believe that racism is a sin, an offense against
God. Those of us from predominately white churches ask forgiveness for the
ways that we and our churches have participated in this evil. We ask God to
heal us and to strengthen our witness to the gospel of God's inclusive love
through Churches Uniting in Christ.

Our churches are committing to this struggle against racism for two primary
reasons:
 
1. Racism which manifests itself as white skin privilege is based on power
plus prejudice, and it is difficult for African-American, Asian American,
Hispanic, Middle Eastern, Native American, and Pacific Islander "...
congregations and members to be fully convinced of the call of their
European-American counterparts for unity as equals, if the latter are not
willing to struggle to dismantle the obstacles to social, political, and
economic equality presented by white privilege ..." (Report of COCU's 18th
Plenary).

2. Authentic community among Churches Uniting in Christ will be impossible
to achieve if "by their unquestioning acceptance of the unjust gains granted
by an unjust system, white members of this community continue their tacit
complicity with this unjust social order that denies fullness of life " to
African-Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, Middle Easterners, Native
Americans, and Pacific Islanders.

The effort of our churches to overcome racism will call us to a mighty
struggle that, with God's help, will enable us to become more truly the
church. Racism is a persistent and ubiquitous evil, a heresy, and a denial
of God's mighty acts of creation and redemption. It is a battle against
"principalities and powers, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly
places" (Ephesians 6:12). But the struggle will manifest our unity in a way
that will compel the world around us to notice, to hear the gospel more
clearly, and to take the witness and mission of the church more seriously.
We will manifest a unity that is both credible and compelling. "It will
require both the conversion of individuals and the transformation of the
churches themselves" (Report of the 18th Plenary).

We, leaders of these nine communions, ask for your prayers, as our churches
enter this new relationship. At this time of year, when we remember the
prophetic ministry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we also ask for your
commitment to a renewed struggle against racism, both in your congregation
and in your own life, ""that the world may believe.""

In Christ,

Bishop William P. DeVeaux, presiding bishop, African Methodist Episcopal
Church

Bishop Milton Alexander Williams, presiding bishop, African Methodist
Episcopal Zion 	Church

The Rev. Richard L. Hamm, general minister and president, Christian Church
(Disciples of 	Christ)

Bishop Nathaniel L. Linsey, senior bishop, Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church

Bishop Frank T. Griswold, presiding bishop and primate, The Episcopal Church
U.S.A.

The Rev. Michael E. Livingston, executive director, International Council of
Community
churches

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, General Assembly stated clerk, Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.)

The Rev. John H. Thomas, general minister and president, The United Church
of Christ

Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, ecumenical officer, United Methodist Church
Council of Bishops

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