wfn.org | Talbert leads Churches Uniting in Christ council

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

May 6, 2002     News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-31-71BP{203}

NOTE: Photographs of Bishop Melvin Talbert and the Rev. Bertrice Wood are
available at http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html online.

By United Methodist News Service

Members of the nine communions that recently formed Churches Uniting in
Christ are in the process of understanding the implications of their new
relationship, according to United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert.

Talbert was elected to a two-year term as president of the group's
coordinating council in April. The council includes a voting member from
each communion, as well as ecumenical officers who are nonvoting observers.
Talbert is the ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of
Bishops.

The coordinating council's immediate work "is to get the information out to
our respective churches, letting them know that this commitment has taken
place," he told United Methodist News Service in a May 6 interview.

One small but significant action is to encourage local churches of each
communion to post their CUIC membership on their outdoor signs or marquees.
If churches from all nine communions did so, "it would be a strong signal
indicating the special relationship that we have with each other," Talbert
said. 

In addition to the United Methodist Church, the organization includes the
African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church,
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Methodist Episcopal
Church, International Council of Community Churches, Episcopal Church,
Presbyterian Church (USA) and United Church of Christ.

Originally part of the Consultation on Church Union, the denominations,
representing some 22 million believers worldwide, reformed themselves into
the new group during a January meeting in Memphis, Tenn. Their top moral
agenda item is the elimination of racism.

"One reason we came together is we made the commitment to address a tough
issue facing our church and our society, and that's racism," Talbert
explained.

A task force on racism will consider how to do that. Two other task forces
will focus on ministry and local and regional connections. The ministry task
force will address the reconciliation of ministries among the member
communions by 2007, while the local and regional task force will offer
suggestions on how the various churches "can act out these new
relationships."

Talbert, who has had extensive experience with other ecumenical bodies, such
as the National and World councils of churches, said he does not believe
that Churches Uniting in Christ is in conflict with these organizations.
CUIC, he explained, represents a more specialized relationship of
denominations that have much in common. "Hopefully, working together, we can
be a sign to the rest of the churches," he added.

Talbert said he was excited about the selection of the Rev. Bertrice Y. Wood
as the organization's first director. Wood was the first woman pastor of the
historic and predominantly African-American Mt. Zion Congregational United
Church of Christ in Cleveland and also has worked as associate to the
executive vice president of the United Church Board for World Ministries in
New York and Cleveland. She will be based in Cleveland.

Wood currently is vice president at large of the National Council of
Churches and serves on the board of trustees of several United Church of
Christ organizations. "She's eminently qualified for this job," Talbert
added, noting that she recently finished work for a doctorate in ecumenics.

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United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org