Title: CCU board explores new models for doing ecumenism
Date: April 29, 1997
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
97b-25
INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- New models for doing ecumenism in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and next steps in the partnership with the United Church of Christ highlighted a recent meeting of the Council on Christian Unity board of directors.
While meeting here April 15-17, directors discussed the first national "spiritual retreat" sponsored by the board in February. The group also considered a proposal asking Disciples congregations to sponsor "unity feasts" as a way of doing local ecumenism.
Forty Disciples pastors and lay leaders gathered in Nashville in February for the initial spiritual retreat, according to the Rev. Paul A. Crow Jr., CCU president. The agenda comprised 48 hours of prayer, Bible study, worship, dialogue and learning about biblical insights into the unity of the church.
"This retreat model illustrates the indelible link between spirituality and Christian unity," said board member Sally Paulsell, Columbus, Ind. The board subsequently endorsed a series of annual retreats on Christian unity for diverse groups from across the denomination.
The unity feast proposal calls for Disciples congregations to sponsor ecumenical fellowship suppers with neighboring churches. The gatherings also would involve Bible study, reflection on the churches' ecumenical heritage and Communion. Ten Disciples congregations will participate in the pilot project, offered by board member Lee Yates. He is a student at Lexington (Ky.) Theological Seminary.
With celebrations in July marking the "reconciled" ministries between the Disciples and United Church of Christ, "all the marks of ecumenical partnership have been achieved," said Crow. "The work of the Ecumenical Partnership Committee is done." Board members approved the liturgy for celebrating the reconciliation of ministries during the Disciples General Assembly.
The board commended the partnership committee's work "with deep appreciation and celebration." The group discussed holding annual or biennial national consultations as a means of continuing the ecumenical dialogue. The consultations would bring together Disciples and UCC regional and general leaders "to find common purposes and do common mission," Crow said.
In other action the CCU board reviewed a proposal to develop camps and conferences with a Christian unity theme. Members also explored the idea of appointing "unity summer interns" to assist the camp and conference effort.
The board also reviewed a document reexamining the nature and purpose of the World Council of Churches. In its responses to the visioning document, "Toward a Common Understanding and Vision of the World Council of Churches," the board urged that the WCC:
* remain a fellowship of churches. The WCC should not be a fellowship of councils or Christian social action groups, said the board. "Unity will come not by the actions of councils, but as the churches live ecumenically through councils and other models of unity," said the Rev. Robert K. Welsh. He is a Disciples associate general minister, and president of the Church Finance Council.
* maintain its Christological (Christ-centered) and Trinitarian bases and allow interfaith dialogue to take place in other arenas.
* have only national church bodies in its membership, as it has from the beginning. Some church groups have advocated making WCC membership available through Christian world communions or national or regional councils of churches, according to Crow. Such a move "would diminish the role of small churches and churches in the Third World," said the CCU president.
Several appointments to ecumenical bodies and gatherings were approved by the CCU board. Gwendolyn Gray, Montgomery, Ala., was elected secretary of the board and the Rev. Suzanne Webb, Carbondale, Ill., was named an observer to the September WCC Central Committee meeting in Geneva. The Rev. Roy Griggs, Tulsa, Okla., was named as the Disciples representative to the General Council of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, meeting in Hungary.
Griggs also was named as chairperson of the search committee for a new CCU president. Other search committee members are: Sally Paulsell, Columbus, Ind; G. Hugh Wilson, Norman, Okla.; Gwendolyn Gray, Montgomery, Ala.; General Minister and President Richard L Hamm, Indianapolis; the Rev. C. Roy Stauffer, Memphis; and Delores Highbaugh, Chicago.
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