Title: Meeting promotes renewed dialogue within the Stone-Campbell movement
Date: July 16, 1999
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: news@cm.disciples.org
Additional contacts:
Dr. Mike Armour: 214-823-2169
Dr. Robert Welsh: 317-635-3100
Mr. John Mills: 330-225-5268
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CINCINNATI (DNS) -- Nine ministers and church historians met on June 25 in Cincinnati in the interest of restoring dialogue across all three streams of the Stone-Campbell heritage.
The meeting was an ad hoc gathering, with no official sponsorship. Its purpose was to explore opportunities to lessen the impact of the division between the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), non-instrumental Churches of Christ and independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.
The meeting allowed the participants to become personally acquainted with each other and to set an agenda for future talks among them. Three additional meetings have been scheduled, one in November of this year and two more in 2000.
The participants hope their discussions can set the stage for a much larger gathering that would bring together dozens of leaders from all three groups. The upcoming meetings will serve to identify where the three groups still share common ground after a hundred years of division and to pinpoint areas of divergence.
The Cincinnati meeting was put together through a network of mutual acquaintances after Richard Hamm, general minister and president of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), publicly expressed interest in renewing dialogue with the independent Christian Churches and the Churches of Christ. John Mills, long-time minister in the independent Christian Churches, took the initiative to bring the nine-member gathering together.
Representing the Disciples were Richard Hamm, Robert Welsh and Peter Morgan. Welsh is president of the Disciples Council on Christian Unity and Morgan is president of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville.
Participants from the independent churches were John Mills, and two well-known historians, James North of Cincinnati Bible Seminary and Henry Webb of Milligan College.
Attending from the non-instrumental Churches of Christ were Mike Armour, minister for the Skillman Church of Christ in Dallas; Doug Foster, professor of church history at Abilene Christian University; and Phillip Morrison, editor of Wineskins magazine.
The participants repeatedly emphasized their interest in finding ways to remove rancor and abrasiveness from discussions of differences among those who are heirs of the Stone-Campbell movement. At the same time they freely acknowledged that they did not see themselves as "official representatives" of the particular churches.
Toward the end of the day the group adopted a statement of purpose to guide their future gatherings. The statement reads, "To develop relationships and trust within the three streams of the Stone-Campbell movement through worship and through charitable and frank dialogue, that the world may believe.'" This last phrase draws upon the words of Jesus in his prayer for oneness among his followers.
The participants also agreed to expand the next three meetings to include 18 people -- six from each branch of the movement -- to provide a broader array of perspective. Future meetings also will be enlarged to a two-day format.
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