Ecumenical rebirth

Christian Century, May 10, 2000 by Michael Kinnamon

THE CONSULTATION on Church Union (COCU), pronounced dead more than once over the past 40 years, is indeed about to die. On January 20, 2002, COCU's member communions will stop being a "consultation" and enter into a new, far more substantive relationship called Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC).

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has already voted to become part of this new relationship, and decision-making bodies of six other communions will act on the CUIC proposal by the end of July. Churches making decisions this year are the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Church, the International Council of Community Churches and the United Methodist Church. The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ will act on the proposal during their joint meeting in the summer of 2001.

Churches Uniting in Christ is a revision of a plan of "covenant communion" sent to the nine churches in 1988. That proposal included "the mutual recognition and reconciliation of ordained ministry" on the basis of the historic pattern of bishop, presbyter and deacon; but it suggested that these ministries, whatever they are called, can already be seen in the various churches. The responsibility of each church, therefore, was "to determine how its present categories of ordained ministry relate to the historic categories."

The proposal insisted, for example, that the churches need a "personalized ministry of episkope (oversight) at the middle judicatory level." In the shared life of covenant communion, these persons would be called bishops; but they would not necessarily use that title, or acquire new authority, within their own communions.

Seven of the churches approved the plan and declared their readiness to enter covenant communion. The PCUSA gave approval in its General Assembly, but that church's presbyteries subsequently rejected constitutional changes concerning the ministry of oversight. The Episcopal Church expressed deep reservations about the proposal, especially the understanding of ministry, and declared that, while wishing to remain in COCU, it was not ready to enter covenant communion.

Against this backdrop, representatives of the churches met in January 1999 for COCU's first plenary in a decade. The CUIC revision, essentially hammered out at that assembly, has eight elements that the member churches are now asked to affirm:

* Mutual recognition of each other as authentic expressions of the one church of Jesus Christ. Six characteristics of the church--including such things as faith in the triune God, commitment to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, faithfulness to scripture, and celebration of baptism and the Lord's Supper--have been spelled out in previous COCU documents.

* Mutual recognition of members in one baptism. This has already been done (25 years ago!) through official declaration in each of the churches.

* Mutual recognition that each affirms the apostolic faith of scripture and tradition which is expressed in the Apostles' and Nicene creeds. The content of this faith is set forth, at least in outline, in the consultation's basic theological text, The COCU Consensus, which has been formally approved by all except the Episcopal Church. My own denomination, the Disciples of Christ, will be quick to point out that the creeds are not understood in The COCU Consensus as "tests of fellowship" but as "unique, ecumenical witnesses of Tradition to the revelation of God recorded in Scripture."

* Provision for celebration of the Eucharist together with intentional regularity. CUIC is not a council but a fellowship centered on shared sacramental life.

* Engagement together in Christ's mission on a regular and intentional basis, especially a shared mission to combat racism. Are the churches, particularly at the local level, willing to make common mission their first thought rather than an afterthought? That is a key question for the new relationship.

* Intentional commitment to promote unity with wholeness and to oppose all marginalization and exclusion in church and society based on such things as race, age, gender, forms of disability, sexual orientation and class. The reference to sexual orientation has, of course, provoked opposition. It is, therefore, necessary to point out 1) that the churches are free to maintain their own standards for ministerial selection and 2) that the CUIC proposal does not necessarily condone homosexual behavior (several of the churches officially regard it as sinful). Rather, it calls on the churches to oppose discrimination against gay and lesbian neighbors. Many COCU supporters no doubt wish that the issue had simply been avoided. But surely the church must stand against "marginalization and exclusion"--and sexual orientation is the unavoidable test case of our era.

* Appropriate structures of accountability and appropriate means for consultation and decision-making. The 1988 proposal had called for the formulation of "covenanting councils" to oversee the new relationship nationally, regionally and locally. Several of the churches felt, however, that this added a layer of bureaucracy at a time when church bureaucracy as a whole is suspect. The CUIC plan recognizes the need for mutual accountability, but says that structures developed for this purpose should be "flexible and adapted to local circumstances." The COCU executive committee is working on possible models.