USEcumenicalLinks

The PC(USA)'s permanent General Assembly Committee on Ecumenical Relations is charged with bringing a report on Christian Churches Together to the 219th General Assembly (2010) at the end of the current period of PC(USA) provisional membership in the body. Its review committee has

Christian Churches Together, as the broadest ecumenical table of conversation yet to exist in the U.S., has developed a purpose statement:

“Christian Churches Together shall seek to fulfill [its] purpose and to embody our unity in Jesus Christ through mutual support, learning, and outreach into our participant bodies and into American society.” With the statement as guide, the CCT steering committee has considered goals around each of the three main elements in it. CCT uses discernment and consensus as its primary decision-making model.

Most CCT participants are fully involved in another entity such as the National Council of Churches (NCC) or the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). The NCC's Michael Kinnamon sent a video message to the 2009 annual meeting in which he openly discussed the perception that CCT and the NCC could become competitive for limited resources. He spoke of the work of the Spirit seen in CCT and spoke of the need for leaders of the two entities to be in close communication.

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is a provisional member CCT member as well as an NCC member communion.

CCT is committed to two basic emphases for the period ahead, evangelism and fighting poverty. In January 2009, over a hundred leaders from 43 participating communities met in Baltimore to worship, discuss future steps in CCT's development, work on the domestic poverty issue, and meet with government leaders. PC(USA) minister Gary Cook of Bread for the World oriented participants for their

visits to Senate offices. A February 2010 meeting is expected to deal with evangelism. Read the CCT study papers on evangelismand its statement on poverty.

Leonid Kishkovsky is the current CCT moderator and Richard L. Hamm (pictured) is executive director. Asked how he would know if CCT is succeeding, Hamm offered three benchmarks: that CCT have a growing number of participants, speak to relevant topics, and maintain its focus.

See FAQs about CCT. See a short video about CCT.

The PC(USA) has particular concern that Christian Churches Together be a hospitable place that encompases racial and ethnic churches. (See Minutes, 217th General Assembly, p. 574f.)

And CCT itself is learning from its experiences. At the annual meeting in January 2009, participants changed a CCT "church family" designation to "Historic African American churches" from "racial/ethnic." Other racial/ethnic churches -- such as the Korean Presbyterian Church in America -- would fit into other "families."

In January 2009, black church leaders Wilton Gregory (Roman Catholic) and William Shaw (National Baptist USA) both spoke on behalf of CCT at its press conference centered on poverty. The current list of CCT participant churches lists a number of African-American bodies as being in the decision-making process or present as observers.

Church Women United

Church Women United will celebrate its 70th birthday in December 2011. It partners with a wide range of organizations, including the MalariaNoMore campaign to end malaria by 2012 and Church World Service to provide clean drinking water in Kenya. It is the custodian of the Fellowship of the Least Coin offerings in the U.S. CWU sponsors special days throughout the year: May Friendship Day (next on May 7, 2010), World Community Day, and Human Rights Day. While it formerly coordinated the World Day of Prayer celebration, a separate U.S. committee now takes that responsibility. A newsletter provides information about what is happening in the CWU legislative office in Washington D.C. CWU executive officer is Djamillah Samad.

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On November 20, the Universal Children's Day, news went out that Church World Service (CWS) would be focusing more intensively on the world's most vulnerable children, under the theme of "All Our Children." The campaign strategy centers on both immediate critical needs and longer-range needs. In keeping with this emphasis, CWS has urged world leaders to expend more of the money they have promised for food security programs on cost effective and relatively fast micronutrient programs to save children suffering and dying from malnutrition. CWS's focus will be on children in the world's poorest countries but John McCullough (pictured), CWS general director, says the U.S. is not immune to having malnourished children.

The "time is now" said the NCC general assembly as it adopted a resolution on nuclear disarmament in November 2009.

The resolution came at the original initiative of the historic peace churches in January. It reiterates the NCC's earlier statement that nuclear arms are a violation of God's law and do not deter enemy attacks. The assembly also heard a panel led by Presbyterian minister Michael Livingstone concerning fire arms control. See his remarks.

The vice-chair of the U.S. Faith and Order Commission is currently Presbyterian Aimee Moiso (pictured). The commission is pursuing as studies in 2008-2011:

From the previous eight years' of study, Faith and Order has produced two documents, a response to the Catholic paper, "A Petrine Ministry," and a consensus document, "The Authority of the Church in the World"

(plus an introduction to the latter by Antonios Kireopoulos as well as papers from a variety of confessional perspectives).

The papers from the 2007 Faith and Order conference “On Being Christian Together: the Faith and Order Experience in the United States” are being collected in a book, Theology in the U.S. Today: Churches on the Journey. The Speaking of Unity online journal is expected to present the outcomes of an earlier study of Full Communion, to be followed by a conference bringing together participants in bilateral dialogues.

Through the NCC's Justice and Advocacy Commission, churches, church organizations and agencies, and regional ecumenical bodies are invited to work together to pursue justice concerning a whole array of societal issues and to speak with a common voice. The commission seeks to work from a wholistic approach that takes insights and disciplines from a full range of perspectives. Visit its web site.

Racism at center of CUIC's mission and CUIC's floundering

CUIC is in a period of moratorium and reconciliation-seeking following its January 2008 plenary, the first since the inaugural event of the ten-member body in 2002. At the plenary, two of its three historically black churches were missing, the African Methodist Epistopal Zion Church (AMEZ) and the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Both had already stated their intention to suspend participation. Ironically, dismantling racism was the announced plenary motif, but AME's ecumenical officer, Bishop Earl McCloud Jr., affirmed his church's suspension of its membership, saying, "We were concerned that the organization had gotten away from its original mandate, which was to deal with some of the issues of racism and racial discrimination and white privilege.”

Two Presbyterians -- Robina Winbush (pictured, right), representing the PC(USA), and Michael Livingston (pictured, left), representing the International Council of Community Churches -- are part of a high level group working "to examine the efficacy of CUIC's governance and programmatic structure" and to design steps for moving forward. A moratorium on the work of CUIC task forces is in effect. Its officers remain in place, including Presbyterian James Tse as treasurer.

From its beginning, CUIC faced challenges around two issues:

Dismantling racism
Dealing with questions revolving around the reconciliation and/or recognition of ministry between the churches, with special attention focused on Presbyterian-Episcopal conversations

At CUIC's inauguration, it said, "To envision unity without addressing racism is to ignore our history in North America and deny the insidious nature of that which divides us." CUIC's coordinating council had recommitted to work toward dismantling racism. CUIC's intentions on racism rested on key understandings:

There is a link between the churches' search for unity in faith, sacraments, and ministry and the struggle to overcome racism in the churches and the human community.
Authentic unity is inclusive and requires justice within the churches and in society.
Our prophetic witness against racism and the powers of oppression is a test of the churches' faithfulness.

Dealing with CUIC's open sore requires steps beyond bureaucratic repair, a February 2008 interview with National Council of Churches general secretary Michael Kinnamon seems to say. He commented that CUIC is a new way of being church that "demands that the churches relate to one another and not rely on an office to do it."

Majority of African Americans are affiliated to historic black churches

The importance of historic black churches for ecumenical relationships with African Americans is shown by statistics from the Pew U.S. religious landscape survey of 2007. Fifty-nine percent of African Americans are affiliated with historic black churches, according to the survey; fifteen percent belong to evangelical churches, four percent to mainline Protestant churches, and five percent to Catholic churches. (One percent are affiliated with Muslim congregations.)

CUIC plenary recommited it to eight visible marks of unity

In their January 2008 plenary, CUIC members recommitted themselves to the visible marks of unity they had adopted at CUIC's beginning:

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Ecumenical & Interfaith News Network - PCUSA

Ecumenical & Interfaith
News Network - PCUSA