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Holy Week resources and reflections

Churches Uniting in Christ: a new beginning

MEMPHIS - "Does this matter? Can we do it?" asked Chris Whitehead, pastor of a federated Presbyterian and Methodist congregation in Mammoth, Ore., as he moderated a Jan. 19 workshop at the inaugural conference here of Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC). Whitehead continued, "We have been given permission by our national judicatories to create new models of church unity at the congregational level. Now that we have permission, what are we going to do with it?"


That evening, the 19th Plenary of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU) voted itself out of existence, giving way to a “new ecclesial reality” in CUIC. As COCU general secretary Michael Kinnamon explained, “The consultation is not and has not been an expression of church. Churches Uniting in Christ is much more a way of living as church together.” The operative word in the new name, he noted, is “uniting.” CUIC has potential, but is far from being fully realized.

In a series of reflections, Kinnamon expanded on his understanding of the occasion. “I need to say this carefully,” he said. “CUIC is not the church. Each of the communions will continue to baptize and ordain as separate bodies. But CUIC is a commitment, a substantive covenant, signifying that life together is an essential dimension of who we are as church. In this sense, Churches Uniting in Christ is not something we join. It is something we are.”

CUIC challenges congregations to work with a consciousness of their unity in faith, to do local mission jointly, and to celebrate the Lord’s Supper together with intentional regularity.

CUIC officially came into being on Sunday, Jan. 20, amid a standing-room-only, multiracial congregation of more than 800 worshipers at Mount Olive Cathedral Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in Memphis. As was true at other worship services and plenary sessions throughout the weekend, rousing gospel choruses alternated with European classical anthems, specially commissioned hymns and praise songs based on the Psalter.

At the heart of the inaugural liturgy were confessions of sin and pledges of commitment by representatives of CUIC’s nine member communions. Joining them was a delegation from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which participates in CUIC as “a partner in mission and dialogue.” Admitting sins of impatience, anger, apathy and racial antagonism that have blocked the way to unity, these churches nonetheless promised to make common witness that they are one in Jesus Christ.

For long-time participants in COCU, an affecting moment came during the Great Prayer of Thanksgiving when opportunity was given to speak aloud “names of the saints” who had contributed to COCU’s journey. Among Presbyterians commemorated were Eugene Carson Blake, whose 1960 sermon began the COCU process; George Laird Hunt, a former editor of The Outlook who served as COCU’s first director; subsequent directors David Taylor and Lewis Lancaster; COCU presidents James McCord, Rachel Henderlite and George Pike; and such activists as Dottie Barnard, William P. Thompson, Frank Heinze, Janet Penfield, James Andrews and Eugene Turner.

Acting as liturgist at the inaugural service was Presbyterian elder Georgette Huie. During a Presbyterian breakfast earlier in the weekend, PC(USA) ecumenical officer Robina Winbush noted that Huie’s prominence was an acknowledgement of the importance to Presbyterians of the ordained eldership as a “gift to our ecumenical partners.” The primary hurdle to mutual recognition of ministries in CUIC and to their full communion is reaching a common understanding of such offices as bishop and elder. A national dialogue on orders of ministry began with an all-day meeting preceding the CUIC conference.

At the Presbyterian breakfast, Georgette Huie commented that “we’re going to have to live into Churches Uniting in Christ.” Clifton Kirkpatrick, stated clerk of the General Assembly, compared the potential of CUIC with A Formula of Agreement, the Lutheran-Reformed full communion relationship adopted three years ago by the PC(USA), Reformed Church in America, United Church of Christ and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. “Lutheran-Reformed cooperation has varied in different parts of the country,” Kirkpatrick said, “but in many ways there has been a flowering of a new sense of unity among these four churches.” General Assembly Council executive director John Detterick expressed his hope for joint mission: “I personally believe that CUIC is a great new opportunity for Presbyterians to unite with other churches to work effectively on issues of racial justice.”

Monday, Jan. 21, marked the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. CUIC’s inauguration concluded with a march from City Hall to the National Civil Rights Museum at the site where Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Gathering on the Lorraine Motel balcony where King fell, heads of the communions signed an appeal to the churches for a rebirth of energy and action in opposing racism. Michael Livingston, a Presbyterian who serves as general secretary of the International Council of Community Churches, expressed awe at “standing on holy ground,” adding that “COCU came to Memphis to die so that we may live — together.”

Kirkpatrick told the crowd, “I am someone who, living as a child in the Memphis of the 1950s, could not have imagined a day like this. Friends, we have come so far already. But we have so much farther yet to go.”

CUIC’s member churches are the African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, International Council of Community Churches, the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), United Church of Christ and United Methodist Church. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has become “a partner in mission and dialogue,” and the Moravian Church will vote next summer on a similar partnership.

Presbyterian representatives on CUIC’s coordinating committee are ecumenical officer Winbush and elder James Tse, a New York businessman and former General Assembly Council member. One of the most urgent items on CUIC’s future agenda is selection of a national director.

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