While each of the member churches will retain its own identity and governing structure, the nine member churches will recognize their common faith, commit to common ministries and mission and pledge to regular sharing of the Lord’s Supper as a witness to their communion in Christ.
CUIC is the product of more than four decades of dialogue among American Protestants through the Consultation on Church Union (COCU). This process was first proposed in a December 1960 sermon at San Francisco’s Grace Episcopal Cathedral by the late Eugene Carson Blake, then stated clerk of the United Presbyterian Church and later general secretary of the World Council of Churches. In 1962, COCU was formed to explore within North America the possibility of establishing “one church, truly catholic, truly evangelical, and truly reformed.”
Blake’s sermon has taken on legendary status in ecumenical circles. His successor at the World Council of Churches, Konrad Raiser of Germany, was asked recently for his opinion regarding the impending inauguration of CUIC in the United States. Raiser immediately responded, “This is the culmination of a dream that has taken 40 years to realize. And the realization of this dream is as necessary today as it was when Gene Blake preached his sermon in Grace Cathedral.”
There have been a number of bumps along the road from Grace Cathedral in San Francisco to Mount Olive Cathedral in Memphis. COCU proposals for church merger, structural unity and hierarchies of councils or officers have been rejected by member churches. Issues of authority and oversight continue to be discussed by all the member churches and in such bilateral conversations as the emerging Episcopal-Presbyterian dialogue.
Gradually, the focus of COCU’s plans shifted from denominational unification to common worship and witness among congregations and local governing bodies. Jan. 20 marks the completion of COCU’s task. The Consultation on Church Union will be formally disbanded as Churches Uniting in Christ is inaugurated.
Organizers see sacramental unity and a common front against racism in American society as hallmarks of CUIC. While many attempts at the reconciliation of churches worldwide have emphasized agreement on baptism and the Lord’s Supper, CUIC is distinctive in that three of the nine founding churches are historically African-American. This dynamic brings to the table a vital concern for the eradication of racism. Jan. 20 was chosen as the date for the launching of CUIC both because it is the Sunday in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity for 2002 and also because it is the Sunday of the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday weekend.
Andrew Young, who was with King in Memphis in 1968, will be the keynote speaker at CUIC’s public appeal to end racism on Jan. 21 at the National Civil Rights Museum, housed in the former Lorraine Motel, where King was assasinated.
In coming months, a variety of congregations and regional bodies will mark CUIC’s inauguration. For example, Holston Presbytery in eastern Tennessee took action to invite to its spring meeting representatives of the eight other member churches “for the purpose of engaging in a liturgical service celebrating and confirming the new covenantal relationship of these nine communions in Churches Uniting in Christ.” Further information on Churches Uniting in Christ, including the liturgy to be used on Jan. 20, is available at the CUIC Web site: www.CUICinfo.org.
The member churches of CUIC are the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, the Episcopal Church, the International Council of Community Churches, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church.
Posted Jan. 9, 2002
Theo Gill, editor of Call to Worship, a PC(USA) resource for church musicians, pastors and planners of Christian worship, has just accepted the position of senior editor with the World Council of Churches in Geneva.
