c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ Leaders of nine Protestant denominations that have been part of a 37-year effort to forge Christian unity will gather later this month in St. Louis to map out how they can reinvigorate the movement and move forward into the next century.

Initially, the Consultation on Church Union, as the effort is known, had hoped for a merger of several denominations, heeding Jesus’ call”that they may all be one.”But over the years, members shied away from the notion of”organic union”and supporters are now trying to figure out how they can work better together while still remaining as separate entities.

Now, in its first plenary session in a decade the organization is faced with flagging interest in some quarters and a sense in others that the ecumenical movement has moved beyond it.”There’s a kind of holy rhythm to bringing the churches from division and alienation into communion and unity and that involves a lot of ups and downs,”said the Rev. Paul A. Crow Jr., who served as the first general secretary of COCU from 1968 to 1974.

But Crow, the recently retired ecumenical officer of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), said a commitment to Jesus’ prayer for unity in the Gospel of John should propel the dialogue to continue. One of the hopes of COCU supporters is that the acronym would eventually also stand for a result of the joint efforts _ the Church of Christ Uniting.

The St. Louis session, to be held Jan. 20-24, is the first plenary gathering of participant denominations since 1988, in part because some member bodies only meet once every four years. It will likely center on two seemingly intractable problems _ one, how the churches can address racism; and two, how they can reconcile the various ways the denominations view forms of ministry, especially that of bishops.”We stumble on trying to overcome the divisions of the Reformation, like, for example, the ministry question,”said the Rev. Lewis H. Lancaster Jr., interim general secretary of the consultation, which has an office in Princeton, N.J.”Those divisions happened … 500 years ago and we still haven’t overcome them. We’re living in the middle of another church-dividing issue which is just as much a theological question as the other.” A key element of the five-day plenary session will be discussion of a statement,”A Call to Christian Commitment to Combat Racism”aimed at strengthening the member churches’ commitment to combat racism. In addition, one of four recommendations from COCU’s theology commission to the group’s executive committee calls on member churches to address racism by conducting a national study showing its effect on the church and developing local strategies to address racism.

Bishop McKinley Young, ecumenical officer for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, said he thinks it is essential for the discussions on racism to continue.”I think the COCU concept … will not be possible if the issue of racism is not overcome or seriously engaged as a theological issue that is a church-dividing and church-destroying reality,”said Young, whose denomination is one of three predominantly black church bodies in COCU.

The Rev. Thomas Dipko, a member of COCU’s executive committee and an official of the United Church of Christ, said COCU’s continuance is essential, in part, because it is a unique role model for interracial Christian conversation.”This table of these nine communions, to my knowledge, is the only table where we have three historic African-American churches present on equal footing with other churches that are predominantly European-American, though they all have members that are persons of color,”said Dipko, the executive vice president of the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries of UCC.”It, to me, would be a tragedy in human history if this table were to falter at this time.” The other two historically black denominations represented in COCU are the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.

Eight of the nine church bodies have supported two documents that have edged the groups closer to reconciling their sacraments, ordinations and missions, but the Episcopal Church has yet to vote on the documents. In addition, the regional bodies of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) have rejected steps that would make such reconciliation possible.

Other participating denominations include the International Council of Community Churches and the United Methodist Church.

While the Episcopal Church has yet to act on the COCU plan for closer unity, representatives of other church bodies involved in the movement are anxious the COCU conversation continue in some way that includes the Episcopal Church.

The Rev. David Perry, staff ecumenical officer of the Episcopal Church, responded:”That’s good news and that’s hard news to hear. Nobody wants to be seen as spoiling things or not cooperating or not participating, especially in something as important as this.” Although Perry wants the discussion to proceed, he said the question of how the nine denominations reconcile their differing understanding of the ministerial office _ especially the bishop _ is a chief concern.”In our tradition and our experience our understanding of the historic episcopate, the role of bishop in ordaining … is a key piece,”he said.

Episcopalians believe their bishops are part of an unbroken line of succession that stretches back to the time of Jesus’ apostles. In addition, an Episcopal bishop’s responsibilities in a diocese differs from the role of oversight in other denominations.

Some of these same questions are troubling the Presbyterians.”We have churches such as mine who perceive that the ministry of the church belongs to the people of God,”said the Rev. Eugene Turner, ecumenical officer for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).”We don’t see the ministry as totally tied to the clergy or the ordained side of the church. That’s a problem for us who understand episcopacy one way versus the way the Episcopal Church understands it.” Although the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has supported the two major COCU documents, its presbyteries, or regional bodies, have rejected steps that would establish the office of bishop that one of those documents requires.

In a report to the COCU’s Executive Committee, the COCU theology commission has recommended a compromise on the ministry issue. The commission suggests a formal recognition of the churches as a preliminary step before dealing with the thornier issue of reconciliation, which would require a declaration that all of the ministries of the denominations are”one and the same ministry.””We believe that only after we have affirmed one another as churches will we be able to resolve the difficulties identified with common ministry, offices of ministry, and the ministry of oversight,”the theology commission’s report reads.

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A representative of the International Council of Community Churches hopes that a deadline of”no more than five years”can be set for overcoming the sticking points.”The way I hope it will be dealt with is that there can be a time limit set that we go forward with what we believe in,”said Abraham Wright, second vice president of the ICCC.

But others are against setting deadlines.”I think we should not set time lines for ourselves,”said the Rev. Bruce Robbins, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Church.”This is not in our hands. It’s in God’s hands.” As they prepare to journey to St. Louis, participants say they really don’t know what will happen next.”We are looking forward to it continuing but no one knows the form,”said Vivian Robinson, president of COCU and a laywoman of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church.”I’m very hopeful that something is going to occur that will continue us on our interdenominational journey.” DEA END RNS