|
|
|
|
|
« Return
|
|
US Christian leaders take step towards new church alliance
2003-025-5
2/6/2003
|
[Episcopal News Service]
Christian leaders working to expand ecumenical unity in the United States have taken a further step towards creating a new national body of churches.
Fifty-five church leaders representing 30 denominations agreed at a meeting on January 29 in Pasadena, California, to form a new alliance, which currently is being called 'Christian Churches Together in the USA.' The new body is intended to include Episcopalian (Anglican), Evangelical, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches.
Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, general secretary of the Reformed Church in America and a leading figure in the efforts to create the new alliance, told the Associated Press the Pasadena meeting represented 'a remarkable breakthrough.'
Neither the Roman Catholic Church--the single biggest church in the US--nor many Evangelical or Pentecostal bodies belong to the US National Council of Churches (NCC), the nation's main ecumenical grouping.
Robert Edgar, the NCC's general secretary, has made expanding the US 'ecumenical table' a priority since he became head of the NCC in 2000, but it is still unclear how the creation of the new group will affect the NCC. Some church leaders have said they doubt there would be a need for the NCC if a broader ecumenical grouping were formed. An NCC spokesman told ENI it would require several more years of work to determine how the new group would operate, the form it would take and what role it would play. No decision has been made by the NCC on the matter.
The Pasadena gathering followed meetings in 2001 and 2002 and included a representative from the Southern Baptist Convention --the biggest US Protestant denomination--which is not an NCC member and up until now had not participated in the talks.
|
|
|
|
|
|
