ELCA Joins Inauguration of Christian Churches Together on February 7

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
(ELCA) is one of 36 churches and national Christian organizations
that will be founding members when Christian Churches Together in
the U.S.A. (CCT) is inaugurated Feb. 7 at Pasadena Presbyterian
Church, Pasadena, Calif. CCT will bring together families of
Christian churches and organizations from across the United
States.
Another 18 churches and national Christian organizations are
involved or are present as observers in the CCT decision-making
process.
The ELCA's 2003 Churchwide Assembly adopted an action to
join CCT by a vote of 918 to 48.
"The creation of Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A.
is an exciting development in the ecumenical world. It is an
opportunity to broaden the ecumenical table or perhaps more
directly to invite more people into ecumenical conversation,"
said the Rev. Randall R. Lee, executive, ELCA Ecumenical and
Inter-Religious Relations.
On its Web site, the new ecumenical organization claims to
do something the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
USA and National Association of Evangelicals have not been able
to do -- bring together Christians from five traditions:
evangelical and Pentecostal, Orthodox, Protestant, racial and
ethnic, and Roman Catholic. "Christian Churches Together is
unique in providing the only venue where churches from all the
major groupings of churches, representing over 100 million
Christians, come together for prayer, dialogue, fellowship and
witness," it said.
Lee said evangelicals, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics have
not been involved directly in the ecumenical movement in the
United States. Roman Catholics "have certainly been a part of
the Faith and Order movement of the National Council of Churches,
but they are not members of the National Council," he said.
"With Pentecostals and evangelicals in particular we talk
about their experience of the Christian faith, how they came to
faith and the dimensions of faith as they live it out in their
daily lives," Lee said.
"This effort is crucial for the Christian Church in an
increasingly diverse religious landscape in the United States,"
said the Rev. Jon S. Enslin, who represented the ELCA at
formative meetings of the CCT. "In our early meetings it became
apparent that our mutual commitment to Christ transcended
differences we have with each other, although those differences
are real and significant," he said.
"We were mutually surprised to discover that differences
were enhanced by presumptions we had about each other,
presumptions not based in fact," said Enslin, a former bishop of
the ELCA South-Central Synod of Wisconsin who served as interim
director of the former ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs.
In addition to its ecumenical purpose, Lee said CCT hopes to
"marshal the forces of the whole Christian movement to help
eliminate poverty." He said, "This is such an incredible problem
in our country at this point that anything we can do to bring
people above the poverty line would be a wonderful goal."
"It is significant that we all agreed upon the need to
address poverty in this country as our first focus," Enslin said.
"We each bring unique insight and perspective to the table. The
possibilities of working together and understanding each other
more fully is wonderful," he said. "That decisions will be made
by consensus enables honest discussion and deliberation."
"Christian Churches Together in its governance has committed
itself to a consensus model of decision-making, which has also
been adopted by the World Council of Churches," Lee said. "It's
an attempt to say we are not going to move ahead on anything, if
a significant portion of the partners are not willing to move
ahead," he said.
"It's a way of framing conversation in such a way that
people recognize that what we are talking about is important.
It's crucial to the way we are going to deal with one another in
these kinds of organizations," Lee said. "It's a way of saying
we all have something to bring to the table, and we all need to
come to agreement."
"Some people have argued that this will paralyze the
organization or make it unable to say anything of significance,"
Lee said. He said the Eighth Assembly of the World Council of
Churches in Brazil in February 2006 demonstrated that decision-
making by consensus is effective.
"It is possible to frame both theological conversation and
practical conversation in ways that everyone can agree that what
is being articulated is an appropriate statement for the
Christian church to make," Lee said.
"When people of different denominations pray together and
work beside each other, differences lose the power to divide,"
Enslin said. "I have no doubt that CCT will be a great blessing
to this country, enabling a clear and bold proclamation of the
gospel," he said.
Five presidents will represent CCT, one from each of the
five traditions. The initial presidents are Bishop James
Leggett, International Pentecostal Holiness Church; the Very Rev.
Leonid Kishkovsky, Orthodox Church in America; the Rev. Larry
Pickens, United Methodist Church; Dr. William Shaw, National
Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.; and Cardinal William Keeler, Roman
Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, and the Southern
California Ecumenical Council host the inaugural events.
-- -- --
The home page for Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A.
is at http://www.christianchurchestogether.org/ on the Web.
Audio of comments by the Rev. Randall R. Lee related to this
story are on the ELCA Web site at:
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070122A.mp3
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070122B.mp3

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog