Christian Unity and the Disciples of Christ
Monday, September 01, 2014
5:10 PM
In 1910, Peter Ainslie was in a unique place within the life of the Christian Church to call for the creation of the Council on Christian Union.  Ainslie was born in 1867 in Virginia.  He was educated at the College of the Bible (Transylvania University and Lexington Theological Seminary).  Due to health concerns, he did not graduate.  He became the pastor of Calhoun Christian Church which later became Christian Temple in Baltimore, Maryland.  Ainslie had been in attendance at the 1910 Edinburgh World Missionary Conference.  He would serve as a significant leader within the Faith and Order movement especially commissioned to secure participation among the Free Churches.  "When ecumenical leader John R. Mott addressed the first assembly of the World Council of Churches at Amsterdam in 1948, he included Peter Ainslie III as among the twelve apostles of the modern Ecumenical Movement" (Paul Crow, "Ainslie, Peter." The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement, p. 23)
In 1910 he was serving as the Presided over the International Convention of Christian Churches—a forerunner of General Assembly—and was president of the American Christian Missionary Society.  In his 1910 presidential address he called for the formation of a Council on Christian Union. The title of his address was “Our Fellowship and the Task.” This occurred one day prior to the formation of a similar office within the U.S. Episcopal Church guided by Charles Brent.  Ainslie made his address, he and the participants at the Convention willing to participate went immediately to the First Christian Church of Topeka and formed the Council on Christian Union.  CCU is one of the first, if not the first, American denominational office specifically designated to function as an ecumenical ministry.  We invented the ecumenical officer (that’s my claim, I’m not speaking for anyone else there.  Most of our real ecumenists are incredibly humble people and wouldn’t make such a claim).  In 1913 (1916? Tucker & McCallister say 1913) the organization changed its name to the “Association for the Promotion of Christian Unity.”  In 1954, it returned to something closer to the original form and became the Council on Christian Unity (CCU resist Dr. Williams’ habit of using the old COCU designation).  The Council has had seven presidents:
Peter Ainslie III (1910-1924)
H.C. Armstrong (1925-1931)
1931-1941, No executive leadership
George Walker Buckner (1941-1961, Director of the Association for the Promotion of Christian Unity), World Call
George Beazley, 1961-1973
Paul Crow, 1974-1999
Robert Welsh 1999-Present
This would be my first aside about the nature of working within the denominational structure of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  Most of what we now call “General Ministries” [National Convocation, NAPAD, Central Office of Hispanic Ministries, National Benevolence Association, Disciples Home Missions, Disciples Overseas Ministries, The Pension Fund, The Christian Church Foundation, Church Extension, HELM, Disciples Historical Society, Christian Board of Publication, Church Finance Council] almost all have a history that predates the formation of the centralized structure of the denomination.  If, as you deal with General Ministries, you keep in mind that for the most part they started out as grassroots endeavors and then later become incorporated into the general structure and then only partially as most continue to function as their own 501c3, it will explain a lot of our quirks.  
Shift
This is my perception, I’m not speaking from someone else’s thoughts.  So, you know, take them as they come from as “just my opinion.”   The formation of the Council on Christian Unity marked a shift in the way Disciples would go about seeking Christian Unity.  In his address, “Our Fellowship and the Task” Ainslie said, “They are called Presbyterians, Baptists, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Lutherans, Methodists, and Disciples, but whatever their names, all these are our brethren [sic], for the show that they have been with Jesus” (quoted in A Century of Witness, A Journey of Wholeness, 1910-2010 Council on Christian Unity).  This is markedly different from the way earlier Disciples leaders had spoken of denominations.  Early Disciples affirmed the value of Christian Unity but saw Denominations as the Problem.  With Peter Ainslie and CCU, Disciples began to regard denominations as at least temporarily inevitable and charted a new course of cooperation.
     I’ll also make one caveat at this point and that has to do with the language about “seeking Christian unity.”  Michael Kinnamon and other ecumenicists would emphatically correct me saying that we are not “seeking Christian unity” or trying to “create” Christian unity.  Instead, he would remind us that the Church is one by God’s initiative.  It seems to me that trying to say “yes” the Church of Christ is one by God’s creation of it and at the same time acknowledge that there really is work involved on our part is what makes the language of “Visible Unity” helpful.  Ecumenical work is not the work of making the Church one.  The Church is one as God made it so. Ecumenical work is the work to make the oneness visible.    
Union Efforts
Beginning in the early part of the 20th Century Disciples engaged in different conversations aimed at trying to unite denominations into larger umbrella denominations.  The United Church of Christ (not to be confused with Stone-Campbell a capella Churches of Christ) formed out of such a movement that brought together the Congregationalist Churches together with the Evangelical and Reformed Churches (1957).  The United Methodist Church brought together two denominations within the Wesleyan tradition.  And there are other examples.  There was an effort made in the mid-20th Century to unite with the American Baptists (previously known as Northern Baptists).  It started with conversations around 1910 between Disciples and Northern Baptists that the Northern Baptists rejected in 1930.  Through CCU, the conversations continued informally and locally.  These conversations resulted in a shared hymnal published in 1940.  “Simultaneous conventions were held at Chicago in May 1952 but once again all the effort came to naught.  At the last minute, the Baptists withdrew the plan.  There the matter rested” (McCallister & Tucker, 456).  
Beginning in 1960, a movement formed to unite the United Presbyterian Church (PC-USA), Episcopal, Methodist, and the United Church of Christ.  Shortly after this move, six other denominations were added and they formed the Consultation on Church Union (COCU).  The churches involved are (were) African Methodist Episcopal Church, African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, The Episcopal Church, The International Council of Community Churches, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, the United Methodist Church.  Disciples played a key role.  Paul Crow served as COCU’s first executive director from 1968-1974.  The goals of union began transition.  COCU transitioned and became CUIC, Churches Uniting in Christ.  CUIC was begun in 2002 in an inaugural event held at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN.  Through the first decade and a half of the 21st Century, CUIC has struggled to sustain energy.  It lost its initial focus on combating racism and has in many ways disbanded and quit functioning.  
àWhen and where I enter moment, CUIC and the document Mutual Recognition and Mutual Reconciliation of Ministries, June 2005.  Conducted two discussions of the document (1) Brite Students; (2) with Brite Faculty.  Confession of frustration in understanding the document led me to develop a fuller appreciation of ecclesiology and how the ways other traditions understand and order their ministry informs our own.  Confession of frustration that subsequent to this work, CUIC experienced its significant decline in momentum due to its lack of attention to racism.  
The Council on Christian Unity continues to nurture other relationships that fall under the heading of “Full Communion” and “Visible Unity.”  This includes the Disciples-UCC Ecumenical Partnership and Christian Churches Together in the USA.  
Theological Self-Description (Interpretation)
One of the things Ecumenism is about correlating ecclesiologies and missiologies consequently, the Council on Christian Unity has had a particular focus on interpreting Disciples ecclesiology.
This has been both a form of internal communication—hence the “Word to the Church on . . .” series.  This has also been a form of external communication.  So, officially, the Council on Christian Unity has published a number of journals over the years.  It originally had the Christian Union Quarterly.  Midstream:  An Ecumenical Journal.  1961-2003.  Call to Unity was initiated in 2003.  CCU manages two named lectures.  The Ainslie Lecture on Christian Unity occurs at General Assembly.  And the Joe A. and Nancy Vaughn Stalcup lectures on Christian Unity that are offered biennially and are usually held at East Dallas Christian Church.     
I would say that at least for seminarians and others trying to get their bearing as leaders within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the work that the Council has been involved in through internal commissions, panels and documents may be of greatest importance.  The articles in the lectures and the articles are important and interesting.  But the work of the Panel of Scholars, the Commission on Theology and Christian Unity, I think, more directly informed the Theological Foundations under which we currently operate.  The Panel of Scholars was convened in 1957 and was funded by the Board of Christian Publications.  The Panel of Scholars’ work served as the theological foundation of the restructure of 1968.  The scholars was essentially descriptive and internal theology. It sought to reflect the best theological thinking of the Disciples of Christ.  
As the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) moved into centralized structured, the Panel of Scholars came to be located in the Council on Christian Unity where it became the Commission on Theology. The Commission on Theology and Christian Unity moved into a new work of articulating Disciples’ theology in light emerging ecumenical consensus as reflected in the World Council of Church’s document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry.  This work emerged into a series of “Words to the Church on . . .” (Baptism, Lord’s Supper, Authority).  These documents along with a commentary have been published as The Church of Disciples of Christ which you can get at the CCU website in .pdf form or from Amazon.  This document is quite intentionally an effort to make our ecclesiology explicit so as to serve as a usable point of reference in ecumenical conversation.  The most recent and probably most significant manifestation of this trajectory comes in the “Theological Foundations” portion of the Theological Foundations and Policies and Criteria for the Ordering of Ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  This document was approved in 2009.  In addition to making significant modifications to the Policies and Criteria for the Ordering of Ministry, it added for the first time a theological foundation tracing Stone-Campbell understanding of ministry.  As an example of ecumenical influence, the document speaks of the three-fold nature of ministry as service, proclamation and oversight (481-488).  While technically identified as roles emerging from scripture: diakonos, presbuteros, and episkopos, this is also reflective of consensus emerging within ecumenical discussions.  So, I would see this trajectory of important theological manifestations:  Panel of Scholars was internal and descriptive and helped give restructure a theological voice; the Commission on Theology was interactive with ecumenical conversations and more prescriptive; the Theological Foundations . . . for the Ordering of Ministry is codified.   Because ecumenism in many ways is about correlating ecclesiologies, this work of articulating Disciples implicit (embedded) ecclesiology where it exists and crafting it where it is deficient is central to the Council’s work within ecumenical settings.
Other Ministries of the Council on Christian Unity
If Robert Welsh were here conducting this presentation, he would name of few of the core responsibilities maintained by the Council.  For example, the Council facilitates our participation in the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches of Christ, USA (btw Sharon Watkins was just named to a two year term as the Chair-Elect of the NCC Governing Board).  
We would also say that the Council helps to facilitate Local and Regional Ecumenism.  A lot of that help is offered informally as Robert helps people navigate ecumenical waters as they emerge in local situations.  
He would also point relate our participation in a number of Dialogues.  Disciples began a dialogue with Roman Catholic Church not long after Vatican II opened the door for that sort of ecumenical conversation.  Disciples also engage in dialogues with other Reformed Churches.  In 1999, the Council initiated a Stone-Campbell dialogue that brought together representatives from the three streams of the Stone-Campbell movement in North America—the Churches of Christ, the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  I’ve been a participant in the last three years of the Dialogue.     
Expanding the Vision of Christian Unity
In 2004 the Council on Christian Unity Board went through a process of mapping the frontiers for Christian Unity.  I think this represented a significant shift.  The board named three frontiers as being the future for the work of the Council on Christian Unity:  (1) Ecumenical Spirituality; (2) Becoming a Multi-Cultural and Inclusive Church; and (3) Interfaith Dialogue.  The Council has published resources that enable the Christian Church to understand the call of interfaith dialogue and also the relationship of interfaith dialogue to our core commitments.  
In the area of becoming a multi-cultural and inclusive church, the Council on Christian Unity convened a Consultation on Becoming a Multi-Cultural and Inclusive Church in 2008.  What was unique about this consultation is that involved equal number of participants from the African American constituency (Convocation), Asian Disciple constituency (NAPAD), Hispanic constituency (Central Office of Hispanic Ministries), New Church Start that included a broad set of representatives, and members selected from the Council on Christian Unity (who were largely anglo-American).  The consultation created a model for how regions could similarly engage in conversations about living into our commitment to being a Reconciling and Anti-Racist Church.  It reflected, I think, the best effort to date of making the transition Sandhya Jha speaks of as going from “ministry to” to “ministry with” to “ministry under the leadership of” the diverse faces who compose the Christian Church.  Second, the Consultation’s report (which can be found at the CCU website) offers a helpful history of and theological reflection on Disciples Diversity.  
Another helpful conversation about the future of Christian Unity occurred in 2010 with the Stalcup Visioning Conference.  Among the things discussed there conversation revolved around Ecumenism and responding to human need (in some ways reclaiming the Life and Work themes of a Century Ago).  Though, again my perception, with a more self-conscious correlation with spirituality and worship—what does it mean to break bread as the one body of Christ in a world where so many tables are absent physically nutritious food?   How do our commitments around the Lord’s Table in worship guide the work we do in seeking to put food on tables in homes where food is missing?  Similarly, the Council has engaged in meaningful conversation around the question of just peace-making particularly at the 2011 General Assembly in Nashville.  
Poverty, peace, reconciliation and combatting racism, and to some extent inter-faith dialogue, had been a part of the ecumenical work throughout the 20th Century.  However, they have become more important in recent years and the CCU both participates in this shifting focus and, I think I can say without being too self-congratulatory, anticipated this shift.  This shift begins to expand the focus of Christian Unity while still including ecumenism to include an understanding of our unity with the whole human family.
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