RESOURCING THE CHURCH FOR ECUMENICAL MINISTRy A ...

I believe that the Second Joe A. and Nancy V. Stalcup Visioning Conference will prove
to be one of the most significant events of the decade for the Disciples of Christ.
Unity Board to use in shaping Disciples’ ecumenical
engagement in the next decade, and beyond. But it
seems to me that the draft report reflected exactly
the pulse and mind of the meeting, and captured
the “foundational principles or fundamental
values” that Disciples bring to ecumenical life,
witness and encounter. Consider the following
central points:
1) That unity is both central to our Disciples
identity and urgent for the sake of the world
2) That Christian unity is nurtured, and becomes
visible, in concrete relationships (personal, but
I would add, also institutional)
3) That the Disciples’ distinctive witness for unity
is marked by the centrality of the Lord’s Table—
an open Table—and the practice of baptism as a
mark of Christian unity
4) We value our Christian freedom highly, and
seek a church life marked by accountability
without coercion; all the while, we freely admit
our brokenness in living out our unique
Disciples heritage.
5) Even as Disciples value unity, we recognize that
it is experienced and expressed differently in
different contexts locally, nationally and
internationally; recognizing that unity may
tempt us to settle for uniformity, we insist that
unity must be a force which confronts, rather
than justifies or hides, any kind of racism or
domination of one group over others.
6) We insist, further, that our search for unity
must be informed by our commitments to
justice, to local and global mission, and to
interfaith dialogue.
7) While affirming our work for unity at the
national and international levels, Disciples
need also a new stress on unity in local
congregations and ecumenical settings—each
generation must renew for itself the
commitment to “habits of Christian
wholeness.”
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8) Nothing motivates more powerfully than
examples and experience; therefore, we should
suggest concrete guidelines and practices for
living ecumenically, and tell one another our
“stories of Christian unity.”
9) The Council on Christian Unity has a special
responsibility for promoting and coordinating
the Disciples’ search for unity and the church’s
ecumenical engagement.
10) Precisely because Christian unity is
foundational for our whole church, the
Council on Christian Unity should be more
visible in the life and work of the whole church.
These points from the draft Report emerged not
just through the formal plenary presentations and
group discussions, but were the fruit also of the daily
worship and bible studies, countless discussions at
mealtimes and other interludes, and quiet
reflections by individual participants. More than
most such meetings, this conference quickly
developed a coherence and ethos of its own, a
palpable common commitment to the work at hand.
Looking at the conference from this perspective,
one could discern three overarching themes and
concerns which developed in the course of our
work. These surfaced time and again in various
guises in the draft Report but are, I believe, worth
noting in their own right; they provide a wider
framework within which to view the consultation’s
formal results and will to be considered seriously as
the church finds its way into its ecumenical future.
Three Overarching Themes
The first of these themes was a desire for wholeness and
integration in every aspect of the church’s life.
Participants spoke of their longing for a church
whose life would model the wholeness it proclaimed
to the world. Theologically: the integration of the
search for unity and the quest for justice in the life
of the church and the world. Liturgically and personally:
the integration of all the people of God at the Lord’s
Table, that “open table” par excellence, and in the life
of the church generally. Structurally: the integration
Best • The Journey Ahead