Episcopal Press and News
Church Union Talks Take Action
Diocesan Press Service. May 7, 1965 [XXXII-2]
The Consultation on Church Union took three significant actions at its fourth annual meeting in Lexington, Ky., April 5 - 8.
Present participants in this attempt to form a united church "truly catholic, truly evangelical and truly reformed" are the Christian Churches (Disciples of Christ), the Evangelical United Brethren Church, the Methodist Church, the Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ and the United Presbyterian Church.
The actions, approved by the 54 delegates (nine from each communion) are as follows:
1) To establish a special commission to develop "the outline of a possible plan of union" that will be "the major subject for study and discussion" at the Consultations's 1966 meeting in Dallas, Tex.
2) To invite the Churches which have been sending official observer-consultants to become full participants in the Consultation
3) To record as consensus the two study commission reports which, as the delegates say in their closing statement "broke fresh ground" in dealing with the theological and practical problems surrounding the formations of a united ministry recognized by all.
In an interview with David Hudson of The Richmond-Times Dispatch the Rt. Rev. Robert F. Gibson, Jr., chairman of the Consultation on Church Union and Bishop of Virginia, stated that "inertia and self-satisfaction' on the part of church denominations - and not theological differences - may prove to be the biggest barrier to church union. ...
'In agreeing on an episcopate (body of bishops) governing authority, said Bishop Gibson, the participants were throwing off old ideas about the office of bishop that had frightened them."
In reporting on the Consultation, Dr. Peter Day, the Executive Council's Ecumenical Officer, stated that "The Lexington meeting carried forward the consideration of the ministry with a clear-cut acceptance of the historic episcopate as 'symbol and agent of the continuity of the Church and its ministry with the witnesses of our Lord's death and resurrection."'
In summing up his impressions of the Consultation, Bishop Gibson stated that "Before, we were looking backward comparing each other and seeking compromise out of comparisons. I think we've moved out of that stage and are now saying, 'What should a united church be like.' Now we are going ahead to try to define that and then ask the churches if they want to join. "