Churches Uniting in Christ

Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) is a communion of churches , the ten churches in the United States included. The organization was founded on January 20, 2002 in Memphis, Tennessee on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel . The CUIC is the successor to the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), which was founded in 1962.

The Churches Uniting in Christ is not a church union of the member churches, but a church fellowship whose members maintain their own identity, but regard each other as part of the true church and mutually recognize their sacraments ( baptism , communion ). With their claim to a moderate theology, the CUIC can be classified between liberal theology and evangelical theology . The member churches of the Churches Uniting in Christ are all mainline churches in the United States. Ordination of women is possible in all member churches of the CUIC.

history

The Churches Uniting in Christ is the successor organization to the Consultation on Church Union founded in 1962 , whose original task was to prepare a union of the ten members at the time. In 1969, however, the overwhelming majority of the members rejected the unification of the churches. After the failure of the unification of the member churches, the sacrament fellowship became the target.

In 1991, the preliminary work of the Consultation on Church Union provided that this should follow the traditional notion of bishop , presbyter and deacon . Because of different understanding of ministry, both the Presbyterian Church , the United Church of Christ and the Episcopal Church did not accept the mutual recognition of offices.

Due to the controversial situation, the member churches then agreed to clarify the recognition of the communal Lord's Supper separately from the question of office. This modified proposal in the organization found the support of the member churches.

CUIC member churches are working towards a more complete union that would include overcoming racism and mutual recognition of office. There is currently no such recognition of offices due to the different understanding of office of the member churches. From 2002 to 2006, CUIC worked on a document entitled "Mutual Recognition and Mutual Reconciliation of Ministries MRMRM". Despite a careful process with a lot of dialogue, the final document was rejected by the member churches in 2006 for two reasons. On the one hand, there were different understandings of the episcopate (episcopal supervision). Second, some members feared that CUIC is too narrowly focused on the recognition of office and "not taking seriously our commitment to issues such as systematic racism which persist at the heart of our ongoing and separated lives as churches here in the United States." The fight against racism is a particular concern of the Churches Uniting in Christ . The church fellowship includes both churches with a majority white and churches with a majority black church members.

In 2007 the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion) withdrew from the CUIC. In their opinion, the association did not campaign enough against racism.

In 2010 the AME Church continued its participation. Rev. Staccato Powell, an AME Zion Church pastor preached in the 2011 CUIC plenary session, but the AME Zion Church has not resumed membership.

Full members

• African Methodist Episcopal Church
• Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
• Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
• Episcopal Church
• International Council of Community Churches
• Moravian Church Northern Province
• Presbyterian Church (USA)
• United Church of Christ
• United Methodist Church

Associate members

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

former members

• African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church

Web links

• Churches Uniting in Christ

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ecumenical Group Limps as Two Churches Cut Ties . The Christian Century. July 1, 2008. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
2. ^ CUIC Coordinating Council . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved August 14, 2012. 
3. ^ CUIC Coordinating Council . Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved September 9, 2012.