From Handholding to Engagement

In the six years since the Rev. Eugene Carson Blake first proposed the creation of a giant Protestant superchurch, participants in the annual Consultation on Church Union have spent their time sparring over preliminary issues. Last week in Dallas came what Episcopal Bishop Robert Gibson of Virginia called "a crucial moment": delegates from the eight churches in the C.O.C.U.* agreed on a set of principles for the merger, clearing the way for preparation of a formal union plan.

Much Agreement. Summing up the agreement, Methodist Theologian Albert Outler suggested that the denominations had "passed from handholding to an engagement." In four days of debate, the delegates:

> Adopted a 3,000-word open letter to the churches involved in the union justifying the merger as an expression of God's will. circulated to the churches and, with their accepted suggestions, will form the basis of a formal plan of union.

> Set aside for study as needing "more work" a paper on the structure of the church that centers on the still controversial and undecided role and power of bishops. This topic will be taken up again at next year's meeting.

> Proposed a timetable for merger that calls for creation and ratification of a union plan within 13 years, followed by some 30 years of federation during which a constitution will be prepared.

"I think we have come out of this meeting with more strength than we intended when we went into it," said Bishop Gibson. In fact, plenty of obstacles remain before Blake's ecumenical dream becomes a reality. Although the delegates in Dallas were committed to merger, many privately wondered whether their churches were willing to make the surrender of power and principle that the union will demand. "The man in the street is for church union and motherhood," said President Ben Herbster of the United Church of Christ, "but when union means giving up St. John's down there by the gas station, that may be another matter."

Union Under Way. Particularly crucial to the future of the C.O.C.U. will be the attitudes of the Episcopalians and Methodists. Under pressure from their Anglo-Catholic wing, the Episcopalians might well refuse to give Consultation delegates the power to negotiate a union plan. Methodist commitment to the union could collapse on many issues, such as whether bishops would have the power to appoint pastors. At Dallas, Methodist delegates acknowledged the justice of such fears but pointed out that, as the largest church involved, Methodism has most to lose from the union.

Nonetheless, the delegates went home with a euphoric feeling that the union was at long last under way. Said United Church of Christ Minister David Colwell, who will chair the next two annual sessions: "There's a growing feeling that we are not just persons of good will gathered together but are really involved in the oneness that is the true definition of the Body of Christ. The fearfulness as to the future of the Consultation has been in large measure dissipated."

*Blake's original proposal, made at Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike's Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, was for a union of his own United Presbyterians, the Methodists, the Episcopalians and the United Church of Christ. Since then, the Disciples of Christ, the Evangelical United Brethren, the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the Southern Presbyterians have become full partners in the Consultation.

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