The Christian Century

Christian Churches Together in the USA—the nation’s broadest and newest group devoted to ecumenism—says it will stay out of the presidential campaigns but hopes to convey its top concern—combating domestic poverty—to the president-elect before his or her inauguration.

Christian Churches Together in the USA has named Richard L. Hamm, a former chief executive for 10 years of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), to become the ecumenical group’s first executive administrator.

The multidenominational Christian Churches Together in the USA has just about got it together—enough at least for a small celebration. From Catholic and Orthodox bishops to Protestant and Pentecostal clergy, representatives of 36 church bodies meeting in California lit candles and one by one signed a document indicating their commitment to advance a common Christian witness.

With two historically black churches now on board, the nation’s largest ecumenical vehicle—Christian Churches Together U.S.A.—is ready to roll.

The launching of a new group that aims to bring Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians in the U.S. together for the first time has been postponed because the effort has received little interest from black churches, leaders said.

The fledgling Christian Churches Together—a painstakingly crafted amalgam of U.S. mainline Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, racial/ethnic and evangelical/Pentecostal churches—will organize formally behind closed doors early in June and publicly celebrate the milestone in September.

The U.S. Catholic bishops have given a key blessing to a groundbreaking effort to bring Catholics, evangelical and mainline Protestants and the Orthodox around a common table for the first time.

Leaders of the American Baptist Churches in the USA and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship say they are excited about potential opportunities for formal dialogue with other U.S. Christians, including Catholics, Orthodox, mainline Protestants, evangelicals and Pentecostals in the fledgling Christian Churches Together in the USA.

Organizers of a daringly broad coalition of evangelical, Catholic, mainline Protestant and Orthodox Christians say they expect the organization will finalize its formation in May 2005—the first time this variety of U.S. Christians will have joined in a meaningful structure to express a common witness.

The ecumenical tables in the U.S. are too small. None is large enough to encompass the full diversity of Christian life in this country. The National Council of Churches includes 36 Protestant and Orthodox bodies, but the member churches account for only one-third of U.S. Christians. Glaringly missing from its ranks is the nation’s largest Christian church, the Roman Catholic.