March 3, 2003
New ecumenical network
includes more evangelicals
___By Robert Marus
___ABP Washington Bureau
___PASADENA, Calif. (ABP)--Christian leaders are moving forward with plans for a new ecumenical group that aims to be a broader coalition than previously has existed among American Christians.
___In a late January meeting at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, a diverse group of representatives from 30 denominations crafted a governing structure for Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A., known by the acronym CCTUSA.
___Participants hope to form an alliance of denominations from five Christian traditions: "evangelical/Pentecostal" Protestant, "racial/ethnic" Protestant, "historic Protestant" (mainline Protestant denominations), Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox.
___It also will include para-church groups from many denominations and non-denominational congregations, such as World Vision and Call to Renewal.
___The inclusion of evangelicals, Pentecostals and para-church groups would distinguish CCTUSA from the much older National Council of Churches, which has had only limited participation from evangelicals and none from Catholics. The National Council of Churches has experienced serious financial woes in recent years, and some denominational leaders view that organization as not truly representative of the theology and public-policy views of many U.S. Christians.
___Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, chair of the new group's steering committee, told Religion News Service: "We're not reaching everyone, but we're reaching a much wider expression ... of what American church life is really like." Granberg-Michaelson is executive director for the Reformed Church in America.
___Several Baptist leaders participated in the organizing of CCTUSA. Roy Medley, general secretary for the American Baptist Churches, took part in an earlier organizational session for the group, and ABC director of ecumenical formation Rothangliani Chhangte was one of the delegates to the Pasadena gathering.
___A representative of the Southern Baptist Convention also attended the meeting as an observer, but expressed reservations about the SBC's formal participation in any such group. "Historically, Southern Baptists haven't been joiners," Barrett Duke, a vice president of the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, told Religion News Service. "It certainly would be quite out of the ordinary for Southern Baptists to join any organization, even one we might agree with."
___The SBC never joined the National Council of Churches, even though all of the nation's other major Protestant denominations are members. SBC leaders also recently voted to reduce their support for the Baptist World Alliance, a diverse coalition of Baptist groups.
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