Catholics Join America's Largest Ecumenical Alliance
In a ‘historic and important’ decision, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted overwhelmingly to join the broadest Christian alliance network in America, marking the first time Catholics and evangelicals would gather on a common table
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to join the broadest Christian alliance network, securing an historic link between the nation’s Evangelicals and Catholics, on Nov. 17, 2004. The highly anticipated decision follows the Catholic church’s recent efforts to encourage ecumenical dialogue within the entire Christian body.
The vote, which was made during the Bishops’ fall conference at Washington, secured Catholic participation in the Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A (CCT). CCT, a group that has been in the making since 2000 when the National Council of Churches (NCC) suffered massive financial difficulties, is expected to be the largest alliance of Christian groups in America. NCC is currently the largest inter-denominational group with over 36 mainline and Orthodox denominations encompassing 50 million Christians. The CCT, once completed in May 2005, has the potential to be three times the size of NCC; the Catholic Church alone has 67 million adherents. In addition to the mainline and Orthodox denominations of the NCC, the CCT will also include black and other minority churches, and evangelicals – a group traditionally known to vie against such ecumenical bodies.
Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the ecumenical committee for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called the vote “important and historic,” as he explained the role of the CCT.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"It's not to create some kind of megabody or megachurch," said Blaire. "It is a forum for participation so that we can pray together, grow in our understanding together and witness together our faith."
The CCT proposal passed 151-73.
Meanwhile, in other business, the bishops also agreed to launch a multi-year initiative to strengthen marriage. The campaign draws attention to the high rate of divorce among believers and the threat of legalized homosexual “marriage.” Under the initiative, individual churches will gain access to resources and programs that teach the importance of marriage. The church leaders also authorized a third-round of annual audits of all U.S. dioceses to determine if they are complying with the policies on preventing clergy sex-abuse, and approved the collection of data from each diocese on new abuse claims, the resolution of ongoing cases, and the related costs.
The bishop’s fall meeting ends tomorrow.
