RESOURCING THE CHURCH FOR ECUMENICAL MINISTRy A ...

Report from Visioning Conference
on Christian Unity
Mercy Center, St. Louis, Missouri
June 14-17, 2010
Introduction and background
As a major event in the yearlong celebration of its
100 th anniversary, the Council on Christian Unity
hosted the Joe A. and Nancy V. Stalcup 2nd Century
Visioning Conference on Christian Unity with three specific
goals:
(a) To examine our historic commitment as
Disciples of Christ to the unity, the
wholeness, of Christ’s body
(b) To address contemporary challenges to
such commitment
(c) To envision what Disciples participation
in the ecumenical movement might look
like in the years ahead
The Conference took place on June 14-17, 2010, at
the Mercy Center in St. Louis. Forty Disciples—lay
and ordained, women and men, younger and older,
new to ecumenical discussions and more
experienced ecumenists—met for four days of
worship and prayer, presentations and small group
discussion. Participants and presenters included
persons from local, regional and general
expressions of the church, seminaries, ecumenical
organizations, with broad representation of African
American, Anglo, Haitian, Hispanic, and Pacific
Asian Disciples.
Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the
National Council of Churches in Christ in the
USA, delivered the keynote address in which he
declared, “I hope that we have not come here to
rearrange ecumenical furniture, to discuss
structural changes (though they may be needed) as
if that were inherently renewing, but to hear God’s
Word and be renewed by God’s Spirit. Antoine de
San Exupery may have said it best: If you want people
52
to build a boat, don’t just give them a blueprint, but
let them be filled with a yearning for the vastness of
the sea.”
Conference design and process
A major component of the Conference was that of
worship and Bible study. Worship leaders included
Darla Glynn, associate pastor at Community
Christian Church in Manchester, Missouri;
Chimiste Doriscar, pastor of the Haitian Christian
Church in Auburn, Georgia; and, Sharon Watkins,
General Minister and President. Bible studies were
led by April Johnson, executive director of
Reconciliation Ministry of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) and Andy Mangum, senior
pastor of First Christian Church in Arlington,
Texas.
Presentations were offered on the following “issueareas”
as a way to introduce various challenges to the
ecumenical movement today:
• Understanding the Lord’s Supper for our vision and work
for Christian unity (Amy Gopp, executive director
of the Week of Compassion, and Richard
Harrison, retired pastor and church historian)
• What is means to be a ‘multicultural and inclusive church’
in an era of radical individualism and diversity (Daniel
Lee, pastor of Walking Faith Korean-American
Christian Church in Sunnyvale, CA, and
Newell Williams, president of Brite Divinity
School at TCU in Ft. Worth, TX)
• The challenge of interfaith dialogue and encounter
(Jonathan Webster, chaplain at Carilion New
River Valley Medical Center in Christiansburg,
VA, and pastor of Snowville Christian Church
in Pulaski County, VA.)