Alliance enters historic partnership with UCC, Disciples of Christ

A S S O C I A T E D B A P T I S T P R E S S

Alliance enters historic partnership
with UCC, Disciples of Christ

By Robert Marus

VIENNA, Va. (ABP) -- Members of the Alliance of Baptists have officially agreed to enter into what may be an historic ecumenical alignment with two other Baptist-like denominations.

Members of the Baptist group, which originated in the early days of the Southern Baptist Convention conflict between moderates and convervatives, met April 24-26 at Vienna Baptist Church in Washington's Virginia suburbs. Besides approving the alignment, Alliance members also approved statements on Jewish-Christian and Muslim-Christian relations that contrast with recent statements and actions by more conservative Baptist leaders and bodies regarding Judaism and Islam. Participants also supported a resolution that strongly criticized the United States' policy toward Cuba.

The ecumenical agreement would yoke the Alliance with the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). It is the culmination of an official dialogue that began between Alliance and UCC representatives six years ago and was joined by Disciples representatives two years ago.

Alliance Executive Director Stan Hastey said the agreement was a formalization of a cooperation that has been going on at the grass-roots level for several years. "This proposed ecumenical agreement is not something dreamed up by the participating denominations," Hastey told Alliance members. "Rather it came up from local settings in which UCC, Disciples and Alliance people began to find each other and explore the possibility of a joint Christian witness in their communities."

The agreement, if approved by the UCC and the Disciples at their national meetings later this year, would:

 set up formal theological dialogues between the groups on "matters of ministry, ordinances/sacraments, theology and polity throughout the life of the church";
 call on UCC, Disciples and Alliance leaders to make joint statements "on issues of national and international concern";
 create more formal cooperation between the three denominations in development of resources such as Sunday school curricula and development of youth camping events; and
 set up a "Partnership Council" with representatives from all three groups to "facilitate and encourage growth" of the ecumenical alignment.

The agreement also calls upon Alliance congregations and individuals to continue and expand their local cooperative efforts with UCC and Disciples churches, and for moderate Baptist seminaries to offer courses on UCC and Disciples history and polity.

Both groups come from backgrounds similar to the Baptist tradition. The United Church of Christ, which has many local churches whose names include the titles "Congregational" or "Reformed," has a democratic church-government style similar to the Baptist tradition, which emphasizes local-church autonomy. Likewise, the Disciples of Christ come from a movement among U.S. evangelicals in the early 1800s that emphasized congregational church government and adult conversion.

Baptist groups historically have been leery of ecumenism, but the Alliance is generally considered to be the most "liberal" Baptist group in the U.S. Likewise, the UCC is widely considered the most progressive Protestant denominational group in the country, and the largest to officially endorse ordination for non-celibate gays and lesbians. The Alliance has endorsed full inclusion of homosexuals in the life of the denomination, but leaves its member churches free to decide how inclusive they will be of gays on the local level.

Hastey said he anticipated that UCC and Disciples members would approve the agreement in their meetings.

In addition to the partnership arrangement, delegates to the Alliance meeting updated a statement on Jewish-Christian relations the group first passed at their 1995 annual meeting, and adopted a statement on Muslim-Christian relations.

Both statements said the Alliance would "renounce interpretations of Scripture which foster religious stereotyping and prejudice against" adherents of each faith. The statement on Jewish relations confessed Baptists' past complicity in anti-Semitism and affirmed "the teaching of the Christian Scriptures that God has not rejected the community of Israel, God's covenant people."

The Muslim-relations statement recognized the common historical roots between Christianity, Islam and Judaism, sought dialogue with Muslims "built on mutual respect and the integrity of each other's faith," and committed the Alliance to work for "full religious freedom" and "equality of citizenship for all persons in all societies, whether Muslims or Christians or others, whether in the U.S. or elsewhere."

Hastey said the statement grew out of conversations that Alliance leaders had with the Islamic Circle of North America beginning last summer. That dialogue was an attempt at damage control in response to comments by former Southern Baptist Convention president Jerry Vines, who accused Islam's highest prophet, Muhammad, of being a "demon-possessed pedophile."

In his speech to Alliance members, Hastey said he "publicly repudiated the vile comments of a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention" which, he told Islamic Circle representatives, "demean you and disgrace us."

Alliance delegates also passed a resolution condemning the U.S.'s 40-year-old trade and tourism embargo against Cuba, saying it had "caused untold hardships on the Cuban people." The resolution commended U.S. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) for attempting to pass legislation that would ease the embargoes. The Alliance has had a missions partnership with the Fraternity of Baptist Churches in Cuba for several years.

Sherrie