Abilene, TX
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| Mercy Street Church of Christ Abilene, TX |
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AUSTIN FORUM ON CHRISTIAN UNITY by Leroy Garrett Most readers of these essays are aware that there are three denominations — Disciples of Christ, Christian Churches, Churches of Christ — that have the same historic beginnings, dating back to the early 1800s. They began as a unity movement, with a mission to “unite the Christians in all the sects,” and with no intention to become a separate church. Once a separate body they remained united among themselves for upwards of a century, and as one church they wore all three of these names, deeming them all biblical. There were two principle founding fathers, Barton Stone and Alexander Campbell. And so we speak of our heritage in the Stone-Campbell Movement. The irony and tragedy of this story is that a church “born of a passion for unity,” as one historian put it, should itself suffer two major divisions within a period of less than 40 years. The Churches of Christ separated from the Disciples of Christ beginning in 1889, ostensibly over the use of instrumental music in worship and missionary societies, but the real cause was the factious spirit of “Editor Bishops,” as I have pointed out in my own history of the Movement. The Christian Churches, often called Independents, separated from the Disciples beginning in the 1920s over liberal/conservative issues, which has been the culprit that has divided many churches. Some of you also know that I have been involved for over a half century, along with many unity-loving souls from all three of these churches, in recovering our call from God to be a unity people among the church at large, and to begin by restoring unity among ourselves. We began by having unity forums, inviting brethren from all three “streams” of the Movement, as we have come to call them, back in the 1950s. It was at first slow and discouraging, but in recent decades we have enjoyed phenomenal progress, with results that we could hardly have dreamed of a half century ago. We now have an ongoing Stone-Campbell Dialogue that brings our scholars and ministers together from all three streams for prayer and discussion. We have the scholarly Stone-Campbell Journal, and we recently published The Stone-Campbell Encyclopedia, both the work of all three churches. I was pleased to do the essay on Alexander Campbell for the encyclopedia. Conventions, journals, universities, and congregations have all joined in to help draw our separated people closer together. And there have been countless unity forums, large and small and at the grassroots level, such as Ouida and I attended in Austin last weekend. The Second Annual Austin Stone-Campbell Unity Forum was sponsored by the University Avenue Church of Christ, an historic church hard to the campus of the University of Texas, and one of our imposing edifices with elegant stained-glass, and the Austin Graduate School of Theology. Part of the program, a joint-communion service, was hosted by Central Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), also a historic church with inspiring appointments. At this service I gave a brief historic overview of our Stone-Campbell heritage and Communion. I noted that we have always agreed that the table we spread is the Lord’s table, not ours, and so “We neither invite nor debar,” as we have always said. The Lord is the host and he invites all who accept him as Lord. All of our congregations all through the years have practiced what is called open Communion. “Let a person examine himself, and so let him partake,” we have always said, quoting Scripture. The speakers for the Forum, which ran for two sessions on Saturday, bear witness to the quality of participants these forums now attract. Newell Williams, president of Brite Divinity School, TCU, was there for the Disciples of Christ. Michael Sweeney, president of Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, Tn., was there for Independent Christian Churches, as was Robert Rea, historian from Lincoln Christian College, Lincoln, Il. There were also two from Churches of Christ: Jack Reese, a dean from Abilene Christian University, and Jeff Peterson, a professor from Austin Graduate School of Theology in Austin. The sessions offered a study in-depth of our Lord’s prayer for unity in John 17. The speakers noted that our Lord not only prayed for the oneness of his disciples then with him, but for “all who believe on me through their word.” One speaker emphasized that our Lord prayed for us, that we will be one. They also pointed out that unity is not the end itself, but that “the world will believe thou hast sent me.” The church is to be one so that the world will be won! The world is to see our love for each other, not our quarrels. We were left with the sobering question, Can a divided church win a lost world? The speakers also addressed the question of how the Lord’s prayer for unity might be implemented, or what can we do to bring that prayer to a reality. Barton Stone, one of our founding pioneers who said he prayed for the unity of all Christians every day, answered that question by insisting that we can all be a force for unity in our own hearts and lives. We start by praying for unity as our Lord did. The speakers also pointed to such venues as missions, publications, campuses, and such forums as this one as means of implementation. Our monumental task is still before us: to create a consciousness of and a passion for the unity of all believers, and to overcome a general indifference toward unity efforts. Too many are satisfied with what one ecumenist called “the scandal of Christianity, a divided church.” One of my assignments was impromptu. Since I was present for the Sunday a.m. service at the University Avenue Church of Christ, not part of the unity forum, Eddie Sharp, the minister, asked me to visit a combined adult class and submit to questions about our heritage, which he would ask. We had a great time with some longtime members of the congregation. I met one dear sister, now nearing 90, who is the widow of Harrison Matthews, longtime minister of that congregation who passed on several decades ago while comparatively young. The minister, who blessed us with a heart-warming sermon that morning, asked me in the class what I saw as the essence of our heritage in Churches of Christ. I answered that it could be expressed in a motto that our pioneers borrowed from the Protestant Reformation. In essentials, unity; In opinions, liberty; In all things, love. That is the essence of our plea for unity, even if we have not measured up to it ourselves. Like others, we too have been guilty of making opinions or non-essentials tests of fellowship. I told them we’ve had another motto, also a plea for unity, that we in Churches of Christ have turned on its head: We are Christians only, but not the only Christians. We have often left the impression — at least in decades past — that we believe we are the only Christians. That was not the position of our pioneers. While they held that believers can unite by being just Christians or Christians only, they never saw themselves as the only Christians. That would be sectarian, a blatant denial of our plea for unity based on devotion to Jesus Christ.  |
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