UCC, United Church of Canada start path to full communion

Six delegates from the United Church of Christ will spend three days in Toronto this week  working with ecumenical colleagues from the United Church of Canada to continue bringing the denominations closer together. This first discussion toward full communion underscores the United Church of Christ’s promise of a General Synod 2013 resolution that calls for strengthening the relationship between the United Church of Christ and the United Church of Canada.

The church representatives gather from Feb. 12 through Feb. 14 as a 12-member committee to begin laying a foundation for a full communion agreement.

“This meeting in Toronto is the first of a series of meetings that follow the General Synod resolution regarding the ecumenical relationship with the United Church of Canada,” said the Rev. Karen Georgia A. Thompson, United Church of Christ ecumenical officer and one of six people from the United Church of Christ on the trip.

“The hope is that this group of 12 persons will be able to bring back a common document that will go to the United Church of Canada’s General Council and the United Church of Christ’s General Synod, both of which will be held in 2015,” Thompson said, adding that General Council takes place every three years compared to every two for General Synod.

While in Toronto, the 12-person Joint Full Communion Committee (sometimes referred to as the United Ecumenical Partnership Committee) will reflect on what a full communion agreement might mean for the two related, but nationally distinctive, denominations.

“We have to come to mutual terms to how we know ourselves and understand ourselves,” Thompson said.

Joint Full Communion Committee for each denomination
	United Church of Canada	United Church of Christ
	Prof. Mark Toulouse	Rev. Sue Davies
	Rev. Daniel Hayward	Rev. David Greenhaw
	Rev. Danielle Ayiana James	Rev. Bernice Powell Jackson
	Rev. Cheryl-Ann Stadelbauer-Sampa	Rev. Campbell Lovett
	Rev. Bruce Gregersen	Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson
	Ms. Nora Sanders	Rev. Geoffrey Black

The United Church of Christ has a full communion with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a Formula of Agreement with the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Reformed Church in America and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and a “Kirchengemeinshaft” with the Union of Evangelical Churches in Germany (UEK).

The partnership with the United Church of Christ would be a first for United Church of Canada. The Rev. Michael Blair, executive minister of Church Mission for the United Church of Canada, said after the resolution was approved in July that it was “a first for us because we work in partnership with many denominations, but no formal relationships like this resolution would produce.”

The United Church of Christ and the United Church of Canada began a formal conversation in April 2012, when the United Church of Christ made a historical visit to the United Church of Canada offices in Toronto. The denominations met again in April 2013 at the United Church of Christ’s National Offices in Cleveland.

The General Synod 2013 resolution on the ecumenical relationship outlined that each church would form a team of five members, in addition to the general secretary of the United Church of Canada and general minister and president of the United Church of Christ serving as ex-officio members of the committee. Each committee includes a seminary representative, a theologian, a conference representative, a pastor, a staff member and the head of communion.

There are likely two more meetings ahead this year between the United Church of Christ and United Church of Canada to have a communion agreement in place by the end of 2014. Thompson said that dates and locations of future meetings will be set this weekend “with respect to the timelines necessary to get the documents to General Synod and General Assembly.” Later in the process, the United Church of Christ committee will find a way to hear from various constituents in the church.