Release #036 {2900} April 23, 1996
DENVER (UMNS)--The United Methodist Church has become the sixth and largest denomination to adopt the covenanting proposal of the Consultation on Church Union (COCU).
By a vote of 661 to 288--nearly 70 percent--delegates of the 1996 United Methodist General Conference here accepted the proposal brought by the denomination's Council of Bishops.
A constitutional amendment also was approved during the April 23 vote on the issue. The amendment will be sent to annual (regional) conferences meeting this spring and summer for a further vote.
A minority report from the legislative committee, calling for a postponement on covenanting, was defeated.
In his introduction, Bishop William Boyd Grove of Albany, N.Y., called the covenanting proposal the "most significant ecumenical challenge" to come before a United Methodist General Conference in the past half-century. Grove is president of the denomination's Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.
Byrd Bonner, a lay delegate from San Antonio and chairperson of the commission's COCU task force, called the proposal a unique opportunity to merge grassroots ecumenism with the ecumenical theological movement among denominations.
According to Grove, COCU creates a "spiritual, covenantal union," not an organizational or structural one. Member denominations of the covenant will recognize each other's churches, baptism and ordained ministry and celebrate the eucharist together. On the local level, covenanting councils will be formed.
To address a concern about recognizing homosexual ministers from other denomination, an amendment was added in committee to the approved majority report. It reads: "...The United Methodist Church shall maintain its own standards for ministerial training and the ordination of ministers which shall also apply to our reception or transfer of ministers of other denominations, including any prohibitions set by General Conference."
Formed in 1962, COCU began its life as an organization aimed at facilitating an actual merger of its members, but later changed its direction to promoting a spiritual rather than structural unity.
A COCU member since the beginning, the United Methodist Church adopted the theological basis for a plan of union, The COCU Consensus, at the 1988 General Conference. The covenanting plan itself, Churches in Covenant Communion, was first considered in 1992 before being adopted by the 1996 General Conference.
Besides United Methodists, Grove said, five other COCU member denominations have committed themselves to covenanting: the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), United Church of Christ, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church (CME), Presbyterian Church USA and International Council of Community Churches. The Presbyterians still must approve the necessary constitutional amendments.
The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) and African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) churches are expected to approve covenanting this summer. The Episcopal Church, still considering the proposal, will take longer to vote, Grove predicted.
--- Linda Bloom
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