Religion: Preparing for One Church

“Conversations about unity” that would bring 19 million American Protestants into one church together will be held this week in Washington among leaders of the Methodist. Episcopal, United Church of Christ and United Presbyterian churches. Not since Presbyterian Eugene Carson Blake proposed church union from the pulpit of San Francisco’s Episcopal Grace Cathedral in 1960 have churchmen met to discuss the plan’s intricacies. This week’s meeting is, at best, preparatory, but it may chart the course toward a Protestant summit conference.

To many, the most encouraging thing is the spirit of the description the prospective united church has devised for itself —”catholic, reformed and evangelical.” The “catholic” should satisfy high-church Episcopalians, “evangelical” should please gospel-centered Methodists, and “reformed” will comfort Calvinist Presbyterians. Says San Francisco’s Episcopal Bishop James A. Pike, a top supporter of the ecumenical movement (though not a participant in the Washington talks): “The three words represent the best of all we have.”