Consultation on Church Union

The Consultation on Church Union (COCU) was an effort towards church unity in the United States, that began in 1962 and in 2002 became the Churches Uniting in Christ. It was a significant part of the Christian movement towards Ecumenism.

History

The original task of COCU was to negotiate a merger between its four (and later ten) member denominations; however, the merger never happened under that banner.

This effort can be seen in the context of the worldwide ecumenical attitude that was manifested in the 1948 formation of the World Council of Churches, the 1950 formation of the National Council of Churches, the 1957 formation of the United Church of Christ, and the formation of the Roman Catholic Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity during the Second Vatican Council (which occurred from 1962 to 1965).

The United Church of Christ is a visual example of COCU's initiatives. It was a merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches.

According to a May 13, 1962 Time magazine article, [1] the COCU was proposed as a giant Protestant superchurch by Presbyterian Rev. Eugene Carson Blake in 1962. Time reports that a meeting in Dallas in May 1966 produced a timetable for merger that called for "creation and ratification of a union plan within 13 years, followed by some 30 years of federation during which a constitution will be prepared." Among delegates from the eight churches then involved were Methodist Theologian Albert Outler, Episcopal Bishop Robert Gibson of Virginia, and United Church of Christ Minister David Colwell.

Despite intense negotiations, membership of the denominations overwhelmingly rejected the merger plan when it was proposed in 1969.

Intercommunion

With the failure of the merger proposal, COCU then turned to negotiating "intercommunion", whereby each member church would retain its own autonomy and identity, while recognizing the validity of the rites and ministry of the others and accepting them as true churches.

A key phrase associated with COCU was “catholic and reformed” (later, “catholic, evangelical, and reformed”).

Episcopal structure

In 1991 it was proposed that this was to be done on the historic episcopal model of bishop, presbyter and deacon. However, the Presbyterian Church USA was unwilling to implement some of the changes to its internal rules that this model would require, and the Episcopal Church did not feel able to participate at the time. It was then proposed that intercommunion be established without a resolution of the ministry issue, which would be resolved by 2007 by means of intensive dialog between the churches.

Dissolution

After forty years of talks, COCU was dissolved in 2002. Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) is the successor organization to the Consultation on Church Union.

Documents

COCU produced several ecumenically developed texts:

• the famous sermon preached by Eugene Carson Blake in Grace Cathedral
• The Principles of Church Union
• The Plan of Union for the Church of Christ Uniting,
• Mutual Recognition of Members in One Baptism,
• Lenten booklets such as Liberation and Unity,
• the COCU liturgy of the Lord’s Supper,
• The COCU Consensus,
• Churches in Covenant Communion

Notable people involved in the COCU effort

• Arthur Marshall
• Harold Johnson
• Robert Taylor
• James McCord