Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. (CCT)
A striking new gesture toward a broadly inclusive ecumenical structure is in formation as a spectrum including everyone from the Orthodox and Roman Catholics to the Evangelical/ Pentecostal and everything in between. Two meetings have been held, the first at Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, CA in 2003, and the second at a retreat center outside Houston, TX in 2004. Greek Orthodox, Antiochian Orthodox and OCA representatives were present, as well as those from Oriental jurisdictions of the Coptic and Armenian Churches.
The proposed constitution of the developing organization would provide for the following:
• The organization shall consist of representatives of Churches and Christian organizations.
• All decisions will be made on the basis of consensus, which means that every decision requires unanimous consent by the representatives of the member groups.
• The members shall be divide into several “Faith Groups,” including Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal and Orthodox.
• The Orthodox group will include both Eastern and Oriental Orthodox.
• Each of these Faith Groups will have two representatives on the Executive Council.
• It was agreed that each Faith Group will have the right to determine its own membership. This was proposed by the Orthodox to keep non-Orthodox groups from gaining some sort of legitimacy by participation in the Orthodox Faith Group.
In addition to the constitution, the following agreements have been reached:
• The organization should avoid involvement in political issues.
• The organization will avoid so-called ecumenical worship and will follow the guidelines presented by the Orthodox to the World Council of Churches (WCC).
• Various churches and Faith Groups will be called upon to provide prayer and worship, leaving it up to the individual members the option as to what degree they can participate.
• The organization will also recognize that membership does not imply ecclesiastical recognition by one member of any of the other members (Toronto Principle in the WCC).
