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An Invitation to a Journey,
April 6, 2002, Chicago, Illinois
As Evangelical, Orthodox, Pentecostal,
Mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic church leaders, we write to all
Christians in the United States to share our longing for an expanded
Christian conversation in our nation. In Baltimore on Sept 7 - 8,
2001, we met to pray, to listen and to seek the guidance of God on
whether all who confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior
according to the scriptures can talk together about how to share with
the world our common confession of Jesus Christ. We continued this
prayerful conversation in Chicago on April 4 - 6 and sensed the Holy
Spirit leading us to new possibilities.
We lament that we are divided and
that our divisions too often result in distrust, misunderstandings,
fear and even hostility between us. We long for the broken body of
Christ made whole, where unity can be celebrated in the midst of our
diversity.
We lament our often diffuse and
diminished voice on matters critical to the gospel in our society.
We long for a more common witness, vision and mission.
We lament how our lack of
faithfulness to each other has led to a lack of effectiveness on
crucial issues of human dignity and social justice. We long to
strengthen the prophetic public voice of the Christian community in
America.
We lament that none of our current
organizations represents the full spectrum of Christians in the
United States. We long for a place, where our differences could be
better understood and our commonalities better affirmed.
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In Chicago, we began
to see a vision of a new life together. This vision has led us to
provisionally call ourselves “Christian Churches Together in the
USA” With excitement we began to sketch the outlines of a new
level of relationship and action that offer a common witness for
Christ to the world. This common witness will be visible through
our: |
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Celebrating a common confession
of faith in the Triune God
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Seeking the guidance of the Holy
Spirit through biblical, spiritual and theological reflection
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Engaging in common prayer
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Speaking to society with a
common voice
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Promoting the common good of
society
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Fostering faithful evangelism
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Seeking reconciliation by
affirming our commonalities and understanding our differences
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Building a community of
fellowship and mutual support
We invite all churches who confess
Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the scriptures to the
glory of the one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit to join us on
this journey. We have only just begun to explore how to walk
together. The questions for conversation, the ways to talk
together and the paths to take all remain to be fleshed out by
those whom, we trust, will join us on this difficult and essential
journey of faith and obedience. We cannot know the details of the
way, but we long to allow the Holy Spirit to answer our Lord’s
prayer to the Father, “that they may all be one . . . so that the
world may believe that you have sent me.”
John 17: 21
Appendix: Draft Basis Statement
Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A. gathers together
those churches and Christian communities which, acknowledging
God’s revelation in Christ, confess the Lord Jesus Christ as God
and Savior according to the Scripture, and in obedience to God’s
will and in the power of the Holy Spirit commit themselves to seek
a deepening of their communion with Christ and with one another;
to fulfill their mission to proclaim the Gospel by common witness
and service in the world for the glory of the one God, Father, Son
and Holy Spirit.
Revised May 21, 2002
See also
Christian Churches Together
Bylaws 
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