Diocese Plays Leadership Role in New Christian Organization

Ecumenical News International
June 9, 2005

During a closed-doors meeting in the first week of June, the new ecumenical organization — called Christian Churches Together — took its first formal steps towards organizing. The new group seeks to bring together the "five families" of Christian churches: mainline Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, racial/ethnic and evangelical/Pentecostal churches.

The Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), through its legate, is deeply involved in this effort, which is making historic inroads in the Catholic and evangelical churches, which have traditionally not been associated with national ecumenical groups such as the National Council of Churches. While the new Christian Churches Together has been well received by leaders of the Catholic and evangelical churches, no official endorsement from world-wide leaders has come yet.

"This is going to be the first time in the history of United States that the 'five families' of churches are coming together to jointly create such an organization," said Bishop Vicken Aykazian, diocesan legate and ecumenical officer, who has served on the group's steering committee since it was proposed in 2001. "We have to express ourselves with the same voice about the social problems, political problems, and theological problems." About two dozen church leaders attended the steering committee gathering from June 1 to 3 in Los Altos Hills, CA, during which they talked about the final shape of the organization, and the goal to officially launch the new effort in 2006.

Participants in the group's initial meetings the past few years have spent much of their time praying together and getting acquainted with one another's traditions. Organizers of the group say such trust-building sessions are critical to building consensus between churches during future discussions of moral and social issues.

During the most recent meeting, Bishop Aykazian shared an Orthodox view of ecumenicalism with the participants by reading remarks written by Chris Zakian, coordinator of public relations at the Diocese.

"What we regard today as the modern ecumenical movement saw its birth in the middle years of the 20th century. For most of the ensuing period, the Armenian Church has played a role in ecumenical gatherings on the world and various national stages, under the support and blessing of three catholicoi of the worldwide Armenian Church, centered at our Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, in today's Republic of Armenia," the remarks read.

"The idea of an 'ecumenical' Christianity — that is, a Christianity that encompasses all the world's human habitations — is much older, of course, having received its most elaborate expression in the 4th century, under the Council of Nicaea. Astonishingly, all of us gathered
here today still live in the shadow of that great gathering — and not simply those of us who explicitly adhere to the Nicene Creed. By the very fact of our coming together, we are in some measure seeking to continue, or perhaps complete, the project begun 1,680 years ago."