Shadowed Union

For ten years ecumenical Protestants have held high hopes for a series of meetings called the Consultation on Church Union, aimed at forging a merger among nine U.S. denominations with a combined membership of 24 million. None of the participating denominations has seemed more enthusiastic than the United Church of Christ (2,000,000 members). But now the enterprise appears to be under a shadow--and the United Church of Christ is the cause. The U.C.C. Executive Council has announced that the sort of church the Consultation has been designing all along is too "hierarchical" and weakens the local congregation, the only institution where laymen feel they have any power left. Besides, U.C.C. officials suggest that organic merger at the top is out-of-date, they lean toward broadened cooperation among both national agencies and local churches. The U.C.C. statement is the beginning of the end of the denomination's commitment to the union, say insiders. This in turn could be a bad omen for the ultimate decisions of the other eight churches.

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