08035
January 14, 2008

CCT adds seven new members

by Jerry L. Van Marter
Presbyterian News Service

David Beckmann, founder and director of the citizens’ anti-hunger group Bread for the World, tells CCT of his group’s efforts. Photos courtesy of Christian Churches Together.

BALTIMORE, MD — Christian Churches Together — the fledgling U.S. ecumenical grouping that has quickly become one of the largest and broadest-based ever in the country — wrapped up its second annual meeting Jan. 11 by adding seven new member organizations.

The new additions bring membership to 43, representing all five “families” of churches in the U.S. — Catholic, Orthodox, historic Protestant, historic racial-ethnic and Pentecostal/evangelical. confronting domestic poverty.
           
The new members are: American Bible Society, The Church of the Brethren, Elim Fellowship, Habitat For Humanity, The Mennonite Church, The Polish National Catholic Church and The Vineyard USA.

CCT was launched one year ago after more than four years of development and adopted two priorities — evangelism and confronting domestic poverty.

Pursuing the anti-poverty initiative, CCT participants spent Jan. 9 in nearby Washington, DC, hearing reflections from representatives of the five “families” and reviewing members’ responses to date to the group’s initial “Statement on Poverty.” adopted at its inaugural meeting a year ago in Pasadena, CA.

The Rev. Stephen Thurston, National Baptist Convention of America, addresses the approaches to poverty of Historic African American Churches. Photos courtesy of Christian Churches Together.

The 90-person group also visited the headquarters of Bread for the World (a CCT participant organization) where they were joined by 18 seminarians. The group also toured the service sites of S.O.M.E. (So Others May Eat) in Washington and Sojourners (a CCT participant organization).

Apart from worship, most of the remainder of the second annual meeting was spent in small groups, said the Rev. Richard Hamm, a member of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and CCT’s executive administrator, “to pray and think together about what God might be calling CCT to do as individuals, as churches and as CCT together in regard to poverty … and on the theme of evangelism, the other primary focus of CCT.”

Worship leaders during the gathering included the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, General Assembly stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.); William Shaw, president of the National Baptist Convention, USA; Gary Miller, director of program for the Salvation Army; Roman Catholic Cardinal William Keeler of the Archdiocese of Baltimore; and the Rev.Theodore Boback of St. Andrew’s Church, a Baltimore parish of the Orthodox Church in America.

The group also approved its next steps, including dedicating the largest part of next year’s annual meeting to a continued exploration of the convergences and divergences of the participant churches and organizations regarding poverty.