Big Weekend in Memphisby Jane Hines Events in Memphis leading up to the celebration on January 21, 2002, of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. were all important and significant. Friday, January 18A new acronym (CUIC) is replacing an old acronym (COCU). Since 1948, COCU (Committee on Church Union) has been exploring possibilities for uniting several Christian denominations. After they agreed in 1999 to stop consulting and move toward something that could actually be accomplished, a concept was finally embraced by nine Protestant Churches that would not blur denominational lines but would make it easier to do things together. Many meetings later, the actual date to accomplish the change was set and people were learning to pronounce a new acronym (CUIC) Churches Uniting in Christ. Since the only programmatic item they had all agreed on was to end racism, the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and Memphis, the city where he was assassinated, came to be the time and place for the uniting to begin. Delegates from the nine denominations gathered on this evening in the ballroom of the Downtown Marriott Hotel in Memphis to answer the roll call: the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Episcopal Church, the International Council of Community Churches, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. An inspiring address by COCU General Secretary Michael Kinnamon of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) reminded delegates and visitors that there are eight visible marks of Christian unity among the member churches, which recognize each other as authentic expressions of the church and clear the way for greater cooperation in worship, witness and service. He said the great danger that CUIC faces now "is not that our new relationship will be opposed, but that it will be ignored, since it does not involve a consolidation of structures." The evening concluded for the standing room only crowd in the ballroom with the amplified sound of a contemporary worship service. It was the first of four worship services to mark the weekend's activities. Saturday, January 19This was a day for workshops and luncheons. The workshops were designed to share knowledge and ideas about what the member churches of CUIC are like and what possibilities there are for doing ministry and worship together in the future. We attended a workshop called "What Difference Will It Make For Us?" where implications were explored for social ministry, worship and community life. But no one could be really sure how much difference CUIC will make. In a short business meeting this afternoon, delegates voted unanimously to dissolve COCU and create CUIC. Then the group was joined by a crowd of church folk from the Memphis area for an impressive worship service at St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral. This was really "high church", complete with incense and processionals in a beautiful white domed sanctuary that was jam packed with Christians singing and partaking of an ecumenical Lord's Supper. The preacher for this service was the Rev. Kathryn Bannister, a United Methodist minister who is younger than COCU. She spoke about the hospitality of God in the real world that we live in. As the hospitality of St. Mary's congregation was shared following the service, it was obvious that this crowd was not just a few people who had been in COCU a long time. Many others were as young as the preacher and the future seemed to hold many possibilities for continuing hospitality among many denominations in myriad ways within the grace of the God of us all through Christ.
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