Continuing Committee On Common Witness


1987 Consultation

"Divided Churches, Common Witness:  Unfinished Task for US Christians in Mission"
Madison, CT

The First Ecumenical Mission Conference was divided into four "sectors" or "issue groups":

1. The Gospel and Western Culture: The Encounter of Faith and Culture and its Impact on Mission
2. Standing in Solidarity with the Poor
3. Church -- Mission -- Reign of God.
4. Relationship With Person of Other Faiths.

In sector one, the Conference recommended "collaboration between our churches/communions on a series of issues pertaining to Gospel and Culture and the training of missionaries." Numerous practical suggestions were made for standing in solidarity with the poor, including the "development of a national ecumenical network for solidarity with the poor, oppressed and marginalized, building on networks already emerging." This included a call to include the poor in our decision making.

To respond to "a hungering and thirsting to experience the integrating vision of the Reign/Mission/Church," the conference called for renewed dialogue among Christians about published statements of different groups or churches, and using already established channels of relationship. Underscoring the reality that the contemporary world draws us into relationships with persons of other faiths, the conference recommended that the member groups give it a higher priority.

The Conference concluded its message by saying: "We are grateful for all our traditions mean to us. We long, however, to find ways to put into practice the unity in Christ which is God's gift of grace, a grace which we recognize in each other. We are still searching for ways to distinguish valid diversity from divisions, which invalidate our witness. We are committed to a continuing search for means of cooperation that will make our unity visible, our witness faithful and our service effective."

A Continuing Committee

At the close of this Conference, the "Continuing Committee on Common Witness" was formed by representatives of the U.S. Catholic Mission Association and Church World Service and Witness of the National Council of the Churches of Christ. The U.S. Catholic Mission Association (USCMA) brings together representatives of Roman Catholic mission-sending congregations and societies, diocesan mission offices, individual missioners and others concerned about cross-cultural mission and global solidarity.

Church World Service and Witness (CWSW), brings together representatives of mission and service agencies of the member churches of the National Council of Churches of Christ to cooperate in ecumenical outreach in Christian mission and humanitarian service to people in need around the world.

The Continuing Committee on Common Witness is a consultative body formed to foster collaboration in common Christian witness in mission. It is composed of persons named by the USCMA and CWSW and includes participant observers invited by them. It seeks to include the respective Christian traditions, Conciliar and Evangelical Protestants, Orthodox and Roman Catholic. The committee sponsors and organizes conferences whenever they judge there is a need.

The newly organized Continuing Committee on Common Witness organized four Task Forces to follow up concerns of the conference.

A Task Force on Historical Research sought to influence "the planning of the various U.S. mission orders and agencies as they prepare for mission in the next century." It gathered information on historical studies underway in Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical communities, and proposed to share this information, and stimulate articles on common witness in mission journals.

Stimulated in part by the Common Witness process, in 1990, the American Society of Missiology took as its theme "Common Witness," and published the papers in an issue of its journal Missiology.

A Task Force on Theological Reflection continued the discussions begun in Madison. This Task Force prepared several papers, and reviewed recommendations from major documents on mission from Catholic, Protestant and Evangelical gatherings. The Gospel and culture network has its roots in the Madison event and this Task Force.

Other Task Forces included one on Missionary Formation and one on Joint Strategies.

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