Continuing Committee On Common Witness  (CCCW)

1994 Consultation

"Common Witness in a Changing World Order:  An Urgent Challenge for U.S. Churches"
Simpsonwood, Georgia

The Second Ecumenical Mission Conference at Simpsonwood, Georgia was more diverse than the first conference including more Evangelicals along with Conciliar Protestants, Orthodox and Roman Catholics. Emphasizing this diversity, the final message of the Simpsonwood Conference opened with the paragraph:

"We have worshiped together, worked together, eaten together, and built up new relations with one another. We have discovered once again the baptismal unity that binds us and the Trinitarian vision that impels us to live that unity as we call women and men throughout the world to faith in Jesus Christ."

Participants noted that "all over the world, we have discovered Christians together in common witness in amazing ways." The final report was divided into four sections:

1. Speaking with Boldness: The Challenge of Our Times
2. A Theology and Spirituality for Our Common Witness
3. Projects to be Undertaken in Common Witness
4. Ecumenical Missionary Orientation
   a. Ecumenical Mission Education
   b. Communication Network
   c. A New USCMA-CWSW Relationship
   

The Conference report concluded: "We make our own the words of the Fifth World Conference on Faith and Order, 'Our churches should challenge themselves to seek common witness in all situations except those in which deep differences of conviction compel them to witness separately.'" It went on to say, "there are many reasons why such common witness is imperative on our world today . . . Most of all, however, common witness is acting in fidelity to the God who is in mission as a unity of three persons. It is acting in fidelity to the unity that God has established in Christ and through our common baptism. Our call for renewed commitment to common witness, therefore, is not a call for one more thing to be done in our churches; it is a call to be faithful to the very essence of our Christian identity."

Important things have happened out of this second conference, though not all under the auspices of the Continuing Committee.

1. There are at least two missionary orientation programs that include Conciliar Protestants and Roman Catholics and welcome missionaries from the Orthodox and Evangelical communities.
2. There are several mission education initiatives that include persons from the different Christian communities and are focused on cross-cultural dialogue, learning and witness.
3. An ecumenical conference was held in Washington, D.C. on the new "information super- highway" and its effect on people around the world, especially those in poor nations. This conference was sponsored by CWSW, USCMA, and by the Conference of the Major Superiors of Men in the Catholic Church.
4. USCMA and CWSW have strengthened their relationship with each other by exchanging representatives at meetings of their governing bodies and in other conferences.
5. Conversations have taken place with persons in the Evangelical community inviting their participation in this process. One result has been stronger evangelical participation in the Third Conference.

Not only are new divisions and splintering occurring within the churches, but there are also new initiatives for common witness. It is too early to know which will prevail. What can be said with confidence is that through the Common Witness process, people previously strangers, are meeting each other, are recognizing Christ's presence in each other and experiencing their oneness in Jesus Christ in new ways.

God has used the Common Witness process to renew a call to:

•  witness to Jesus Christ together
•  to address together the controversial ethical issues tearing apart our human community
•  to engage in common mission in the world, meeting human needs and working for a more just society

The life and work of the Committee itself is an important vision and symbol within the Christian community today, one which lifts up the challenge to the churches to express their unity in Christ in their daily life and work and mission.

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