232 - Putting First Principles First

Putting First Principles First
By George H. Tavard

IN general I would say that the Principles of Church Union do not contain enough principles that are truly fundamental, or at least that fundamental principles are drowned in too many secondary considerations. The document gives the impression of being concerned more about trying to anticipate future developments than about determining on what basis these developments may take place. This, in my view, lies at the source of the general ambiguity of the document, an ambiguity which is reflected in a number of obscurities. For example, the following points seem to me of crucial importance.

(1) The function of these "principles" is nowhere clearly indicated. Are they designed to be precise bases for unity, which all consulting churches ought to recognize and agree upon before union, at least in some revised version to be arrived at by debate over the present version? Or are they guidelines and reminders for the delegates involved in the consultation encounters?

(2) The faith of the church is not really enunciated in Chapter One (entitled "The Faith of the Church"), but at the beginning of the preamble. Chapter One explains where the faith is more fully expressed. I wonder if it would not be more profitable to develop the beginning of the Preamble as a statement of faith (perhaps in the form of a Confessio Americana for the year 19??), and let the questions relating to authority, Scripture, tradition, and confession be worked out at a further stage of discussion, in the light of this agreed Confession. In any case, a sharper distinction ought to be made between the kerygma and the organs which express it.

The Consultation on Church Union, COCU, as it has come to be identified, through a series of meetings during the past five years has prepared a statement of common purpose known as Principles of Church Union. This document, available for 25 cents from the Forward Movement, 412 Sycamore Street, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45202, was approved at the fifth Plenary session, Dallas, Texas, 1966. Participating in this were: The United Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., The Methodist Church, The United Church of Christ, The Evangelical United Brethren, The Christian Churches, The Episcopal Church, The African Methodist Episcopal Church, and The Presbyterian Church in the U. S. Considerable discussion has revolved around these Principles, and the following comment by a distinguished Roman Catholic theologian is typical of the kind of debate and dialogue COCU is eager to encourage. George H. Tavard is a member of the Department of Religious Studies, College of Liberal Arts, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.

233 - Putting First Principles First

(3) The contents of Chapter Three (on "The Sacraments of the Church") seem to come logically before Chapter Two ("The Worship of the Church"). Baptism and the Lord's Supper should determine the form of worship rather than the reverse order. In this perspective, most of Chapter Two would be superfluous at this stage. For, by describing "the official forms of worship of the United Church in the first period of its life," it belongs in the realm of anticipation of things to come, not to principles of union.

(4) Chapter Four ("The Ministry of the Church") says very little about the theology of ministry in general; then, avoiding the questions raised by the theology of each ministry (bishop, presbyter, elder, etc.), it goes straight into the details of practical institutions. It would make more sense to agree first on a theology of ministry in general; and then try to find out, together, what institutions may make ministry effective, while keeping a suitable continuity with past institutions.