United, churches can address social ills more effectively

[Shammu]

 Feb. 17, 2006, 9:18PM
United, churches can address social ills more effectively
One goal of annual church conference is to foster more interfaith cooperation

By RICHARD VARA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

The Texas Conference of Churches defies the trend of foundering ecumenism and provides a united voice for the social concerns of the religious community in the halls of power, according to the group's president, the Rev. T. Randall Smith.

"(Churches and denominations) are discovering that what we share in common is much broader and deeper than some of those historic divisions, greater than polity or theology," said Smith, pastor of Deer Park United Methodist Church.

"As our society moves away from what is commonly called a 'safety net,' it will be more important for all religious communities to find a way to work together," Smith said.

The 37-year-old conference is one of the few viable ecumenical organizations in the country, Smith asserted. It has one of the state's longest-running Jewish-Christian dialogues and recently launched a Muslim-Christian dialogue.

The TCC also advocates interfaith understanding and ecumenical action to deal with social and community problems not easily addressed by a single church or denomination.

"Ecumenism across the country, for a variety of reasons, has had some problems," Smith said.

Once-powerful and respected organizations like the National Council of Churches, for example, are experiencing funding shortages as once-supportive mainline denominations face declining memberships and financial contributions, he said. The groups also have difficulty attracting conservative, evangelical denominations.

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so I don't break copywrite laws to finish reading, click on the link below.

United, churches can address social ills more effectively

[Rhys]

While I believe churches can cooperate and coordinate their ministries more effectively, they don't necessarily have to unite to do so.
There was a time when we had one universal church - the Roman Catholic church. It became so entwined with the world and corrupted by earthly wealth and power that it became spiritually dead and useless. (as an organization - there were obviously still godly men and women, and even local churches in it). I believe God split the church into the miriad denominations and independent churches existing today just to keep the church from acquiring enough wealth and power to corrupt it.
This is why I am suspicious of ecumenicalism and Bush's "faith based initiative". The latter sounds good to churches and Christian organizations strapped for cash, but it gives the government a lever to control what churches do and preach. The government has used this sort of lever in the past to try to control the Salvation Army, for instance.
In conclusion, I think Christian organizations should communicate with each other more instead of living in their own little worlds, and should coordinate their efforts informally, but it shouldn't go farther than that.