This year will mark the 21st anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A UMNS photo © John C. Goodwin. Used only with permission.

By ELCA News Service*
Jan. 12, 2007       

In observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, U.S. Christian church leaders urged their congregations to join other congregations in their communities to "discern ways to exercise common witness and common service as together we seek to dismantle racism and, in so doing, to be the voice and presence of God's love in the world."
    
United Methodist Bishop William Oden, ecumenical officer, United Methodist Council of Bishops, the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and nine other Christian church leaders - many of them heads of communion - endorsed the statement issued through Churches Uniting in Christ.

CUIC is a relationship of 10 member churches "that have pledged to live more closely together in expressing their unity in Christ and to combat racism together," according to the organization's Web site. The United Methodist Church is a member and the ELCA is a "partner in mission and dialogue."

The church leaders noted in their statement that Jan. 15 marks the 21st anniversary celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the fifth anniversary of CUIC. On Jan. 21, 2002, the church leaders, representing 10 denominations, assembled in Memphis at the historic Lorraine Motel, site of King's assassination in 1968.

The words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. are lifted up in a new statement by U.S. church leaders: "There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet." A UMNS photo © John C. Goodwin. Used only with permission.

The church leaders said that CUIC members are called to be "ambassadors of reconciliation" in a world sold on the idolatries of privilege and racial exclusivity that continue to divide and alienate the family of God, denying the truth that we are all created in the image of the one God.

"Common witness and service are two marks of our unity in Christ. Our partnership in CUIC recognizes that one barrier to the expression of unity in the Christian family is the continuing reality of racism in the church and in the human community," the church leaders' statement said.
 
The church leaders said the vision of CUIC is that "authentic unity may be born in the struggle for racial justice, and that our collective prophetic witness against injustice and oppression in all forms is a measure of our faithfulness to the gospel."

The church leaders added that they are reminded there is still much to be done to dismantle and eradicate racism, and they hope their efforts will not be in vain.
 
"We believe in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr.: 'There is a power in love that our world has not discovered yet,'" the statement concluded.

Other denominational heads of communion and senior church leaders who signed the statement represented the African Methodist Episcopal Church; African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; Christian Church (Disciples of Christ); Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; the Episcopal Church; International Council of Community Churches; Moravian Church Northern Province; Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and United Church of Christ.    

*This story was provided by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America News Service.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resources

CUIC statement

Churches Uniting in Christ

Commission on Christian Unity