Coming Together, Texas-Style

Ecumenical firsts these days are so common that most of them seem like seconds. Last week, though, one break through made some justifiable headlines. The Texas Council of Churches and the ten dioceses of the state's Catholic Conference joined together to form a new Texas Conference of Churches, which thus became the most representative U.S. body, linking Protestants, Catholics and Eastern Orthodox.

That such a union should occur first in Texas came as a bit of a surprise, considering that John F. Kennedy had to defend his Catholicism before skeptical Protestant ministers in Houston during the 1960 presidential campaign. But many of those clergymen were Southern Baptists, who do not belong to the Texas Council of Churches, although they attended the founding ceremonies as observers. As it happened, the only picket line formed was for a social, not a religious protest; it consisted of some 80 Mexican-Americans, who were angered at the sudden dismissal of a popular minister who had been assigned by the Texas Council to work for rural self-determination in the Rio Grande Valley. The protesters were quickly assured that the conference would work "aggressive ly, creatively and risk its very life" on be half of the workers.

Member churches will retain their own identities, doctrines and devotions. The constitution of the conference com mits them to "doing together all things save those which we must in conscience and obedience do separately, cultivating interchurch fellowships throughout the state and fostering dialogue in the realm of faith and order." In the near future, the social-action programs of the Texas Catholic Conference will probably be merged with similar programs run by the council. Eventually, predicted San Antonio's Roman Catholic Archbishop Robert E. Lucey, the work of the new organization will extend into "the whole field of the church and society."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.