Striving for unity: Catholic Church dialogue with Disciples of Christ

(Vatican Radio) A delegation of the Disciples of Christ are in Rome this week for a meeting of their dialogue with the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. This fifth phase of the dialogue is focused on the theme ‘Christians formed and transformed by the Eucharist.’ The Disciples, or Christian Church as they’re often simply called, are a community which grew up at the start of the 19th century from the Protestant revival movement in the United States and England, though today they also count flourishing groups in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Disciples of Christ describe themselves as a movement for unity, inclusion and wholeness in a fragmented world. To find out more about their history and about their relations with the Catholic Church, Philippa Hitchen spoke with the two co-chairs of the dialogue, Rev Newell Williams from the Disciples of Christ and Catholic Bishop David Ricken from the diocese of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

"1832 would be the point where we see the Stone-Campbell movement which gives rise to the Disciples of Christ.......we are certainly a Protestant communion but I think it's important to say we do not have any history of separation from the Catholic Church.....that means we enter the dialogue as one group of Christians seeking to understand another group of Christians....and we enter with that energy by which the Disciples began to be part of the fulfillment of Jesus' high priestly prayer that those who believe on the word of the Apostles might be one....."

"What we're trying to do in the dialogue is to understand the language - they may use the very same terms that we do but mean something different by it.....I've been deeply enriched by this association and it is interesting, now with out new Pope emphasising discipleship and the new evangelisation, I think our Church can learn a lot from the Disciples of Christ....how to form disciples and what it means to be a disciple in our world today...."