To call the churches to the goal of visible unity in one faith and in one eucharistic fellowship expressed in worship and common life in Christ, and to advance toward that unity that the world may believe.
I. Specific Mission of Faith and Order USA within the one Ecumenical Movement and the global Faith and Order Movement:
1) Witness to the churches and the NCCCUSA:
a) to the Gospel call to full visible unity,
b) to the inclusiveness of the ecumenical movement to gather all who
confess Christ into a common reconciling pilgrimage;
2) Pursue theological study and publish research serving the unity of the churches;
3) Provide access to the world wide faith and
order discussions to:
a) under represented US churches (ie. African American, Holiness,
Pentecostal and other American born churches),
b) global churches with US expressions (most Orthodox and Roman
Catholic), and
c) nonconciliar churches (ie. Southern Baptist, Lutheran Church -
Missouri Synod, Christian Reformed);
4) Provide the widest forum of church representatives in the US for serving the unity of the Church through theological research and dialogue;
5) Provide a place for the US churches to coordinate and discuss their diverse church unity efforts (ie. Bilaterals, WCC studies, church union negotiations);
6) Provide studies on issues in the US churches for global ecumenical understanding, on global ecumenical issues for US churches* understanding and bridge particular interregional concerns with special significance for the US (ie. Latin American - US unity issues, Canadian US ecumenical collaboration).
II. Approaches of this Commission:
1) Historical, biblical and contextual research serving ecumenical convergence, following the Christocentric methodology (Lund, 1952);
2) Outreach to all trinitarian churches that confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior according to the Scriptures, to engage them in a reconciling dialogue sensitive to their own ecclesiological expectations.
III. Methodologies:
1) Publications serving the convergence in theology that will promote the unity of the Church;
2) Focused consultations from time to time on specific unity issues;
3) Continuing ecumenical studies developed in quadrennial segments;
4) Occasional larger conferences serving a particular unity theme of service to the churches and theological community;
5) Occasional ad hoc studies done to service particular ecumenical concerns (ie. Burnt Churches volume, Ut Unum Sint response for the NCC).