On October 3-5, 2023 65 Christians from over 30 church communions and Christian organizations in the U.S. gathered in Savannah, Georgia for the annual Forum of Christian Churches Together.  Representatives from Christian Churches Together’s five “families” of churches—Catholic, Orthodox, Historic Black, Evangelical/Pentecostal, and Mainline Protestant—engaged in theological dialogue, spiritual reflection, worship at Savannah’s historic churches, and a pilgrimage to the nearby Historic Baptismal Trail. They learned about each other’s histories, traditions, and worship, and dialogued and prayed together with the theme “Water that Unites and Water that Divides: Baptism and the Journey to Unity and Reconciliation.” Among the many issues discussed were questions like, How have our doctrinal interpretations and practices of baptism been used as a source of healing, hurting, or dividing? And, how have water bodies such as the Atlantic Ocean been both a source of life and death throughout history and what is our Christian response?

Reflecting on the Forum, one young adult participant remarked, “The thing that was most meaningful to me was the sense of community and relationship at the Forum, even in the presence of questions and disagreements. Everyone had chosen to be in the room together, and had chosen to open themselves up to relationships with people from different traditions–and that had to mean something. We kept repeating the phrase ‘one faith, one baptism’ (from Ephesians) even though we probably all meant different things by those words. Yet we so deeply wanted those words to bind us, and we seemed to trust that it was already true in ways we couldn’t see. And this led to some beautiful relational moments—saying the Lord’s prayer together in a Greek Orthodox church, riding a big bus together to the Historic Baptismal Trail in Riceboro, Georgia, sharing restaurant and coffee shop recommendations with each other in our downtime… The hospitality I experienced was a tangible way I felt bound to others in Christ’s love.”

Christian Churches Together brings together the widest table of U.S.-based Christian communions and organizations possible. The focus is on receptive ecumenism and learning from each other, and it is a model that is both being utilized globally and is working to make unity visible in those places.

Part of the “leading action” to come out of the 2023 Forum was to produce a video that could bear witness to the learning, lament, and joy experienced on the pilgrimage to the Historic Baptismal Trail in Riceboro, Georgia. Catch a glimpse of Forum participants’ profound experience in the video below.

Snapshots from CCT Forum 2023