You bestow upon us your Holy Spirit,
Creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ,
binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues and races.
Jesus Christ calls the church to nurture and affirm the gift of unity, boldly expressed through faith, hope and love in its various settings.
The United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Church of the Union have enjoyed twenty-five years of a relationship of Kirchengemeinschaft (full communion), affirmed by the EKU 1980 and by the United Church of Christ in 1981 (Thirteenth General synod), a common expression of the message of reconciliation specially inherent in united and uniting churches.
The full communion has been continued within the framework of the newly founded “Union Evangelischer Kirchen“ (Union of Evangelical Churches). The United Church of Christ welcomed the opportunity to engage in full communion with an expanded community of churches (Twenty-Fourth General Synod 2003). The Evangelical Church in Hesse and Nassau joined the Kirchengemeinschaft in the year 2004 as a new member of the UEK.
The deaneries of Frankfurt and Wiesbaden and the UCC Conference New York, seeking to claim the gift of unity by forging deeper ecumenical ties, seek now to embark upon a special relationship of community and communion within the framework of this Kirchengemeinschaft.
Encouraging each other in faithful stewardship and responding to a rapidly transforming world, we hereby enter together into a covenant that urgently seeks a way of contemporary christianity. As a sign of our shared covenant, we hereby state our firm intention to explore ways to implement the following projects, meant to deepen our communion:
- Increasing the participation of youth and young adults in our common work;
- Facilitating cooperation among adults through workshops and shared reflection on practical topics of mutual concern, including church building, mission and modern liturgy;
- Exchanging staff and pastors to broaden their ecumenical experience;
- Engaging in theological reflection and continuing dialogue on key challenges of our time.