Communion at the closing worship service of the World Convention featured cups and bread trays made of olive wood. Photo: Ted Parks (click to enlarge)

To view more photos from the July 30-Aug. 3 World Convention in Nashville, click here. 

By Rebecca Bowman Woods, DisciplesWorld news and website editor

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (8/4/08) — The seventeenth World Convention concluded on Sunday afternoon with a communion service kicking off the bicentennial celebration of Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address of 1809.

Campbell, one of the primary founders of the Stone-Campbell Movement that birthed the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ (sometimes called “independent”) and the acappella Churches of Christ in North America, outlined his plea for unity in the document.

During Sunday's closing service at the Nashville Convention Center, Doug Foster of Abilene Christian University and the Churches of Christ told the gathering that Campbell wrote his now-foundational work after coming to the United States in hopes of establishing a church modeled on the New Testament, only to discover the divisions he abhorred within the Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland had already manifested themselves in the U.S.

By the time he wrote the Declaration and Address, said Foster, he had been more-or-less excommunicated for not limiting the celebration of the Lord’s Supper to a particular sect of like-minded Presbyterians.

Foster reminded World Convention attendees of Campbell’s words from the Declaration and Address on communion, which he deemed “that great ordinance of unity and love.”

Unlike the centennial celebration of the Declaration and Address in 1909 in Pittsburgh, Pa., when around 25,000 people gathered at Forbes Field to share the Lord’s Supper, next year’s event will take place in many locations. Foster urged attendees to connect with other Stone-Campbell Christians in their local communities to make plans for Oct. 4, 2009, the date of the “Great Communion” celebration.

Resources are available to help with that, including the book One Church, and a website, www.greatcommunion.org. Both were put together by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society.

During Sunday afternoon’s service, World Convention President Robert Wetzel passed the gavel to his successor, B.J. Mpofu, installing him as president for the next four years.

Wetzel, president of Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, Tenn., also delivered the sermon during the service. Drawing on a Kenyan custom of burying a newborn infant’s umbilical cord in a ceremonial burial ground, creating a symbolic link between the child and its village, Wetzel cautioned worshipers about the danger of losing their identity, not only as spiritual descendants of Thomas and Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone, but as followers of Christ.

While touching on the hallmarks of Stone-Campbell theology and practice — the centrality of Scripture, the quest to restore the New Testament church, and the pursuit of unity — Wetzel concluded by talking about the “gift” of the Stone-Campbell Movement — restoring the celebration of the Lord’s Supper on a weekly basis.

While other churches and denominations also celebrate communion weekly, Wetzel praised the Stone-Campbell tradition for offering an “open table” in the sense that “we come to the table, kneel, and confess before the cross of Christ that we are all sinful. We are all in need.”

Following Wetzel, World Convention General Secretary Jeff Weston delivered a moving communion invitation. He invited the congregation to spend time considering their need for forgiveness, particularly for the “sin of division” within the church, in families, in neighborhoods, and between economic classes.

The main communion table for the service was used during the 1909 centennial celebration in Pittsburgh. The flagon and chalice were Alexander Campbell's, Weston noted.

At the end of the worship service, Weston, who left Australia for Nashville with his wife, Rosemary, four years ago, gave an emotional send-off to the congregation after thanking those who helped put the Nashville convention together.

The seventeenth World Convention began July 30. Cynthia Hale, founding pastor of Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga., delivered the evening’s sermon at the opening worship service.

Other Disciples participating in worship services included General Minister and President Sharon E. Watkins, who read the scripture text during Sunday’s closing service; the choir from Gender Road Christian Church in Canal Winchester, Ohio; and Rick Reisinger, World Convention treasurer and vice president of Church Extension. Disciples Randy Kuss, Virzola Law, and Andra Moran were involved in the Global Youth Connecting program for teens, and Moran  helped coordinate the children’s programming.

Workshop leaders included Robert Welsh, Dick Hamm, John Davidson, Gary Kidwell, Newell Williams, Gene Lovelace, Charlie Wallace, Bob Shebeck, and David Vargas. Many World Convention attendees also visited the Disciples of Christ Historical Society, which is located in Nashville.

The next World Convention was to be in Zimbabwe. But because of the current political unrest and economic instability in Mpofu’s country, the World Convention board decided to hold the 2012 convention in Brazil.