When you take two wonderful words and join them, the pleasure of saying them is doubled. To celebrate is to lift up joyously an event, or person, offering thanks and kudos for what has been accomplished. While celebrating can happen within the privacy of an individual heart, we most often gather for the celebration. And that is where we encounter the second wonderful word, together.

Have you considered the connection between “to gather” and “together?” When we come into one place, at one time, for a meeting of minds and hearts, we have gathered. We have come together.

When we think about the history of the Stone-Campbell movement, and in particular the publication of Thomas Campbell’s “Declaration and Address,” we return to our ideal of unity. The ideal of togetherness. While there have been missteps and mishaps along the way, which have caused us to fall short of our ideal, the vision of unity has continued to bind us together and lead us forward.

That is why we are taking the time and trouble to call for this bicentennial celebration. It is in these milepost moments that we can stop and look back at how far we have come. From small gatherings of Christians and Disciples in the early part of the nineteenth century to millions all across the globe today who trace their heritage to those small gatherings. We have, indeed, come a long way. But there is still much to do. The unity of people of faith that we yearn for is just as much a challenge as it was for Thomas Campbell, maybe even more so.

Plurality now defines the religious landscape. At the beginning of our movement the varieties of religious experience in America were, mostly, confined within different denominations of Christians. Today that variety has expanded to include every religion known to humanity…and many which had not even formed when Thomas Campbell put pen to paper in 1809.

We look forward to that day when we can celebrate together the oneness of all God’s people with all of God’s people. That is the unity we are working toward.

Until that great day, we can find joy in our own celebration within our Stone-Campbell family. It is a joy best expressed when we gather together at the Lord’s Table. Won’t you join us in the invitation for congregations all around the world to celebrate the Lord’s Supper in their own communities, but still together, on October 4, 2009?