Great Communion Talking Points
- The ‘Great Communion’ is to celebrate the bicentennial of Thomas Campbell’s “Declaration and Address” written in 1809
- The celebration has been planned by representatives of all three streams of the Stone-Campbell movement
- A special website, www.greatcommunion.org, has all the information needed to plan the celebration
- The Bicentennial Task Force is asking congregations around the world to gather in their own communities on October 4, 2009 (World Communion Sunday) for special communion services
- The “Declaration and Address,” more than any other document, serves as the constitution for our faith movement. It is there that Thomas Campbell says “the church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one.”
- The website offers books and online materials on the history of the movement, as well as resources for the special communion services
- This is a unique opportunity to live out the unity that we teach
- Since the weekly celebration of communion is the practice of all Stone-Campbell churches, the Task Force believes that gathering for community-wide communion services is the most natural way to commemorate the bicentennial