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Joking aside, this morning the bishops took what may be a significant step in ecumenical relations between Catholics and Protestants. In a 151-73 vote, they decided to join Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A., a new Christian alliance aimed at uniting Catholics, evangelicals, mainline Protestants, Pentecostals, and Eastern Orthodox.

"It's not to create some kind of megabody or megachurch," Bishop Stephen Blaire, chairman of the conference's ecumenical committee explained. "It is a forum for participation so that we can pray together, grow in our understanding together, and witness together our faith."

Among those on the Christian Churches Together steering committee are evangelicals Ron Sider of Evangelicals for Social Action, World Vision's Roberta Hestenes, The Salvation Army's W. Todd Bassett, and the Church of God in Christ's George McKinney. There are others, but they have all been heavily involved in earlier ecumenical efforts. The National Association of Evangelicals, which has historically been wary of ecumenical groups like the National Council of Churches (as has the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is not a member of the NCC), has been pretty quiet about CCT, but former NAE head Kevin Mannoia is one of its biggest boosters.

In 2002, Christianity Today ran an article critical of CCT by executive editor Thomas C. Oden, along with a response from the CCT steering committee.

In other news from the USCCB meeting, the Catholic bishops decided not to make any major changes to reforms they made in response to the sexual-abuse crisis (despite some early buzz to the contrary). They also surprisingly chose Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie to head the bishops committee on liturgy instead of Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia. Trautman wants to see major changes to Catholic liturgy, including making it more gender inclusive. Rigali, on the other hand, is critical of such efforts.

Weblog has waited 20 years for this article
Big-time musicians have re-recorded the 1984 charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and it will be released November 29. Thankfully, Reuters has issued a story questioning whether the song (originally recorded with biggies like Bono, Sting, and David Bowie, and long-forgotten folks like Ultravox's Midge Ure and Heaven 17's Glenn Gregory) should have been completely overhauled or left to the dustbin of history. The reason: The lyrics are absolutely idiotic. Here's the chorus:

There won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
Where nothing ever grows
No rain or rivers flow
Do they know it's Christmastime at all?

Well, it's true that there won't be much snowfall in Africa this Christmas. But given that the only part of the continent in the northern hemisphere is also in the tropics, that's hardly surprising. There won't be snow in Australia this Christmas time, either. In winter, South Africa does get some snow. And of course Tanzania's Mount Kilimanjaro is perpetually covered in snow and ice.

Things do actually grow there, including coffee, cotton, and cocoa. In fact, most Africans work in agriculture. That's partly because of the rain and rivers that flow there.

Oh, and as for them knowing whether it's Christmas—"Millions of devout African Christians celebrate Christmas with a zeal unmatched by its often commercialized version in the rich world," reports Reuters. "Countless churches have sprung up across the continent and Africans are even exporting missionaries to the West who might ask if Europeans 'know it's Christmas.'"

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November (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48