Laurie Spurr, Torre Pellice, Italy, 15 July (ENI) - The World Alliance of Reformed Churches (Warc) approved on Tuesday a "comprehensive partnership" with the Disciples Ecumenical Consultative Council, which brings together Disciples denominations around the world.

The move opens the way for closer links between the Disciples body and Warc, which has more than 200 member churches representing 75 million Christians worldwide.

"It's like intensive dating before you get married to find out if you are one people," explained Newell Williams, a consultant of the US Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to the Warc executive committee, taking place in Torre Pellice until 15 July. "Part of my experience this week is that we are one people."

A denomination in the Reformed tradition, the Disciples of Christ (known in some countries as Churches of Christ) traces its origins to two 19th-century US frontier religious movements.

"It's a commitment to working together. I'm very excited," said the Rev Setri Nyomi, Warc general secretary. "The Alliance has always been interested in ecumenical engagement, especially in fostering the vision of unity of the church."

The Disciples' ecumenical council has almost 40 member churches around the world that together have about 1 million members; 23 of these churches are also members of Warc.

The Disciples' council is to meet in Brighton, England, from July 23 to 26. If it approves a similar resolution, Warc and the DECC could join together in such activities as coordinated bilateral dialogues with the Roman Catholic church.

"If Warc is what we believe it is - a community of Reformed churches committed to the unity Christ has given to Christ's church, and faithful obedience to the gospel for our time - and that's how we experience Warc," Newell told ENI, then "we should be related to Warc".

Disciples hold that faith should not be based on creeds but only on Jesus Christ, and that God wants Christians to be in unity, not fragmented, according to the US Disciples' website.

"Should Disciples be enthusiastic about what Warc's about?" Newell asked. "Yes, because Warc's history is about, at its best, calling churches to affirm the unity God has given, which is at the heart of Reformed faith."

The Warc gathering in Torre Pellice was the last meeting of its executive committee before Warc's general council meeting in Accra, Ghana, scheduled in 2004. The executive committee and the general council are the alliance's highest policy-making bodies.

:: Warc has agreed to accept into membership the 1.2 million-member Eglise evangelique du Cameroun (Evangelical Church of Cameroon). The church, founded in 1957, has almost 300 pastors, nine of whom are women. [447 words]

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