FOUR CITY CHURCHES JOIN TO OBSERVE SPECIAL REFORMATION SERVICE SUNDAY

Four Cape Girardeau churches will meet for a Reformation Sunday communion service at 3 p.m. this Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, 235 Broadway.

The four sponsoring churches are: Evangelical United Church of Christ, First Presbyterian, St. Mark Lutheran Church, and Westminster Presbyterian Church.

The service will include musical offerings from choirs of each church, a combined choir and brass rendition of "For All the Saints," and the celebration of Holy Communion.

The worship service will be preceded at 2 by a panel discussion led by the pastors on the past, present and future of the relationships of the participating churches.

Leaders of the local congregations planned this service in response to a national dialogue among four Reformation churches: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church (USA), The Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ.

One of the recommendations of the committee of the involved national bodies was that they commit themselves to an on-going process of theological dialogue in order to clarify further the common understanding of the faith and foster its common expression in evangelism, witness and service.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) was formed in June 1983. Two predecessor churches considered themselves heirs of the Calvinist tradition, which named itself Presbyterian after its form of government by elders ("presbyters").

The UCC, constituted in 1957, is an organic union merging confessional and covenantal traditions. Bringing together the North American Congregational Christian Churches and Evangelical and Reformed Church of continental background, the UCC has Calvinist roots on both sides of its lineage, and a Lutheran connection through its Evangelical Synod heritage.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America came into existence on Jan. 1, 1988, as a result of several mergers of Lutheran bodies. It is both the youngest and oldest Lutheran tradition in North America, tracing its history through its predecessors to the mid 1600s in the area of New York.

The Reformed Church in America was founded in 1628, growing out of the Reformed Church of the Netherlands.