Editing Churches Uniting in Christ (section)

=== Origins ===
CUIC is the successor organization to the [[Consultation on Church Union]] (COCU), which had been founded in 1962. The original task of COCU was to negotiate a consensus<ref>While the term "merger" is widely used to describe the set of COCU proposals, it was rejected in general because of its relation to corporate culture. {{Citation| last1 = Moede | first1 = Gerald | title = The COCU Consensus| publisher = The Consultation on Church Union| place = Baltimore, MD| year = 1985 | page=vii}}</ref> between its nine (originally four) member communions (it also included three "advisory participant" churches).<ref>{{Citation| title = Churches in Covenant Communion| publisher = The Consultation on Church Union| place = Princeton, NJ| year = 1989}}</ref> However, it never succeeded in this goal, despite making progress on several ecumenical fronts.<ref>{{Citation| last1 = Moede | first1 = Gerald | title = The COCU Consensus| publisher = The Consultation on Church Union| place = Baltimore, MD| year = 1985 | page=1}}</ref> At COCU's 18th plenary meeting in [[St. Louis, Missouri]] (January 1999), CUIC was proposed as a new relationship among the nine member communions.<ref>{{Citation| title = Signs of Hope - Promise of Change| publisher = Forward Movement Publications| place = Cincinnati, OH| year = 2002}}</ref> Each member communion voted to join CUIC over the next few years.