Although I've had some contact lately with folks in the International Church of Christ (ICOC) that gave me hope for the future of that fellowship, news of a partnership between an ICOC ministry school and a college affiliated with the independent Christian Churches came entirely out of the blue to me.

According to a brief article on Disciples Today, Rocky Mountain School of Ministry (Denver, CO) and Lincoln Christian University (Lincoln, IL) have formed an arrangement wherein undergraduate and graduate ministry courses will begin to be offered in 2010 through the Denver-based school.

Dare I hope this is an genuine show of unity within a fractured movement?  The instrumental and a cappella churches parted company early in the 20th century, and the instrumental camp further divided over the course of that same century into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ.  The ICOC split from the "mainline" of a cappella churches in the 1980s and 1990s.  That schools of these two branches of the Stone-Campbell Movement are finding a way to work together productively is encouraging.