In 1970 the Commission proposed a Declaration of Intention to Seek Union which was adopted by all the member churches and celebrated in Services of Commitment to the Search for Union on 24 November 1974. In this Declaration the Churches undertook:

1. to seek agreement on a common form of ministry of Word and Sacraments, with due regard to those patterns of ministry and oversight to which God has already led us;
2. to admit to the Lord’s Table communicant members of all our Churches as an immediate and visible sign of our common quest;
3. to work for increasing co-operation in all areas of church

The acceptance of reciprocal communion, as it was called, removed many misunderstandings and hurts and opened the way for far closer fellowship between members of the participating churches.

In the setting of the sixties, the ideal was organic or structural union. A consultation on Spirituality in 1975 affirmed that “the unity of the Church must be the product of renewal of fellowship within the Churches and not the result of a super-imposed unified structure”. The Commission therefore decided to set interim goals which would deepen the possibilities of fellowship between the Churches and move them step by step towards union.