wfn.org | NCCCUSA STANDS FOR CHILDREN

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact:  Betty Thompson, NCC, 212-870-2048
Internet: c/o carol_fouke.parti@ecunet.org

61NCC6/3/96                 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES STANDS FOR CHILDREN

 WASHINGTON, D.C. ----Religious leaders from
many faith communities joined in offering prayer
and support at the Stand for the Children which
gathered more than 2,000,000 people here on June
1.  An interfaith service opened the massive rally
in which some 2,500 different agencies joined to
urge support for children.  The non-partisan
event--there were no political speakers --was
coordinated by the Children’s Defense Fund.

 Bishop Melvin G.Talbert, United Methodist
Church, Sacramento, president of the National
Council of Churches, spoke at an ecumenical
service at the National Cathedral on the eve of
the conference.  He said that Jesus Christ gave
priority to children: "For Jesus, children were
the first in the Kingdom of God.  For Jesus, the
greatest sin one could commit was to cause
children to stumble."

 Busloads of church advocates came from across
the nation.  They gathered at local churches in
preparation for the event.  The general secretary
of the National Council of Churches, the Rev. Dr.
Joan Brown Campbell, New York, and the general
secretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr.
Konrad Raiser, Geneva, Switzerland, offered
prayers.  Rabbis, a Buddhist nun, representatives
of Muslim, Bah'ai, Hindu and Sikh faiths
participated along with Protestant and Roman
Catholic leaders.

 A global touch was added to the colorful
event by heads of regional councils of churches in
Asia, Africa, Canada, Latin America, Europe, the
Caribbean and the Pacific.  They were meeting with
National and World Council leaders in Washington.

 Dr. Eileen Lindner, associate general
secretary of the National Council of Churches, was
one of the principal planners of the ecumenical
events surrounding the rally.

 Marian Wright Edelman, who heads the
Children’s Defense Fund, told the rally -- which
included thousands of children -- that the Stand
for Children was not for "big government but for
just government" which benefits children.

 In his homily at the National Cathedral, NCC
president Bishop Talbert read a staggering array
of statistics about the treatment of children in
the United States.  Daily, he said, three children
die from abuse or neglect, six commit suicide, 13
are homicide victims, 15 are killed by firearms,
1,407 are born to teen mothers, 2,600 are born in
poverty, 6,042 are arrested, 8,493 are abused or
neglected.

 He compared the United States record in
military might to its record for children-- first
in military technology and defense expenditures,
18th in the gap between rich and poor children and
infant mortality.

 He listed a number of stumbling blocks for
children:  lack of adequate health care, lack of
education, lack of parental care, poverty and
neglect, being unloved and unwanted.  Bishop
Talbert challenged those attending the Ecumenical
Thanksgiving Service "to recommit ourselves to
removing the stumbling blocks from the paths of
our children."

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