wfn.org | UCC / Church to review Chavis' ministerial standing

[powellb@ucc.org]

March 21, 1997
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ
Hans Holznagel, press contact
(216) 736-2214
E-mail:  holznagh@ucc.org
The Rev. Rollin Russell
(910) 222-8771
On the World Wide Web:  http://www.ucc.org

Church, following its process, plans to review Chavis'
ministerial standing, given Nation of Islam
affiliation

      CLEVELAND -- Faced with the matter of the Rev.
Benjamin F. Chavis Jr.'s ministerial standing in the
United Church of Christ, given his announcement that
he is joining the Nation of Islam, the UCC is
following a well-established review process that, in
this case, involves a committee in North Carolina.
      It appears that the process will produce answers
no sooner than April.
      National officers and executives of the church
have offered almost no public reaction to Chavis' Feb.
23 announcement, much covered by the news media, that
he was becoming a Muslim, joining the Nation of Islam
and adding "Muhammad" to his name.
      Their silence does not mean they are
indifferent.  Rather, it means they know that the
review of Chavis' ministerial standing is a local
matter.
      In the 1.5-million-member UCC, with its
decentralized system of governance, the fate of
Chavis' ministerial standing lies with the church's
Eastern North Carolina Association -- a body of 135
local churches that ordained him in 1980 and where his
standing has remained ever since -- and specifically
with that association's Church and Ministry
Commission.
      Immediately after the initial news coverage, the
Rev. Rollin Russell sent a letter in behalf of the
commission, notifying Chavis that his standing was
under review and inviting him to appear before the
commission, which will meet sometime after Easter. 
Russell is the conference minister of the UCC's
Southern Conference, based in Graham, N.C., which
includes the Eastern North Carolina Association.  As
of March 19, Russell still had not heard from Chavis.
      When a minister's standing is under review,
inviting him or her to meet face-to-face with the
Church and Ministry Commission -- and giving the
minister time to answer the invitation -- is a normal
and important part of the process, Russell says.
      Meantime, Russell reiterated a statement he had
made Feb. 24 in behalf of the Eastern North Carolina
Association and the Southern Conference.  "A change in
religious affiliation is relevant to an ordained
minister's standing," he said, but until a
conversation with Chavis occurs, "we feel it is
inappropriate to offer further comments."
      Interestingly, a change from Christianity to
another faith by a person with ministerial standing is
apparently so rare that it is not specifically
addressed in the United Church of Christ's "Manual on
the Ministry," a book of commonly held guidelines used
by committees on the ministry in most UCC
associations.
      The only thing close in the manual's section on
"Termination of Ordained Ministerial Standing" is a
mention of ministers who join "another denomination." 
Among the options in such cases -- usually involving a
move to another Christian denomination -- are for the
person to "resign" his or her UCC ministerial standing
or ask the association for permission to retain it, or
for the association to terminate the person's UCC
ministerial standing.
      The United Church of Christ, with national
offices in Cleveland more than 6,100 local churches in
the United States and Puerto Rico, is a 1957 union of
the Congregational Christian Churches and the
Evangelical and Reformed Church.
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