wfn.org | NCCCUSA Ecclesiology Study

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Contact: Wendy McDowell, NCC News, 212-870-2227

NCC11/13/97 

NCC GENERAL ASSEMBLY APPROVES ECCLESIOLOGY REPORT 
ABOUT REFOCUSING MEMBER COMMUNIONS TO SHARE EACH 
OTHER’S STRUGGLES AND JOYS
Delegates Call for an End to ‘Ecumenical Voyeurism’ 
and for a Broader Ecumenical Movement

 WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 13, ---- Five years of 
study culminated in the presentation of a redirected 
understanding of the purpose and goals of the 
nation’s preeminent ecumenical body which one 
delegate called “one of the most important internal 
documents the National Council of Churches has 
considered in years.”

 The General Assembly of the National Council of 
Churches in Christ accepted a report from its 
Ecclesiology Study Task Force that, if actively 
pursued, will refocus the council on closer 
relationships both internally and externally.

 The task force “grew in part out of the Eastern 
Orthodox Churches’ concern that other churches did 
not seem to be sufficiently invested, that they did 
not take seriously enough what happened within each 
other’s fellowship,” explained the Rev. Dr. Michael 
Kinnamon, Dean of the Lexington Theological Seminary 
and chairman of the task force.

 “For example, right now the Presbyterian Church 
is wrestling with concerns about human sexuality, 
yet we do not talk about it in our common life 
together,” Dr. Kinnamon said.  “We could be sharing 
these kinds of things and lifting them up in prayer.  
Just as the joys of one should become the joys of 
another, so should the struggles of one become the 
struggles of another.”

The report calls for a deepened commitment of 
member churches to one another.  Dr. Kinnamon 
introduced the document by quoting from it, “The 
essence of a council of churches is not the 
relationship of the churches to the structure of the 
council, but their relationship to one another.”

 “The NCC not is a structure, but has a 
structure,” he added.
 
He said that, as part of anticipation of the 
NCC 50th anniversary, the churches of the NCC need to 
determine what “marks of fellowship” characterize 
council life in preparation for a public ceremony of 
“deepening their commitment.” The purpose of this 
action would be “to move from seeing the council as 
a program agency to seeing it as a community of 
communions,” he said.

“We tend to play off unity against justice, or 
unity against mission,” he told the General Assembly 
delegates. Rather, he advised, every time the 
council gathers, member communions should be asking 
what it means to be the church together. 

Kinnamon said the report also urges the council 
to “expand the table” by efforts to “seek 
partnership without worrying about membership.”  It 
calls on the General Secretary to “take appropriate 
steps to foster the development of the wider 
Christian forum.”

Specific proposals include forming two on-going 
“working groups,” one of NCC churches with

the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and one 
with Evangelicals and Pentecostals.  Another urges 
the NCC to invite the National Association of 
Evangelicals, the National Conference of Catholic 
Bishops, the Pentecostal Conference of North America 
and perhaps others to work with representatives of 
the NCC in drafting and publishing a statement on 
“Living the Gospel in the U.S. in the Third 
Millennium.”

 In an open discussion period, there was 
considerable praise for the work of the task force 
and the need for renewed commitment.

 The Rev. John Thomas of the United Church of 
Christ resonated with the image of “concentric 
circles” and said, “this should have implications 
for the General Assembly and its agenda.”  He listed 
concrete issues and events that he said have been 
treated as “peripheral to the life of the General 
Assembly, in that they get talked about around the 
edges, but should move to the center of this 
meeting.”

Among the current events and issues Rev. Thomas 
listed were: “The UCC and Christian Church 
(Disciples of Christ) reconciling their ministries; 
the agreement of the ELCA and three reform churches 
to enter into full communion; the movement of the 
Roman Catholic and Lutheran churches toward a joint 
declaration on a doctrine of justification; the 
Lutheran/Episcopal concordat which was not approved 
this past summer; the Black Methodist church asking 
the white churches ‘what does persistent racism 
mean?’; a gathering of gay and lesbian church 
leaders; the leadership crisis among the National 
Baptist Convention U.S.A., and a Reformed Church of 
America/UCC formal dialogue on sexuality issues.” 

 “We have moved beyond isolation and ignorance 
in our ecumenical life, but we live with a kind of 
ecumenical voyeurism,” Rev. Thomas said.  “How can 
we move toward mutual understanding?” 

The Rev. Peg Chemberlin, Director of the 
Minnesota Council of Churches, said that her Council 
of Churches has worked to define its own “marks of 
faithfulness.” The inability to be a community of 
communions “is a struggle that is lived across this 
country,” she observed and said that the focus on 
relationships has resulted in drastic restructure in 
some state councils.
 
The Rev. Dr. Clifton Kirkpatrick of the 
Presbyterian Church U.S.A. said, if anything, “the 
recommendations seem a bit timid.  We need a new 
ecumenical movement that includes not only the 
groups mentioned in the report but parachurches and 
other groups, to allow us to cross all barriers that 
divide us.”

The Rev. Dr. George Cummings of the American 
Baptist Churches in the USA said he was “concerned 
about the ongoing dichotomy between what we are and 
what we do.” He also expressed uncertainty about how 
what the council does in assembly reaches the local 
church and how the NCCC helps each church fulfills 
the Great Commission to make disciples for Christ.
 
The Rev. Dr. Paul Crow, Jr. of the Christian 
Church (Disciples of Christ) said that the task 
force was one of the most enriching and visionary 
groups he had ever worked with but he was 
disappointed that the original purpose was not 
fulfilled. The NCC “must learn how to be 
comprehensively diverse, not selectively diverse,” 
he said.

Dr. Constance Tarasar of the Orthodox Church in 
America pointed out that one of the problems she 
sees in the NCC is that issues are only addressed in 
parliamentary resolutions, which is contrary to the 
way her church does things.  “We try to address 
problems in the Orthodox Church through consensus,” 
she said, and suggested a small reference group 
representative of the families of churches in the 
NCC get together to address issues.  She also 
suggested churches be paired off on a rotating basis 
so they can really learn about each other.

The lively discussion came to an end with a 
unanimous vote in favor of the recommendations made 
in the report, followed by a burst of spontaneous 
applause.

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