wfn.org | NCCCUSA General Assembly Nov. 12

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

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Contact: NCC News, 212-870-2252
Internet: news@ncccusa.org

NOVEMBER 12, 1997 -- DAY ONE
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
GENERAL ASSEMBLY

 Following is a synopsis of news from the first 
day of business of the National Council of Churches' 
Nov. 12-14 annual General Assembly, meeting in 
Washington, D.C.  The 270-member assembly is the 
highest governing body of the NCC and is made up of 
official delegates from the Councils' 34 member 
communions (denominations), which in turn have 52 
million members.

 A long text body follows.  Here is an index of 
contents:

Mar Thoma Syrian Church of India Delegation is Seated
Churches Consider Their Response to Increased U.S. Religious Pluralism
NCC and NCCB Exchange Greetings
Excerpts: NCC General Secretary Report to the Assembly
Actions on National Ministries Concerns:
* No Barriers for Deaf People in Churches
* Organ, Tissue Donation
* Churches and Public Education
* Churches and Disabilities
* Appeal for Clemency for Leonard Peltier
* Paper Use
* Installation of Bishop Anderson as NCC President

Mar Thoma Syrian Church of India Delegation is 
Seated

 WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 12 ---- The National 
Council of Churches (NCC) today became an 
organization of 34 communions, up from 33.

 The Rev. Dr. Bruce Robbins, Chair of the 
Membership and Ecclesial Relations Committee, 
introduced the Mar Thoma Syrian Church of India, 
noting their "rich history dating back to Thomas the 
Apostle."

 A vote was then called, with each of the NCC's 
33 denominations voting "yes," many "with joy."  The 
Greek Orthodox representative gave perhaps the most 
creative affirmative vote, saying, "We welcome this 
new church, who walks like us and looks like us, but 
is not us."

 There was then sustained applause as the five-
member delegation from the newly accepted church, 
led by their head of communion, Bishop Zacharias Mar 
Theophilus, moved to the front of the assembly room 
to be officially seated as full members of the NCC.

 "Personally, I do not welcome a stranger, since 
Bishop Zacharias and I have served together on the 
Central Committee of the World Council of Churches," 
said NCC President Melvin Talbert.  "I greet you and 
welcome you in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ."
 Said Bishop Theophilus to the NCC General 
Assembly delegates, "I was thrilled when the 
communions said 'yes.'  Without knowing us, but with 
faith and hope, you accepted us into this 
fellowship."

 "We were a founding member of the World Council 
of Churches and the National Council of Churches of 
India and have been in full communion with the 
Anglican and Episcopal Church, but it took us a half 
a century to become members of the NCC," he 
continued.

 "The Mar Thoma Church dates back to the visit 
of St. Thomas to India during the first century.  
For the last 2,000 years in India we have witnessed 
and struggled," Bishop Theophilus explained.  This 
century, we became a diasporic church."  

Of the communion's one million members 
worldwide, 30,000 are in the United States.  
Dispersed across 35 states with only 26 clergy and 
37 parishes, many of them worship regularly at 
Episcopal Churches (the Mar Thoma Church is in full 
communion with the Anglican family).

"These members frequently worship once a month 
in a Mar Thoma service," explained the Rev. Dr. 
Eileen Lindner, NCC Associate General Secretary for 
Christian Unity.  "The problem is they don't have 
enough priests to serve them.  Clearly it's a church 
on the rise in this country."

 The Mar Thoma Church has grown rapidly in 
recent years," Bishop Theophilus added.  According 
to their publication Mar Thoma Messenger, "Our 
identity is undergoing radical changes, from being a 
group of a few immigrants from India with Christian 
background to an established church with Eastern 
symbols and traditions."

 "I rejoice with them, that they have grown so 
substantially that they now have the capacity to 
join us," said NCC General Secretary the Rev. Dr. 
Joan Brown Campbell.  "They will deeply enrich the 
NCC and expand further its diversity."

"Our church is an Eastern Church and is 
reformed in this tradition," he said.  "We are 
liturgical, Biblical, missionary and ecumenical.  
Some historians call our church a Bridge Church in 
India, and now we are a bridge from India to the 
United States.

 "We come from a country familiar with 
pluralism, with a multi-religious and multi-cultural 
population but a secular government, so we have many 
things to learn from you and many things to share 
with you."

 In a later interview, Bishop Theophilus said 
his church's decision to join the NCC came out of 
the belief that "the Church is never secluded or 
isolated.  We wanted to become part of the 
ecumenical family here in the U.S."

 He said his church has appreciated many of the 
issues the NCC has taken up throughout its history, 
particularly its advocacy and development work 
relevant to Asia and other third world countries, 
such as the NCC's support of a ban on the production 
and use of landmines and its support of the human 
and land rights of indigenous peoples.

 "You need the fellowship of all the Churches to 
handle any of these kinds of issues," Bishop 
Theophilus said.

 At the conclusion of his remarks, Bishop 
Theophilus and Dr. Campbell exchanged gifts.  Dr. 
Campbell offered him a chalice, which he accepted, 
saying it is "the most important gift since it is 
for the taking of communion."  Bishop Theophilus 
gave Dr. Campbell a brass bowl from India.

Churches Consider Their Response to Increased U.S. 
Religious Pluralism

 WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 12  - The importance of 
interfaith  relations cannot be overestimated among 
the issues facing contemporary Christians, a speaker 
told the General Assembly of the National Council of 
Churches today.

 Dr. Diana Eck, professor of comparative 
religion and Indian studies and director of the 
Pluralism Project at Harvard University, reminded 
the delegates that many wars and conflicts of past 
and present have been fanned by religious 
communities. 

"We as churches need to take the leadership in 
constructive dialogue," she said.  The United 
Methodist laywoman observed that the communities of 
the world are not just multi-cultural but multi-
religious.  "We need to work on the narrow and 
exclusivistic  theologies that try to circle the 
wagons around God.  God is not ours, but indeed we 
are God's," she asserted.

Dr. Eck's presentation provided the context for 
the small group discussions that followed, during 
which General Assembly members offered their 
insights toward development of a new NCC policy 
statement on interfaith relations.  They were asked 
to identify how inter-religious relationships most 
affect them and their churches, and what interfaith 
issues they think the policy statement must address.

The NCC's Interfaith Relations Commission will 
present the proposed policy to the next General 
Assembly, in November 1998, for first reading, and 
for second reading and adoption in November 1999.

Another speaker, His Holiness Aram I, 
Catholicos, House of Cilicia, Armenian Apostolic 
Church, said that ecumenism, or interfaith 
relations, has been delegated too frequently in some 
churches to an elite - in some an elite made up of 
clergy and in others an elite made up of bishops. 

"The whole people of God must become part and 
parcel of ecumenism," he declared. As moderator of 
the World Council of Churches Central Committee, he 
urged identifying and redefining ecumenism.  
Collaboration with the Roman Catholic Church is an 
important aspect of this movement, he added.  "We 
need local ecumenism, and we also need global 
ecumenism," he urged and insisted that ecumenical 
dialogue must be flexible and relevant.

He said that ethical, moral and spiritual 
issues "are becoming more and more divisive" - more 
than doctrinal issues.

NCC and NCCB Exchange Greetings

 WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 12 ---- High officials 
of the National Council of Churches and National 
Conference of Catholic Bishops affirmed the 
importance of their relationship today as they 
brought formal greetings on behalf of their 
organizations simultaneously to each others' 
assemblies, meeting concurrently in Washington, D.C.

 It was the first time for officers of the NCC 
and the NCCB to exchange greetings before their 
seated assemblies - meeting by rare and happy 
circumstance in the same city during the same week.  
NCC and NCCB officials meet frequently in other 
settings, and Cardinal Keeler spoke at the November 
1993 installation service of the Rev. Dr. Gordon 
Sommers as NCC President for 1994-95.

Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza, NCCB Vice President, 
addressed the NCC's General Assembly, whose 270 
delegates represent 34 communions (denominations) 
with a combined membership of 52 million Protestant 
and Orthodox Christians.  

He sounded a millennial theme, proclaiming, 
"The celebration of the Great Jubilee Year 2000 is a 
wonderful and graced opportunity for Christian 
Churches to advance together on the path towards the 
unity Christ desires among those who confess to 
believe in Him."  

He encouraged Christians across the nation to 
prepare for the Jubilee with ecumenical prayer 
services, other joint celebrations and common social 
projects.

At the same hour, across town, the NCC's 
President, United Methodist Bishop Melvin Talbert, 
and President Elect for 1998-99, Episcopal Bishop 
Craig Anderson, spoke to the nation's Roman Catholic 
bishops.  "It is truly by God's grace that we are 
here," declared Bishop Talbert.  Said Bishop 
Anderson, "We are all related, all brothers and 
sisters in Christ."

Excerpts: NCC General Secretary Joan B. Campbell's 
Report to the Assembly

 "This morning we received into membership the 
34th member communion.  The Mar Thoma Church, with 
its roots in the ancient Christian community of 
Kerala in India, deepens our diversity....Dare we 
allow them, in the words of Paul to Timothy, to stir 
into flame the faith that is already in us?  Is this 
moment not like the moment of baptism when we 
rejoice with the newly baptized and in the process 
reaffirm our own baptism?  The baptismal vows remind 
us of our special status as children of a God who 
loves us.  The promise to lead a life worthy of the 
calling to which we have been called newly claims 
us!  So I say to those who have been with the 
Council for these 48 years, dare to see again the 
vision of unity through the untarnished eyes of 
these newly 'baptized.'  Let our vision be large, 
whole and embracing....

 "Each of us our churches has gifts as well as 
challenges....These gifts of the Spirit given to each 
church are not to hold as private possessions, but 
gifts given in trust for the good of all.  They are 
gifts to contribute, not to isolate nor to secure 
special privilege.  Gifts that are Spirit-given are 
always incomplete if held in isolation.  This is the 
essence of ecumenical theology, essential for 
ecumenical understanding.  For the ecumenical 
movement to be faithful, there must be gifts that 
differ that are then shared to build up the body of 
Christ.  In this assembly, we will three times sit 
together ecumenically (rather than as communion 
delegations).  This is not just a process decision, 
but to help us discern the gifts of each to all.  
Perhaps our most important ecumenical question ought 
to be: How can each prepare best to receive the 
gifts of the other?  How, together, can we be of 
service to the whole?  How can we join our gifts in 
such a way that we bear witness in the public arena 
to a God who loves us?  What a difference it would 
make if these were our questions....

 "Two years ago, your predecessor body, the 
General Board, put in place principles, guidance and 
structured proposals for a transformed Council....The 
sought-after transformation will require a sustained 
dedication to nurturing a broader ecumenical vision 
in the life of the Council as well as in 
relationship with many in the Christian Community 
who have not been participants in the nearly 50 
years of our conciliar ecumenical effort.

 "But there are signs that bode well for 
increased cooperation.  I would be bold and claim 
that the cold war between the National Council of 
Churches and the National Association of 
Evangelicals has ended.  Don Argue and I consult 
regularly.  We meet several times a year with 
Cardinal Keeler and this morning the NCC's heads of 
communion set in motion a proposal for a Summit on 
Racial Justice and Reconciliation to be held in 
January 1999 jointly with the NAE and the National 
Black Evangelical Association...."

NCC General Assembly Acts on National Ministries 
Concerns

NO BARRIERS FOR DEAF PEOPLE IN CHURCHES:  A new 
NCC policy that reveals the barriers that make 
church settings inaccessible to Deaf and hard of 
hearing people and offers recommendations for change 
received unanimous final approval on second reading 
Nov. 12 by the Council's General Assembly.

Points from the policy include:

  "Christians have believed and taught from the 
very beginning that God is the Creator of all 
people, that Jesus came to save all people, 
and that the Holy Spirit gives gifts to all 
people.  And yet we know that over time, the 
Church has grown and continues to grow in its 
understanding of this inclusive doctrine."

  "Deaf Christians are painfully aware that 
over 27 million Deaf or hard of hearing 
persons in North America ("The Deaf Nation") 
find church doors partially or completely 
closed to them."  Perhaps less than 10 
percent of the deaf community are churched.

  Deaf and hard of hearing people do not make 
up a homogenous community.  Some bond with a 
common community and participate in a common 
culture (called Deaf culture).  The language 
of this culture is American Sign Language, an 
indigenous sign language that is historically 
and structurally distinct from English.
 
  A second group of audiologically deaf or hard 
of hearing people use a form of signing 
structurally based on English, and tend to 
share values with both Deaf and hearing 
worlds and to have contacts in both 
communities.  There also are people who have 
hearing losses -  developed typically in 
later life - who continue to identify with 
the values and cultures of hearing persons.

  The policy includes ample recommendations for 
reaching out to each of these three groups.

ORGAN, TISSUE DONATION:  The General Assembly 
of the National Council of Churches, during its 
annual meeting here, passed its first resolution 
supporting organ and tissue transplantation.

 The measure, presented by Dr. Clive Callender, 
chief of surgery at Howard University Hospital,  
commits the NCC to working on education and 
awareness about transplantation, encouraging its 
member communions to the same, using educational 
materials available from the U.S. Department of 
Health and Human Services and, through an amendment, 
initiating a study of the ethical implications of 
marketing human organs and transplant tissue to be 
reported back next year. 

Dr. Callender reminded delegates that it is 
illegal to buy or sell organs or tissue in the 
United States, but indicated that he was aware of 
the practice in some other countries.  In presenting 
the resolution, he noted that the national Minority 
Organ and Tissue Transplantation Education Program 
(MOTTEP) had proven its effectiveness, more than 
tripling the percentage of African Americans who had 
signed up as potential donors.

CHURCHES AND PUBLIC EDUCATION:  A first reading 
was given a proposed policy on public education that 
urges "a national crusade to save the public schools 
and to bring all children the abundant life which 
ought by rights be theirs as children of God."

The proposed policy, which makes several points 
and offers suggestions for church action at several 
levels, will come before next year's General 
Assembly for a vote.

"The public schools are the primary route for 
most children-especially the children of poverty-
into full participation in our economic, political, 
and community life," says the report which also 
calls the public schools "a cornerstone of our 
democracy."  It mentions attacks on public education 
by people representing religious, cultural and 
economic views which offer little or no support for 
public schooling.

Several delegates, while expressing support for 
the document in general, took exception to language 
that would totally bar the use of  use of public 
money for any non-public education.

Dr. Bennett W. Smith Sr., president of the 
Progressive National Baptist Convention and pastor 
of  St. James Church in Buffalo, N.Y.,  said there 
is a trend to push minority children who are slow 
learners for whatever reason into special education 
where they do not receive the education they need.

He established a Christian day school four 
years ago for special education children who are now 
performing above grade level, and eighth graders are 
reading at college level.  The school, using retired 
school teachers, has achieved so much success that 
it has attracted the children of  professionals.

The Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson of the 
Reformed Church in America said, "We do not exist in 
a situation where the same options are available to 
the poor as to the affluent."  He suggested adding a 
provision to the policy that would allow public 
money to be used for limited scholarships and 
limited experiments with choice in urban situations.

Shannon Clarkson  of  the United Church of 
Christ urged addition to the statement of some 
material on charter schools that had been prepared 
as part of a theological basis for the policy 
statement.

Peg Chemberlin of the Minnesota Council of 
Churches noted that the strong stand against 
vouchers would make working with Roman Catholics at 
the state level more difficult.  She also asked that 
the NCC keep in mind that much education policy 
occurs at the state and local level.

In other action the NCC supported clemency for 
Leonard Peltier, a Native American sentenced to two 
life terms following the Pine Ridge Reservation 
confrontation  between 35 American Indians and more 
than 150 combat-armed law enforcement agents. The 
resolution was presented by Dennis Banks, national 
field director of the American Indian Movement.

CHURCHES AND DISABILITIES:  A proposed NCC 
policy statement on disabilities received its first 
reading.  One asked for contextual analysis, where 
we are now in working for a better future (Kim 
Jefferson)  Another asked for it to touch more the 
grassroots.

LEONARD PELTIER: The Assembly called on President
Clinton to grant executive clemency to Leonard Peltier, a
Native American sentenced to two life sentences following
the Pine Ridge Reservation confrontation between 35 
American Indians and 150 law enforcement agents.  Dennis
Banks of the American Indian Movement presented the
resolution, which cited Mr. Peltier's deteriorating health and
need for special medical care, along with legal questions 
surrounding the justice of the verdict against him.

 PAPER USE:  The General Assembly also resolved 
to save trees by recycling and other measures.

Installation of Bishop Craig B. Anderson as NCC 
President for 1998-99

 WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov. 12 ---- The National 
Council of Churches new president, Episcopal Bishop 
Craig B. Anderson, was installed at a service at the 
Washington National Cathedral this evening.

 Earlier in the day, Ambassador and Civil Rights 
Leader Andrew Young of the United Church of Christ 
and the Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), were elected 
President-Elect and Vice-President for National 
Ministries, respectively.  Ambassador Young will 
serve in the office of NCC President Elect in 1998-
99 and as NCC President in 2000-01.  Rev. Giddings 
Ivory will serve through 1999.

 The installation service included many elements 
representative of the diversity of the NCC which 
Bishop Anderson will serve for the next two years.

The local Washington Conference Choir of the 
Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist 
Episcopal Church performed two anthems.  The Epistle 
Lesson was read by Dr. Zacharias Mar Theophilus, 
Bishop of the Mar Thoma Church, a newly elected full 
member communion of the NCC.

The Rev. Robert Two Bulls of the Ogala Sioux 
Nation in Red Shirt Table, S.D., sang a Lakota 
Honoring Song.  Bishop Anderson served as the eighth 
Bishop of the Diocese of South Dakota for nine years 
and counts this time as crucial to his spiritual 
development.

Bishop Vinton Anderson , Bishop of the 2nd 
Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal 
Church, preached a challenging sermon based on the 
Gospel Lesson, which was the "good Samaritan" story 
from Luke 10:25-37.

Entitled "When Neglect Becomes Violence," 
Bishop Vinton Anderson said that in the parable from 
Luke 10, "we find the sufficient basis for the 
challenge Bishop Craig Anderson will face as 
President of the NCC."

He pointed out that the victimization of the 
human family through acts of violence is being 
addressed in his denomination and ecumenical 
organizations like the World Council of Churches.  
The man who is beaten in the Luke story "could be 
anyone, man, woman or child," he said.

"We in the Church must pay special attention to 
neglect becoming violence," he challenged.  "The 
Church does nothing about the victimization of 
neglect.  We rationalize our inaction, declaring it 
against our policy or principles to get involved."

Just as any of us could be the victim in the 
parable, "any of us can be guilty of violence by 
neglect," he continued.

"Our advanced technological society leaves too 
many victims" by neglect, Bishop Vinton Anderson 
preached.  "The globalization of business and 
industry impacts developing nations and robs natural 
resources as well as robbing indigenous people of 
their land rights.  The few and the rich benefit at 
the expense of the many and the poor" from this 
system.

"Jericho roads still exist, and we are the new 
priest and the new Levite," he said.  "We dare not 
pass by on the other side of the road."

"In the days ahead, we will listen for the 
voice of Craig Anderson," he said.  "He brings a 
devoted spirituality, the gift of pastoral care and 
a social consciousness.  Like the parable, he 
reminds us that everyone is a neighbor.  We will 
wish our President to lead us to serious action" 
rather than the inaction of neglect.

Following Bishop Craig Anderson's vows of 
installation, in which he promised to build and 
strengthen the ecumenical community and to uphold 
the member communions in prayer, and a litany of 
installation in which the NCC General Assembly 
delegates accepted him, outgoing President Bishop 
Talbert presented the Cross to incoming President 
Bishop Anderson.

"It has been my distinct honor to wear this 
mantle of responsibility," Bishop Talbert said.  
"Now I give it to you.  May God's blessed grace, 
peace and strength" be with you.

Newly installed President Anderson made some 
brief comments before his final blessing.  After 
thanks to the Cathedral, Choir and others, he said, 
"It is not by accident that I chose the Washington 
National Cathedral for my installation.  It is a 
House of Prayer for all people.  Also, it is the 
National Cathedral and we are the National Council 
of Churches.  This Cathedral overlooks our nation's 
Capitol, for which we pray.  Its mission is to 
provide a clear, forceful, compelling articulation 
of the Gospel, so that we might not neglect but we 
might remember and we might serve.

"Our vision must spread to this Capitol and to 
the world God sustains and loves."
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