wfn.org | Three nominated to lead restructured United Church

["Wilma Shuffitt"<wshuffit@oc.disciples.org>]

of Christ 
Date: March 16, 1999
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Clifford L. Willis
Email: CWillis@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

99a-17

	CLEVELAND (DNS) -- A slate of two women and one man was 
nominated here March 14 to lead a restructured United 
Church of Christ into the new millennium. The names of two 
other recommended candidates were not affirmed. If elected 
by the church's General Synod this July, the three will 
begin their work on Oct. 1.

	Nominations which were affirmed include Edith A. Guffey, 
currently secretary of the UCC, for associate general 
minister; Bernice Powell Jackson, now head of the UCC 
Commission for Racial Justice, for executive minister of 
Justice and Witness Ministries; and Dale L. Bishop, general 
secretary for mission program with the United Church Board 
for World Ministries, for executive minister of Wider 
Church Ministries.

	The selection process for the five officers has been 
ongoing for the past 10 months. Four broad-based search 
committees recommended five candidates for nominations for 
the five officers. These recommendations went to the 
directors of the existing agencies. The directors of those 
agencies which will move into new ministries got to vote on 
the candidate to head that new ministry. In the case of the 
two candidates whose nominations were not affirmed, four 
agencies got to vote on each of these candidates.

	Nominations not affirmed include the Rev. Barbara Brown 
Zikmund, president of Hartford (Conn.) Seminary, for 
general minister and president, and the Rev. Charlotte H. 
Still, now a minister on the staff of the UCC Office for 
Church Life and Leadership, for executive minister of Local 
Church Ministries.

	"We are very grateful for the services of those who served 
on the search committees," said the Rev. Dr. Paul H. 
Sherry, UCC president. "And we appreciate the courage of 
those who were willing to be considered for national 
office.

	"For those whose nominations were not affirmed today, we 
wish them God's richest blessings in their continuing 
ministries," he said.

	Before joining the national setting of the church in 1991, 
Edith Guffey was an administrator at the University of 
Kansas. She is a graduate of Baker University, Baldwin, 
Kan., and holds a master's degree from the University of 
Kansas. Guffey, an African American, is a member of 
Federated UCC in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. In the new structure 
of the UCC's national setting, the associate general 
minister will be responsible for administering the Office 
of General Ministries.

	Bernice Powell Jackson is the nominee for executive 
minister of Justice and Witness Ministries, responsible for 
the church's work on social, racial and justice concerns. 
She is now head of the UCC Commission for Racial Justice. 
Prior experience includes directing a scholarship fund for 
South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Her undergraduate 
studies were at Wilson College, Chambersburg, Penn. She 
also holds master's degrees from Columbia University and 
Union Theological Seminary, N.Y. Jackson, an African 
American, is a member of Mount Zion Congregational UCC in 
Cleveland, Ohio.

	Dale L. Bishop is the nominee for executive minister of 
Wider Church Ministries, responsible for overseas 
missionaries, relief aid, refugee resettlement and 
volunteer services. A Euro-American, he is a graduate of 
Heidelberg (Ohio) College and holds master's and doctorate 
degrees from Columbia University. He is a widely-respected 
scholar on the Middle East and has served as area executive 
for the Middle East for both the UCC and the National 
Council of Churches. His church membership is in The 
Riverside Church UCC in New York City.

	For the past several years the United Church of Christ has 
been restructuring its national agencies. That will come to 
fruition July 1, 2000. As a result of this weekend's 
action, the denomination's Executive Council will select a 
person to act as General Minister and President and 
initiate a search process to select a new nominee for that 
position. In the same manner, the newly constituted board 
of directors for Local Church Ministries will appoint an 
acting executive and initiate a search process to fill its 
position of executive minister.

	The United Church of Christ is a mainline Protestant 
denomination with 1.4 million members. Its national offices 
are in Cleveland, Ohio. It is a 1957 union of the 
Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and 
Reformed Church. 

	{ Eds. This news release was supplied by the staff of the 
United Church of Christ Office of Communication. }

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