wfn.org | New Fire 2009 gathers with the aim of igniting a nation-wide movement

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Minneapolis, November 7, 2009 -- Forty young adults from 17 
communions, 15 states, the District of Columbia, the Philippines and 
Canada, have gathered here this week-end with an ambitious aim: to 
launch a nation-wide movement of young adults for Christ.

"The world desperately needs our example," said the Rev. David V. 
Fraccaro, Young Adult Ecumenical Formation Coordinator for the 
National Council of Churches who provided staff support for the New 
Fire 2009 planning team.

"We are a broken, fragmented world," Fraccaro told the conferees. "We 
can be a powerful witness for Christ, especially if this movement 
catches fire."

New Fire 2009 is meeting November 7-9 prior to the annual General 
Assembly of the National Council of Churches and Church World 
Service. The General Assembly meets in Minneapolis November  10-12.

The first New Fire gathering was held a year ago prior to the General 
Assembly in Denver. The event generated much enthusiasm on the part 
of young adults who discovered they had an important role to play in 
the ecumenical movement. The movement has a Web page created by the 
Young Adult Task Force of the U.S. Conference for the World Council 
of Churches, www.faithconnectsus.org, and considerable energy has 
gone into the planning of the current meeting.

One of the group's goals, Fraccaro said, is to bring together young 
adults who are already active in unrelated ecumenical and interfaith groups.

"There are numerous young adult organizations that are meeting all 
the time, but if you go to their meetings you'll never see a familiar 
face," Fraccaro said. "A lot of people have never heard of the other 
organizations."

Another goal of New Fire is to reintroduce ecumenism to young adults 
who have lost interest. "We want to take ecumenism down from its 
elite rafters and make that world real for you," Fraccaro said.

The Rev. Reggie Bachus of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., 
leading the group in opening worship, expressed high hopes for the 
movement,. "We need to know there is still power in the Holy Spirit, 
still power in our being together," he said. Citing the popular 
movie, Field of Dreams, Bachus said, "If you ignite the flame, they will come.

Leaders the young adults describe as "seasoned ecumenists" were 
present to encourage the group.

The Rev. Peg Chemberlin, executive director of the Minnesota Council 
of Churches who will be installed next Thursday as President of the 
National Council of Churches, urged the participants not to wait 
until they were older to seize the mantle of leadership.

She cited Joshua DuBois, a 26-year-old who now staffs the White House 
office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. DuBois went to 
then Senator Barack Obama three times before he was able to convince 
the senator to add him to his staff.

"Don't wait for the title, don't wait for the authority, take a 
risk," Chemberlin advised the young adults.

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC General Secretary, asserted that 
"the unity of the church is a gift, not simply an achievement. Unity 
is not a matter of us coming together in agreement. God has acted in 
Christ to bring the world together to God's own self. Everyone who 
has communion with Christ is united with everyone who has communion 
with Christ."

The message of ecumenism is that all Christians are inexorably united 
and can no longer look upon other Christians as different, Kinnamon said.

He recalled sitting in a meeting the Chaldean bishop of Baghdad 
during the 1991 assembly of the World Council of Churches in 
Canberra, Australia, when the U.S. was bombing Iraq.

"The bombs are falling on you, too," the bishop said, pointing out 
that if Christian sisters and brothers in Christ were experiencing 
the bombing in Baghdad, all Christians shared the experience.

Kinnamon urged the young adults to reject modern idolatries of 
Christianity, including "the idolatry of claiming absolute knowledge 
of God's will. God is God and we aren't."

The Rev. Ann Tiemeyer, director of the NCC's Women's Ministries, 
urged participants to be patient. "We need to stand together on the 
historic (ecumenical) movement that is there and not reject it 
because the structure cannot move fast enough," she said. "The 
ecumenical movement is about relationships and listening."

The New Fire participants will worship Sunday in the Church of All 
Nations, a Presbyterian congregation in Minneapolis. They will be 
joined Sunday evening by ecumenical officers of NCC member communions 
and by National Council of Churches and Church World Service staff.

The sessions Monday morning will include a strategy session on how to 
stay connected.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 
646-853-4212  (cell) , pjenks@ncccusa.org