wfn.org | NCC General Assembly Actions

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

General Assembly adjourns after adding a new member church;
sends messages on Fort Hood tragedy and nuclear disarmament

Minneapolis, November 16, 2009 -- The General Assembly of the National
Council of Churches and Church World Service, celebrating the biblical
call to rejoice, pray and give thanks, also called upon churches and
governments to take additional steps toward worldwide justice and peace.

The General Assembly adjourned Thursday night following the
installation of National Council of Churches President Peg Chemberlin
and President Elect Kathryn Lohre in St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral here.

In its three-day meeting here, the General Assembly voted the
Apostolic Catholic Church into membership, adopted  a resolution
calling for  nuclear disarmament, and issued messages regarding the
tragedy at Ford Hood, citing the urgency of health care reform, and
urging that money saved by international reductions in military
spending be used to reduce infant mortality and extreme poverty.

The General Assembly also issued a message of appreciation regarding
the recent visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the U.S.

The General Assembly agenda also included a challenging keynote
address by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer, Associate Professor of New
Testament and Chair of Biblical Studies at the Interdenominational
Theological Center in Atlanta, who also addressed the Clare Randall
Women's Luncheon. Bible Study, on I Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice
Always, Pray without ceasing, Give thanks in all circumstances," the
Assembly's theme, was led by the Rev. Dr. Charles Amjad-Ali, Martin
Luther King Jr. Professor for Justice and Christian Community and
Director of Islamic Studies at Luther Seminary in Minneapolis.

Worship services were conducted in the traditions of the Assembly's
Methodist and Orthodox members, and by the young adult participants in
the pre-Assembly New Fire event.

Presiding over sessions of the General Assembly were Archbishop Vicken
Aykazian, who is finishing his two-year term as NCC President, and
Bishop Johncy Itty, chair of the CWS board of directors. The Assembly
program was designed by a committee chaired by he Rev. Dr. Raymon Hunt
of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.

Individuals and agencies that have given outstanding service to the
ecumenical movement in the United States and around the world were
honored Wednesday in a special Assembly awards  program.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, greeted the Assembly on
its second day of business and offered his best wishes to The Rev. Peg
Chemberlin, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches,
who was installed as NCC president Thursday night.

"We'll be cheering you on as you take over the reigns of this
organization," Pawlenty told Chemberlin. "We know you'll lead it as
you always do, with diligence, and we're proud of you."

The installation Thursday night of the President and President Elect
of the National Council of Churches featured welcoming statements by
the Very Rev. James L. Jelinek, Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, the
Very Rev. Spenser D. Simrill, Dean of St. Mark's Cathedral,
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, both Democrats.

The Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., former pastor of The Riverside
Church in New York and President of the Healing Nations Foundation,
delivered the installation sermon.

> Fort Hood

The General Assembly gathered a week following the violence at Fort
Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed and 42 injured by gunfire,
allegedly by an Army psychiatrist.

"During extreme crises, we rightly seek both reasons for their
occurrence and justice for the alleviation of their pain," the message
said. "Religious communities of good will in this country are
endeavoring together to comprehensively engage these crises, and are
therefore singularly and deeply pained by the deaths at Fort Hood."

The message encouraged "all Christians and religious communities of
good will to reach out to one another through personal dialogue, local
awareness building, national advocacy advancements, and other means of
fostering relationships of trust and mutuality. These are the uncommon
responses in the present that will help to shape our collective tomorrow."

The General Assembly also acted to ask the NCC General Secretary and
CWS Executive Director and CEO to draft a letter of appreciation to
Chaplain (Colonel) Michael T. Lembke, the Evangelical Lutheran
chaplain who led the pastoral response to the tragedy.

> Global Securities Act

The General Assembly sent a message to Congress and member communions
urging support of the Global Security Priorities bill and commending
the legislation's sponsors, Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) and Rep. Dan
Lungren (R-Calif.)

The Global Priorities Campaign is seeking ways to use money saved in
reducing military spending to meet human needs. The Global Securities
bill, House Resolution 278, calls for deep reductions in U.S. and
Russian nuclear arsenals, saving at least $13 billion annually,  The
money saved would be used to reduce child morality and eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger.

> Nuclear Disarmament

Both the Governing Board of the National Council of Churches and the
Board of Directors of Church World service earlier this fall passed
identical resolutions calling for nuclear disarmament. (See NCC story here.)

The General Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution with the
following new conclusion:

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the member communions of the National
Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCCC) and Church World
Service (CWS), speaking together through their respective governing
boards, hereby reaffirm the goal of the total disarmament of nuclear
weapons and commit themselves:

1.      to ask for commitments toward this end from national, state,
and local governmental and ecumenical representatives and agencies.

2.      to engage in international anti-violence advocacy efforts
including the programs and events of the World Council of Churches
such as the Decade for Overcoming Violence.

3.      to encourage  appropriate working groups/committees to
designate nuclear disarmament as a central theme for the 2011
Ecumenical Advocacy Days.

4.      to develop measurable outcomes that inform faith-based
educational materials.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President and the General Secretary of
the NCCC and the Chairperson and Executive Director/CEO of the CWS
communicate this commitment to the President of the United States and
congressional leaders.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President and the General
Secretary of the NCCC and the Chairperson and Executive Director/CEO
of the CWS report regularly to the General Assembly regarding their
actions toward the end of nuclear disarmament.

The full text of the General Assembly resolution is here.

> Fire Arms Control

Concerns about fire arms control were expressed by a panel led by the
Rev. Michael Livingston, former president of the National Council of
Churches and executive director of the International Council of
Community Churches. Panelists included Sylvia Graves, General
Secretary of Friends United Meeting; Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim,
Archbishop for Eastern U.S., Syrian (Syriac) Orthodox Church of
Antioch, and the Rev. NaKeisha Sylver Blount of the NCC and United
Church of Christ staff.

Recalling the Fort Hood tragedy, Livingston said, "It is not simply
that this is tragic; the awful truth, the stark reality is that mass
killing is America is commonplace, it is normal.  One editorial (in
the NY Times) called the shooting, the "latest appalling outrage."
The day after, a disaffected perhaps mentally ill man who had been
laid off from his job went back to his former workplace and killed a
co-worker and wounded several others.  The grotesque is ordinary.
Shame on a nation such as this."

The full text of Livingston's remarks can be found here.

> Mountain Top Removal

The General Assembly affirmed a statement by the West Virginia Council
of Churches condemning the removal of mountain tops as a mining
practice. The Assembly referred the statement to the NCC Justice and
Advocacy Commission for consideration.

> Next year in New Orleans

The 2010 General Assembly -- the first of the General Assembly
biennial meetings -- will meet November 9-11, 2010 in New Orleans. The
meeting marks 100 years since the meeting of church agencies and
mission societies in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910, the gathering
church historians describe as the birth of the modern ecumenical
movement. The theme of the meeting will be "Witnesses of these things:
Ecumenical engagement in a new era."

> General Assembly Media Contacts:

Lesley Crosson, 212-870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org
Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell) ,
pjenks@ncccusa.org;
Ann Walle, 212-870-2654, awalle@churchworldservice.org