wfn.org | NCC General Assembly Wrapup

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3304 notes).

Note 3304 by UMNS on Nov. 25, 1996 at 15:49 Eastern (4091 characters).

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CONTACT: Linda Bloom                             590(10-71B){3304}
          New York (212) 870-3803                    Nov. 25, 1996

Evangelical, Muslim leaders
address NCC assembly for first time

                 by United Methodist News Service

     A variety of religious leaders were part of the National
Council of Churches (NCC) General Assembly Nov. 13-15 in Chicago.
     The Rev. Don Argue, president of the National Association of
Evangelicals, became the first official from that group to address
the NCC's top policy body.
     Argue offered a prayer at a ceremony where the NCC presented
its first annual Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Common Ground Award,
named "In honor of the Vision, Grace and Courage of Joseph
Cardinal Bernardin in seeking common ground for the people of
God."
     The Rev. Thomas Baima, his ecumenical officer, accepted the
award for Bernardin, who died shortly afterward. United Methodist
Bishop Melvin Talbert, NCC president, and the Rev. Joan Brown
Campbell, NCC general secretary, led a 20-member delegation from
the assembly Nov. 14 to offer prayers at Holy Name Cathedral in
honor of Bernardin.
     Anglican Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa 
also spoke to the assembly, asking American church leaders to
devote the same effort they spent against apartheid to helping
African nations and other countries find relief from crippling
foreign debts. His keynote address was part of the 50th
anniversary celebration for Church World Service, the NCC's relief
agency.
     Iman Warith Deen Mohammed, son and successor of Elijah
Mohammed, became the first American Muslim leader to address the
General Assembly.
     In other business, the NCC:
     * heard a first reading of a proposed policy, "No Barriers
for Deaf People in Churches;"
     * received a call from the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a panelist on
post-election prospects, for a religious coalition around the
issues of poverty;
     * made plans to sponsor a national "Ecumenical Consultation
on the Implications of Homosexuality for Christian Unity" in 1997;
     * supported strategies of the Interfaith Center for Corporate
Responsibility to press Texaco, Inc., and other corporations "to
embrace the concept that public accountability and assuming
leadership in diversity is good for Corporate America;"
     * condemned a recent hand grenade attack on the Ecumenical
Patriarch of Constantinople;
     * supported the continuing presence of U.S. troops in Bosnia-
Herzegovina.
     Other topics of discussion included affirmative action,
welfare reform, climate change, public schools, the importance of
Jerusalem, the burning of black churches, and the church and the
media.
                              #  #  #

     NOTE TO EDITORS:  United Methodist delegates to the NCC
General Assembly are Gilbert Caldwell, Randolph Nugent, Lois
Dauway, Bruce Robbins, Joyce Sohl, Rena Yocom, Anne Marshall, and
Kinmouth Jefferson, all of New York; Carol Colley, Corvallis,
Ore.; James Gaughan, Alexandria, Minn.; Stephanie Hixon and Helen
Fammings Ammons, Evanston, Ill.; Thelma Johnson, Cincinnati, Ohio;
Maria Kruger, Champaign, Ill.; Felton E. May, Thom White Wolf
Fassett, Anna Rhee and Barbara Thompson, Washington;   Sharon
Rhodes-Wickett, Los Angeles; Lloyd Ambrosius and Jeremy Vetter,
Lincoln, Nebr.; Kenneth L. Carder and Ezra Earl Jones, Nashville,
Tenn.; William Boyd Grove, Charleston, W.Va.; Joanne Montgomery
Link, Hummelstown, Pa.; Donna Meinhard, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.;
William B. Oden, Dallas; Sharon Brown Christopher, Minneapolis;
Jill Hicks, Tuscaloosa, Ala.; Alfred Johnson, Pennington, N.J.;
Myung J. Kim, Ashland, Va.; Paul Murphy, Denver, Colo.; Melvin G.
Talbert, West Sacramento, Calif.; Mary Weathers, Temple, Texas;
Saul Trinidad, Detroit, Mich. 

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