wfn.org | PNBC'S ARCHIE LEMONE JOINS NCCCUSA STAFF

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org]

Contact: Wendy McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227

NCC4/9/97                    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

REV. ARCHIE LE MONE APPOINTED TO NEW POSITION
IN NCC'S WASHINGTON, D.C. OFFICE; EXEMPLIFIES MODEL 
OF COOPERATION

 WASHINGTON, D.C., April 9 ---- As the newly 
appointed Associate Director for Constituency 
Relationships, Public Policy Ministries for the 
Washington, D.C., office of the National Council of 
Churches (NCC), the Rev. Archie Le Mone will provide 
an important service to the NCC's member communions 
as well as serve as a model of cooperation.

 "Rev. Le Mone's joining our staff will greatly 
enhance our service of member communions," said the 
Rev. Dr. Albert Pennybacker, NCC Associate General 
Secretary and Director of the NCC's Washington, D.C. 
office.  "By choosing to offer his services to all 
churches, the Progressive National Baptist 
Convention (PNBC) creates a model other member 
communions might consider in seeking to enhance the 
public witness of the ecumenical community.  We are 
grateful for Rev. Le Mone with all the experience he 
brings and we are grateful to the PNBC and its 
President, the Rev. Dr. Bennett Smith."

 Rev. Le Mone currently serves the PNBC as 
Executive Director for Social Ministries of the Home 
Mission Board.  He has been secunded to the NCC 
staff to strengthen the involvement of the NCC's 
member communions in its public policy ministries, 
particularly those denominations that do not have 
agency offices in Washington, D.C.  He will give 
special attention to the public policy interests of 
the historic African American churches and encourage 
their participation in formulating ecumenical 
strategies.

Rev. Le Mone has long been associated with both 
the NCC and the World Council of Churches, having 
served for 10 years on the WCC staff in Geneva, 
Switzerland, and on the National Council of 
Churches' General Board.  He has worked in Europe, 
Africa and the Caribbean.  While in the West Indies, 
he was responsible for the Caribbean Conference of 
Churches' language interpretation and translation 
services and had a team of 23 linguists.

 Rev. LeMone was born and reared in New York 
City.  He received an A.B. in History from Morgan 
State College in Baltimore, Md., and an M.Div. from 
Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa.  After 
serving as assistant to the pastor in a local 
Philadelphia church, he was Division Assistant for 
the Home Mission Board of the American Baptist 
Churches in Valley Forge before being offered a 
staff position with the WCC.  He has also been a 
high school teacher in New York City and been the 
director of the Urban Church Coalition in the 
Greater Cleveland Interchurch Council.

 Rev. LeMone is an ordained minister in the 
Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., and 
the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.  He 
serves on a number of other ecumenical boards and 
agencies, including The Washington Office on Africa 
and Interfaith Impact where he is the Chairman of 
the Churches Committee on Voter 
Registration/Education.

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