wfn.org | UCC / Nominees to lead United Church of Christ

[BARBARA_POWELL.parti@ecunet.org (BARBARA POWELL)]

March 15, 1999
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ                 
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William C. Winslow, press contact
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Three persons nominated to lead a reorganized United Church
of Christ

CLEVELAND -- A slate of two women and one man was
nominated here yesterday 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 Ms. Edith A.
Guffey, currently secretary of the UCC, for associate general
minister; Ms. Bernice Powell Jackson, now head of the UCC
Commission for Racial Justice, for executive minister of
Justice and Witness Ministries; and Dr. 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. Dr. 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.
       Ms. 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.   
       Dr. 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 a 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 President and General Minister 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.

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