wfn.org | NCC Leader Campbell, "Justice never comes without a struggle"

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	50th Anniversary Newsroom - Nov. 8-12, 1999 call 216-696-8490

NCC11/11/99						FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

DR. CAMPBELL: JUSTICE NEVER COMES WITHOUT A STRUGGLE

Nov. 10, 1999, CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Justice "never comes easily, never 
without struggle," said the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell in a sermon 
here.  "But justice comes - just as surely as the scripture says to us. It 
will roll down."  Dr. Campbell preached for the morning worship service 
Wednesday Nov. 10) at the 50th anniversary meeting of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ (NCC).

Campbell recalled a time in the 1960s when she had never heard of the 
NCC.  She was a member of a Cleveland congregation's voter registration 
committee.  The NCC funded the registration drive for the vote that elected 
Carl B. Stokes, the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city. She 
said she savors the irony that she went on to become the general secretary 
of the NCC.

Dr. Campbell invited the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak at her 
congregation that season.  Dr. King was in town in support of the Stokes 
campaign; he commented that he had never been asked to speak in a white 
Cleveland congregation.  From the audience, Dr. Campbell raised her hand 
and extended the invitation.  She said her own justice journey, including 
her service as NCC general secretary, began when she raised her hand that 
day.

Dr. Campbell's sense of justice is informed by her theology.  "It was not 
learned in the classroom," she said.  When people around the world take 
part in the Lord's Supper, and the celebrant says "These are the gifts of 
God for the people of God," there are no adjectives. "The lessons of 
justice are taught to us every time we break the bread - every time we 
drink the wine," she said.

Anthony Mattox, a student at Heights High School, Cleveland Heights, and a 
member of the United Group, also spoke, and the Rt. Rev. Arthur Williams of 
the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio served as the liturgist at the morning 
worship service.

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