wfn.org | National Council of Churches moves forward with restructure

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Kathryn McCormick
kmccormick@dfms.org
212/922-5383
http://www.ecusa.anglican.org/ens
2000-055
National Council of Churches moves forward with sweeping 
restructure

by James Solheim

     (ENS) Moving forward after celebrating its 50th anniversary 
and choosing new leadership, the Executive Board of the National 
Council of Churches adopted at a meeting in early March a 
realistic plan it hopes will take the ecumenical agency into a 
more certain future.

     "There is reason to be encouraged about the future," said 
the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson of the Reformed Church in 
America in presenting the final report of the Transition 
Management Team charged with developing a realistic structure and 
staffing plan. "At this juncture we believe the organizational 
life of the council is becoming stabilized and well ordered."

     "We have stopped the financial hemorrhaging," asserted the 
Rev. Robert Edgar, the new general secretary of the NCC. "There's 
a new wind blowing through the NCC."

     The council's staff and officers have adopted a series of 
steps in the wake of a threatening $4 million deficit at the end 
of last year, putting in place financial accountability and 
controls that they trust will avoid a deficit this year and also 
address the depleted financial reserves.

     "We can't have another year when expenditures exceed 
income," said Belle Miller McMaster of Georgia, representing the 
Presbyterian Church (USA). "I believe the year 2000, under Bob 
Edgar's leadership, is a new beginning and a great hope. It's 
also a very vulnerable year," she added. "We must build back the 
reserves. The new general secretary can't rebuild the NCC unless 
we get our financial house in order."

Mission priorities

     The board approved priorities for work in four program 
areas: education, justice, public witness and unity. "We are 
trying to focus on some achievable goals as we work to rebuild 
the NCC's finances," Edgar said. He encouraged the board to 
consider the priorities in light of their impact on children. 
"When we work against gun violence, let's emphasize how it 
impacts children," offering a similar approach for the issues of 
AIDS in Africa and hunger.

     The education priority will seek to strengthen families, 
develop congregational leaders, fight racism, foster spiritual 
formation, and support quality public education.

     The priority on justice will work towards the elimination of 
racial violence, the eradication of poverty, and the improvement 
of health, quality of life and survival of the planet.

     Included under the public witness priority are efforts to 
work for passage of legislation dealing with hunger, living wage, 
gun violence, AIDS in Africa and the Jubilee 2000 debt relief 
campaign.

     The NCC will continue its efforts to seek the visible unity 
of the churches, nurturing and strengthening ecumenical networks, 
as well as studying and implementing the work of its task force 
on ecclesiology and one on interfaith relations.

     The board endorsed efforts to remove the Confederate flag 
from the South Carolina capitol and resolved not to meet in any 
Adam's Mark hotel, pending resolution of a Justice Department 
suit against the hotel chain, alleging a pattern of racial 
discrimination. The board cited action by the Episcopal Church in 
a decision to cancel use of the Adam's Mark Hotel in Denver as 
its headquarters for July's General Convention. 

     Ginger Paul of Louisiana, who represents the Episcopal 
Church on the board, said she was encouraged by the meeting, 
especially its openness in dealing with the future of the NCC. 
"The Transition Team did a good job," she said in an interview, 
and "it is clear that they are ready to move forward with dynamic 
new leaders."

     She said that Edgar made it clear that he expected the board 
to take responsibility for policy and to hold the staff 
responsible for carrying out that policy.

--James Solheim is director of the Episcopal Church's Office of 
News and Information.