wfn.org | NCC chief says it's time for churches to step up their

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Note #6083 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

public-advocacy efforts
30-June-2000
GA00133

	NCC chief says it's time for churches to step up their public-advocacy
efforts
	
	by Evan Silverstein

LONG BEACH, June 30 – The time is "now" for religious denominations to use
their public-advocacy offices to work harder than ever to transform into
reality the ecumenical community's deep convictions about justice, peace and
quality of life.

	That was the message of former U.S. Representative Robert W. Edgar, the new
general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
U.S.A. (NCC). Edgar, an ordained United Methodist minister, spoke at
Thursday's Washington Office Dinner during the 212th General Assembly. The
Washington office works to advocate social witness perspectives and policies
of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly.

	Edgar recalled the words of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy to
emphasize that it is time for churches to step up efforts to improve
worldwide health care, end gun violence, particularly as it impacts
children, forgive the debts of third- and fourth-world nations, and ensure
that workers around the world have a decent quality of life.

	"We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today," Edgar said,
quoting King. "In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is
such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time.
Life often leaves us bare, naked and dejected, with lost opportunity."

	When he served in Washington during the 1970s and '80s, Edgar said,
churches were not working as energetically as they are now to bring about
change and their voices were "faintly heard" on issues of public witness. He
pledged to use his Capitol Hill experience in "reshaping and re-visioning
and refocusing " the NCC's public-witness programs to ensure that
denominations learn two important lessons:

	* that the church has a message for society in this new decade, new century
and new millennium, and also has the "power that we need to bring to the
table"
	* that this is a time when the church as a Body of Christ needs to speak
more "collaboratively and cooperatively," speaking with a clear voice and
acknowledging its collective power to "leverage and make a difference ... on
planet Earth."

	Edgar said some denominations are only now realizing how important such
work is at this particular time, as the world grows more populated and the
gap between rich and poor continues to grow.

	"The question is, is this a time for us to recognize how important our work
is?" he asked, saying after a pause, "The answer is ‘yes.'"

	Edgar said "God is calling us to this moment in history" to rise up and
change the course of mankind.

	"Let no one be discouraged by the belief that there is nothing that one man
or one woman can do against the enormous array of the world's ills," Edgar
said, quoting Kennedy. "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself.
But each of us can work to change a small portion of events, so that in the
total of all those acts will be written a history of our generation."

	The evening included the presentation of 2000 Public Policy Advocacy awards
of the Washington Office to New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in
Washington, D.C., U.S. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), a Presbyterian, and
the Rev. Walter Owensby, who is retiring as associate for international
issues in the Washington Office.

	"The work of the Washington office of the Presbyterian Church is critical
and vital," Edgar said. "The work of the local church in caring for the
Earth and caring for the people who live on this Earth is critical and
vital. We have a choice today, non-violent co-existence, or violent
co-annihilation.

	"This may well be human-kind's last chance to choose between chaos and
community," he said. "That's how important this work is."

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