wfn.org | NCC continues steps toward forming a broader Christian vision

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Oct. 4, 2000   News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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NEW YORK (UMNS) -- Building upon a process started at its May meeting, the
executive board of the National Council of Churches (NCC) has called for a
2001 meeting with Roman Catholic, Evangelical and Pentecostal churches.

That recommendation, approved during the board's Oct. 2-3 meeting, will be
presented to the council's General Assembly during its November meeting in
Atlanta.

Last May, the board decided to work toward the creation of an ecumenical
body that expands beyond its current 35 member denominations, hopefully by
2003. The October resolution calls upon those members "to commit themselves
to participating, with Evangelical and Pentecostal churches and with the
Roman Catholic Church, in a process of discernment to ascertain what new
national expression of Christian life, faith and action the Holy Spirit may
enable us to bring into being in which we may be and act together."

Although an initial meeting has not been formally discussed with the other
participants, it is hoped that meeting would be scheduled sometime in 2001.

The NCC's General Assembly also will be asked to work on a protocol and
consider a plan and timeline for "an ecumenical mobilization to overcome
poverty." The 10-year campaign would include collaboration with other
Christian churches and organizations

In his report to the executive board, the Rev. Robert Edgar, a United
Methodist pastor who serves as the NCC's chief executive, talked about
recovery from the agency's budget crisis.

During the six-month period between Jan. 1 and June 30, 2000, the NCC
maintained a balanced budget without drawing money from surplus funds or
endowments, he said. Edgar also believes the July 1-Dec. 31 budget will be
balanced. A final budget for 2001 will be presented during the November
meeting.

All denominations that made pledges, totaling $2,034,674, to the NCC's 1999
debt reduction campaign, have paid up, with the exception of the United
Methodist Church. "We fully anticipate that in the months of October and
November, that commitment will be completed," Edgar added about the United
Methodist pledge.

The NCC is counting on $700,000 from the United Methodists, of which only
$91,701 has been paid so far. Another $608,299 is due. Bishop Melvin
Talbert, ecumenical officer for the United Methodist Council of Bishops,
said there is "a strong level of commitment" to fulfill the pledge.

The matter is expected to be addressed by the United Methodist Commission on
Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns during its Oct. 4-8 meeting in
Daytona Beach, Fla.

Edgar assured the board that systems have been put in place to monitor all
budgetary concerns. "The financial hemorrhaging that was occurring has been
stopped," he reported.

The challenge, he said, will be to fit the NCC's resources to its
commitments in order to make the vision of a larger ecumenical table "our
top priority."

One commitment the NCC was able to keep was providing $30,000 for three
grants for students engaged in biblical scholarship. One of the scholarships
is named for Talbert.

Executive board members formally approved the hiring of three new staff
executives. The Rev. John McCullough, a clergy member of the United
Methodist Southern New England Annual Conference and former staff of the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, is the new executive director
of Church World Service and Witness. Brenda Girton-Mitchell, a Baptist,
former schoolteacher and lawyer who currently is pursing a master of
divinity degree at Wesley Theological Seminary, has become director of the
NCC's Washington office. Charles Chamberlayne, a business executive who is
working on a master of divinity degree at New Brunswick Theological Seminary
in New Jersey, is the council's new controller.

All three of the new staff members are African-American. Reflecting on a
concern raised in 1999 by some executive board members regarding the lack of
hiring of people of color, Talbert said the persons nominated for those
positions show the concern was taken seriously by the NCC staff. "I'm
delighted to see we are getting some ethnic diversity in the national
council," he added.

The board's standing committee on inclusiveness and justice, however, raised
concerns that directives it previously approved regarding diversity and
anti-racism training and the establishment of an office on inclusiveness and
justice had not been followed.

After a lengthy discussion, executive board members voted to charge Edgar to
present a plan in November on how the council will follow through on the
directives, including the financial implications involved.  

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United Methodist News Service
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