wfn.org | NCC presses ahead despite financial woes

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Note #6948 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

16-November-2001
01429

NCC presses ahead despite financial woes

Payroll being cut by one-third to balance the 2002 budget

by Jerry L. Van Marter

OAKLAND, CA - Never let it be said that the National Council of Churches of
Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC) is afraid to tackle the really big issues:

The persistence of poverty in America. Hurdles in the way of ecumenism.
Tensions in interfaith relations. And its own financial disarray.

During the NCC's Nov. 11-16 General Assembly here, 150 delegates from most
of its 36 member communions stubbornly persisted in addressing social and
ecclesiastical issues that have dogged country and church for the NCC's
entire 52-year history.

Deficits persist

On Nov. 13, in a draconian move to eliminate the deficits that pushed the
NCC to the verge of bankruptcy last year, the Council's executive board
eliminated 16 of the 54 staff positions, effective by the end of this year.
Two years ago, the NCC had 102 people on staff. By New Year's Day it will
have 39.

The staff cuts came on the heels of a report that the Council finished its
most recent fiscal year - which ended on June 30 - with a deficit of $2.1
million. The staff reduction was part of a package that trimmed the 2002
budget from $6.87 million to $5.7 million.

General Secretary Bob Edgar said the first $120,000 in unrestricted giving
above budgeted income this year will be held in reserve "to begin rebuilding
the long-term financial health of the NCC."

"I feel very confident that we're prepared to restore the health of this
organization," he said.
Although the Council's reserves were sufficient to cover its losses - an
improvement over last year, when "infusions" of cash from the United
Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church (USA) saved the NCC from
bankruptcy - "There's not much left to play around with," said the Rev. Phil
Young, a Presbyterian who serves as the NCC treasurer. "If we don't balance
this year's budget, we're facing a moment of very sober truth."

Even the deep cuts made so far may not be enough, Young added. "The
denominations are in trouble also," he told the Presbyterian News Service.
"The whole charitable-giving situation has changed since Sept. 11."

The Presbyterians and Methodists, who together account for almost two-thirds
of the NCC's "member support," are both undergoing budget cuts of their own.
They contributed to last year's bailout on assurances that this year's
Council budget would be balanced, and they greeted the news of the $2.1
million deficit by announcing that they will be reassessing their NCC
contributions.

Young led the Assembly in prayer for the employees who lost their jobs.

Anti-poverty campaign

Staff member Brenda Girton-Mitchell outlined plans for the NCC's 10-year
anti-poverty "mobilization," whose theme is "Joining Hands and Voices to End
Poverty in the United States." The effort was authorized by last year's
Assembly.

"We launched this program because we're disturbed," Girton-Mitchell said,
noting that 31.1 million Americans (one in nine), including 13.5 million
children (one in six), live below the federal poverty level.

"Poverty is as abhorrent to us as slavery was," said outgoing NCC President
Andrew Young.

The mobilization will focus on six programmatic elements: children, housing,
health care, public education, hunger and the environment. It has measurable
goals for each, such as:

* Children - Cut the poverty rate in half by 2010.

* Housing - Build, in partnership with Habitat for Humanity, 200,000 units
of affordable housing.

* Health care - Increase the number of insured Americans by 17 million,
including all of the 9.5 million currently uninsured children.

* Public education - Implement the goals of the NCC's 1999 policy statement,
"The Churches and the Public Schools."

* Hunger - In partnership with Bread for the World and others, ensure "food
security" for all.

* Environment - Win U.S. government support for the Kyoto Protocols and
advocate the cultivation of renewable energy sources.

Edgar unveiled a grass-roots "March March" campaign, in which participating
churches and other groups will dedicate the month of March of each year to
daily anti-poverty activities. "Lots of our partners are enthusiastic about
this," he said, adding that the NCC is developing resources for the
campaign.

The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the PC(USA) stated clerk, urged that all NCC
member churches take steps to endorse the mobilization, "so there will be
broad ownership and committed partnership to achieve these goals."

Ecumenical relations
	
The key to successfully addressing issues such as poverty, several speakers
said, is a unified approach by churches and humanitarian groups. Others
noted that the ecumenical movement in the United States continues to be very
diffuse.

Edgar reported on Sept. 7-8 conversations between the NCC, which represents
primarily mainline Protestant denominations, and the Catholic church, the
Salvation Army, evangelicals and Pentecostals. Little progress was reported
beyond an agreement to meet again next April, but Edgar said he is upbeat
about his efforts to help create what he called "a new ecumenical
something."

Edgar said the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Salvation Army
have given the go-ahead for continued talks.

However, the largest group of U.S. evangelicals did not attend the recent
get-together.

"It is our policy not to engage in those conversations," Richard Cizik, the
president of the National Association of Evangelicals, told a writer from
the San Francisco Chronicle. Cizik succeeded Don Argue as president of the
NAE - which says it has 42,000 congregations and 10 million members - after
Argue quit in frustration over the NAE's resistance to closer ties to the
NCC.

The seeming inability of mainline Christians and evangelicals to come
together is not a matter of political or theological disagreements, Tony
Campolo, a leading evangelical, said in his Nov. 14 keynote address.

"The first thing that needs to be affirmed is that we have the same social
vision: the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven," said Campolo, an
American Baptist minister. "We have problems with the NCC, but vision - a
society without racism, without sexism, without ageism, without classism -
isn't one of them."

"Here's the problem," he continued. "NCC statements are frequently not cast
in Biblical language. We need to know and speak what the Biblical imperative
is; you are Biblically-based, but you seem to avoid Biblical language."

Campolo said Evangelicals want to know, "If your positions are Biblically
based, why don't you say so? We're losing our people because we are not
using their language. Language is dividing us, not the issues - and it's a
big problem."

Kirkpatrick said we are at a point in history where "we're being called to
far more creative efforts to find a fresh institutional expression of
Christian unity than we have found previously."

Other business

In other actions, the Assembly, delegates:

* Approved two resolutions on the terrorism crisis: A call for the
protection of human rights and a rebuilding of Afghanistan through long-term
humanitarian assistance; and a call for American Christians to adopt
spiritual disciplines and make available material assistance to help meet
the needs of the world's poor people.

* Elected Elenie Huszagh, of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, as
the NCC's 21st president.

* Passed a resolution calling for a  peaceful settlement of the decades-long
civil war in Sudan.

* Approved a resolution calling for increased funding for food stamps and
aid to needy families in welfare-reform legislation to be considered by the
U.S. Congress next year.
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