wfn.org | Wrap Up Story, NCC 2003 General Assembly, Jackson, Miss.

["Carol Fouke" <cfouke@ncccusa.org>]

November 12. 2003
NCC Media Contact: 212-870-2227

National Council of Churches 2003 General Assembly Wrap-Up
NCC Installs CME Bishop Thomas J. Hoyt, Jr., as President for 2004-2005,
Endorses Boycotts of Taco Bell, Mt. Olive Pickle Companies

JACKSON, Miss. - We have great opportunities to do wonderful things for the
people of God, declared the Rev. Dr. Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., Nov. 6 at his
installation as the National Council of Churches new President for
2004-2005.

Dr. Hoyt, 62, of Shreveport, La., is Bishop of the Christian Methodist
Episcopal Churchs Fourth Episcopal District, comprising Mississippi and
Louisiana.  He is the first member of the historic African American C.M.E.
to serve as NCC President since the Council was founded in 1950.

He was installed along with other NCC officers during services at Anderson
United Methodist Church in Jackson, Miss., as the NCCs annual General
Assembly, held in Jackson Nov. 4-6, came to a close.  The meeting marked the
end of one four-year program planning cycle (the 2000-2003 quadrennium) and
the beginning of the next.

Addressing those gathered, Dr. Hoyt pledged to speak truth and
righteousness in this land, to do so with love and understanding and to
continue to do all I can to make this organization all it can be.

I am grateful for this position, he said at the Recognition Banquet
immediately preceding the installation service.  Its not for me, its for
the Kingdom of God.

Then he told a story:

As a child, when Id ask my mother for bread, shed say, Wait, Ill put
some butter on it.  I didnt ask for this position.  I already have a full
plate.	But sometimes God gives you a little extra.  God has buttered my
bread.

For a profile of Bishop Hoyt, see: www.ncccusa.org/news/03hoytprofile.html

Other NCC officers installed Nov. 6 were:

- General Secretary: The Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar, a United Methodist,
re-elected to a second, four-year term as NCC General Secretary, with
headquarters in New York City.
- President Elect: The Rev. Michael E. Livingston, of Trenton, N.J.,
Executive Director, International Council of Community Churches, as NCC
President Elect for 2004-2005.	He will serve as the Councils President in
2006-2007.
- Vice President: Ms Clare J. Chapman, Executive Director of Finance and
Administration, General Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious
Concerns, United Methodist Church, New York City, and Chair of the NCCs
Administration and Finance Committee.
- Vice President: Ms Betty Voskuil, Coordinator for Diaconal Ministries,
Hunger Education and Reformed Church World Service, Reformed Church in
America, Grand Rapids, Mich., Chair of the Church World Service Board of
Directors.
- Vice President At Large: The Rev. Dr. Randall R. Lee, Assistant to the
Bishop and Director, Department for Ecumenical Affairs, Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, Chicago, Ill.
- Vice President at Large: The Rev. Dr. Thelma Chambers-Young, Director of
Christian Education, Holy Temple Baptist Church, Progressive National
Baptist Convention, Inc., Oklahoma City, Okla; Immediate Past President of
the PNBC Womens Department.
- Secretary: Bishop Vicken Aykazian, Diocesan Legate and Ecumenical Officer,
Diocese of the Armenian Orthodox Church of America, Washington, D.C.
- Immediate Past President: Elenie K. Huszagh, Esq., a Greek Orthodox
laywoman from Nehalem, Ore., concluding her 2002-2003 term as the NCC's
President, continues in 2004-2005 in the office of NCC Immediate Past
President.

Mrs. Huszagh was honored on Tuesday with creation of a new Millennium Fund.
The funds will be used to support the full participation of the NCCs 15
Orthodox member churches and to advance Mrs. Huszaghs concerns for peace
and alternative means for settling international disputes.  (For more on the
NCCs outgoing president, see www.ncccusa.org/news/03millenniumfund.html)

BOYCOTTS OF TACO BELL, MT. OLIVE PICKLE COMPANIES

The NCC Assembly also endorsed consumer boycotts of Taco Bell and Mt. Olive
Pickle products, both effective immediately, to put pressure for improvement
of wages and working conditions of their suppliers farm workers. It is the
largest and broadest U.S. religious body to endorse the boycotts.

Given the NCCs insistence that boycotts are a measure of last resort, the
affirmative votes on the two boycotts are especially significant. It has
been more than 15 years since the NCC endorsed a boycott (May 1988, related
to Royal Dutch/Shells connections at that time to apartheid South Africa.).

Urging support for the boycott of Taco Bell, Gerardo Reyes Chavez, a Florida
farm worker and member of the Steering Committee of the Coalition of
Immokalee Workers, described farm workers low wages and lack of any
benefits such as health insurance or overtime pay.

According to U.S. Department of Labor data, the average piece rate paid to
tomato harvesters in 1980 was 40 cents per 32-pound bucket. Today,
harvesters are paid the same average piece rate, earning less than one-half
of what they did 20 years ago in inflation-adjusted dollars. At the 40-cent
piece rate, workers must pick and haul two tons of tomatoes to make $50.

And in the most extreme circumstances we find modern day slavery, said
Chavez, speaking in Spanish through an interpreter. By modern day slavery I
mean people forced to work at gunpoint.

We are not saying Taco Bell is guilty of slavery, Chavez said, but when
we ask Taco Bell, can you guarantee to us those tomatoes werent picked by
slave labor, the answer is no. Thats precisely because they have never
paid attention to the workers who make their profits possible. Thats why I
am here today.

For more information, see: www.ncccusa.org/news/03boycottfinal.html

OTHER NCC GENERAL ASSEMBLY ACTIONS

The Assembly on Wednesday (Nov. 5) approved establishment of an ecumenical
"Human Genetics Policy Development Committee. The body's mission over the
next two to three years will be to educate church members about human
genetic technologies and to develop a policy that addresses issues raised by
significant changes in science and society since the NCC last addressed
issues related to human genetic technologies in 1986 policy.

Delegates were urged by Richard Hayes of the Center for Genetics and Society
not to throw up their hands at the complexity of human genetic technologies.
Theologically grounded reflection by people of faith is of critical
importance on these rapidly evolving technologies -- some of which hold
great promise and others, great peril, he said.

The Human Genetics Policy Development Committee, to be named by the NCCs
President and General Secretary, was recommended by an Exploratory Committee
on Human Genetic Technologies.	Over the past year, the exploratory
committee reviewed NCC and member communion statements, studies and other
materials concerning bio-technology along with their existing education,
outreach and advocacy work related to bio-technology and public policy.

The General Assembly also approved resolutions on:

7	The Churches and Public School, urging member communions and their
congregations to redouble their efforts in support of public education
(www.ncccusa.org/news/03publiceducation.html).
7	Preserving U.S. Pharmaceutical Sales to Canada, urging the
President,
the Food and Drug Administration and Congress to enact legislation enabling
U.S. consumers to purchase prescription drugs at costs comparable to those
charged by U.S. companies to other countries and opposing legislative
attempts to make it illegal for U.S. consumers to purchase prescription
drugs from Canada (www.ncccusa.org/news/03prescriptiondrugs.html).
7	The Conflict in the Middle East, urging in particular the
dismantling of
the Separation Wall being constructed between Israel and the West Bank
(www.ncccusa.org/news/03separationwall.html).

And the Assembly, reissuing its 2002 Resolution Recognizing the Patriarch
of Jerusalem, (www.ncccusa.org/news/03patriarchate.html), renewed its call
to the State of Israel to recognize the 2001 canonical election of His
Beatitude Irenaios as Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, enabling the
Patriarchate to function as a legal entity in Israel.

Among special guests bringing greetings to the 2003 NCC General Assembly
were the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, newly elected General Secretary of the World
Council of Churches, Geneva, Switzerland.

-end-

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