wfn.org | Livingston installed as NCC USA President

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Livingston to be installed as NCC USA President

Michael Livingston: Living the visible unity of the church

Hunt Valley, Md., November 10 - The new President of the National Council 
of Churches USA, who is being installed today in Baltimore's Douglas 
Memorial Community Church, has been a pastor, educator and church 
administrator for most of his adult life. What's more, there is hardly an 
aspect of the ecumenical movement - local, national, international - that 
he hasn't served.
"Early in my ministry I've been a pastor," says the Rev. Michael E. 
Livingston. "I've held many other positions, but I've never left the 
ministry of the Gospel."
Livingston was ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) on July 27, 1975 
and he has been a member of the New Brunswick, N.J., Presbytery since 1985. 
He was pastor of Presbyterian churches in Los Angeles and New York until 
1985 when he returned to his alma mater, Princeton Theological Seminary, as 
director of admissions and later as campus pastor and director of the chapel.
His present position is Executive Director of the International Council of 
Community Churches, headquartered in Frankfort, Il., which describes itself 
as a "fellowship of ecumenically-minded, freedom-loving churches 
cooperating in fulfilling the mission of the Church in the world."
The ecumenically-minded Livingston is well matched with the ICCC, which was 
born in 1950 as the result of a merger of two fellowships in the Community 
Church Movement that at the time was the largest interracial merger of U.S. 
religious bodies in history.
Like many members of Baby Boom generation, Livingston entered college with 
a desire to serve people in a just cause. He earned a Bachelor's degree in 
sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1971 before 
switching his emphasis to theology at the Princeton seminary. He earned a 
master of divinity degree in 1974 and returned to school for a masters in 
theology in Pastoral Care and Counseling that was awarded in 1991.
Shortly after seminary, Livingston immersed himself in a world that 
required a sociologist's insights and a pastor's heart. After three years 
as assistant pastor of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, he 
was called as pastor of Hollis Presbyterian Church in Queens, New York.
He quickly became active in the inter-racial interfaith, community-based 
Queens Citizens Organization where he served as Executive Vice President. 
He was also chair of the Patient Care Committee at Queens Hospital Center 
and was a member of the hospital's community advisory board.  He was also 
active in the Hollis Local Development Corporation and its campaign to 
revitalize its commercial zone.
While he was in Princeton, Livingston was Treasurer and a long time board 
member of the Princeton Regional Scholarship Foundation and the Family 
Guidance Center of Mercer County, which provides counseling services, 
substance abuse recovery programs, a Children's Day School and an HIV Life 
Skills Program.
Livingston has served the Presbyterian Church (USA) as a member of the Task 
Force for Women and as chair of the Committee on Ministry. In the 
Presbyterian Synod of the Northeast he has chaired the Vocation Committee 
and has been a member of the Women's Concerns Team and the Racial-Ethnic 
Task Force on Recruitment. At the national level, he has served on the 
denomination's Vocation Agency and on the Consulting Committee on Racial 
Ethnic Ministries.
Michael Livingston has served as Executive Director of the ICCC since 1999. 
The Council's stated mission is "Advancing love of God and humanity; 
diversity and inclusiveness; ecumenical and interfaith life and work," and 
it has a four-part vision:
To affirm individual freedom of conscience; To protect and promote 
congregational self-determination; To proclaim that the love of God, which 
unites, can overcome any division; and To be an integral partner in the 
worldwide ecumenical movement.
The Council's vision and Livingston's own proclivities have assured that 
his ecumenical activities will take up a major portion of his life. He has 
been President-Elect of the NCC from 2004 until the end of 2005 and he has 
been a member of the NCC's Governing Board and General Assembly since 
1999.  In 2003 he was a member of the NCC's Peace Delegation to Paris that 
attempted to delay or prevent the war in Iraq.
His other ecumenical responsibilities have included the U.S. Conference of 
the World Council of Churches, the editorial board of Liberation and Unity, 
the National Workshop on Christian Unity, and the Presbyterian General 
Assembly Special Committee on Churches of Christ Uniting, which he 
chaired.  For fourteen years he served as the editor of Liberation and 
Unity, a Lenten guide for meditation and study jointly sponsored by the 
COCU and the AME, AMEZ, and CME churches.
Livingston is also a writer and editor with numerous publications, articles 
and book chapters to his credit.
Those who watch Livingston preside over meetings know he has a quick mind, 
a sense of humor and a disarming manner for dealing with group tensions. 
Those attributes will serve him well in his new office. He will serve as 
President of the National Council of Churches until the end of December,
2007.
Contact NCC News: Leslie Tune <mailto:ltune@ncccusa.org> , 202-544-2350; 
Philip E. Jenks <mailto:pjenks@ncccusa.org> , 212-870-2252

Philip E. Jenks
Interim Director, News and Media Relations
National Council of Churches USA
475 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10115
212-870-2252
www.ncccusa.org