wfn.org | UCC Lean financial times offer new ecumenical opportunities

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

Lean financial times offer new ecumenical opportunities

> Written by Martin Bailey
> June 27, 2009

"Lean times like ours provide a moment of opportunity," the General
Secretary of the National Council of Churches told members and guests
of the United Church of Christ at the Ecumenical Achievement Dinner
during the 27th General Synod.

The Rev. Michael Kinnamon confessed that he had never expected to lead
the NCC at a time of economic stress. "But," he said, "I believe that
the member churches of the Council will discover that the NCC is not
an organization that churches 'join' but a "covenant that they act out
with each other."

Kinnamon, a Disciples of Christ minister, was professor of peace and
ecumenical studies at the UCC-related Eden Theological Seminary before
becoming General Secretary of the NCC. He is a long-time ecumenist,
having also headed the Consultation on Church Union (now known as
Churches Uniting in Christ).

He observed that current financial pressures offer a moment in which
church leaders will need to decide whether ecumenism is, in fact, a
part of their denominational identity.

He also said that the churches may discover more clearly the spiritual
dimension of the ecumenical movement. "We will come to affirm with
greater conviction that we are together in the hands of God."

Dr. Kinnamon expressed appreciation for the leadership of the United
Church of Christ in helping the National Council of Churches see that
"the essence of our work is relationship building?that the Council
embodies a witness to the God of reconciliation whenever we invite
people to work together,"

At the ecumenical dinner, Barbara Brown Zikmund was presented with the
Avery D. Post Ecumenical Achievement Award for, among other things,
the interfaith directions she set when she was President of the
Hartford (Conn.) Theological Seminary.