wfn.org | Interchurch Center rededicated in New York City

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

>The Interchurch Center in New York
>is rededicated after its first 50 years

See: www.ncccusa.org/news/100526ticrededication.html

New York, May 26, 2010 -- The Interchurch Center in New York's  Morningside 
Heights, once envisioned as a "Protestant Vatican on the  Hudson," has evolved 
over fifty years into an interfaith, multi-ethnic  community of non-profit, 
educational and church agencies.

That may not be what the planners expected, but it turned out "very  good," 
said the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, General Secretary of the  National Council 
of Churches.

Kinnamon, the staff head of the Council that was once the "raison  d'etre" for 
the creation of The Interchurch Center, was the keynote  speaker at a ceremony 
of rededication for the building May 25.

Kinnamon noted the exultation and expectations of the late Donald  Bolles, a 
National Council of Churches editor, when plans to establish  the Center in 
York City were announced in 1953.

"At long last [Bolles wrote] the National Council of Churches will have  a 
headquarters big enough to house its entire staff and provide adequate  
facilities for all the activity associated its work as the instrument of  30 
communions."

"The National Council [Bolles continued] will share with a number of its  
member denominations, their boards and agencies the space in a united  church 
center which is expected to rise within two years on a site on  Riverside Drive 
overlooking the Hudson River. A block-long building  between 119th and 120th 
Streets will be built to accommodate as many as  3000 church workers, at an 
estimated cost of $14 million."

Despite the vividness of Bolles' dream of a stately Center for  Protestants, 
the modern day reality is different.

Today, Kinnamon said, "The Interchurch Center is a richly diverse  community of 
many faiths - Protestant, Orthodox, Catholic, Jewish,  Muslim, and more," 
Kinnamon said. "We are theologians, administrators,  actuaries, health 
professionals, food preparers, building management  specialists, educators, 
students, communicators and more. We are a  community of many races, 
ethnicities, languages, nations. The  Interchurch Center family today is almost 
a perfect microcosm of God's  world."

The building never became a "Protestant Vatican," Kinnamon said. But,  even 
better, it became "The God Box" on Manhattan's West side.

"Clearly, the fact that we did not evolve into what our creators  expected us 
to be is part of the eternal promise that God is not through  with us yet, not 
with these bricks and mortar, and not with the human  beings who work here," 
Kinnamon said.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower led the groundbreaking for The  Interchurch 
Center on October 12, 1958, and was dedicated two years  later. Among the 
participants in Tuesday's rededication service was the  Rev. Dr. Jon Regier, 
who attended both events. Regier held high-ranking  staff positions at the NCC 
and was executive of the New York State  Council of Churches. Regier offered 
the prayer of invocation.

Philanthropist and billionaire John D. Rockefeller, Jr., an American  Baptist 
layman, was a major figure in the planning and financing of the  Center in the 
1950s.

Rockefeller's grandson, Dr. Steven C. Rockefeller, professor emeritus of  
religion at Middlebury College, came to the rededication service to  recall his 
grandfather's deep Christian faith. "Philanthropy was his  life," Professor 
Rockefeller said, as was a daily practice of Bible  study and personal 
devotion. Steven Rockefeller is the son of the late  Vice President Nelson A. 
Rockefeller.

Benjamin R. Schute, Jr., chairman of The Interchurch Center board of  trustees, 
welcomed worshippers to the rededication service. Many who sat  in The 
Interchurch Center chapel had been among the Center's earliest  occupants.

A bagpiper played Amazing Grace as Worshipers proceeded into the chapel.  
Kensington Brass played a prelude.

An interfaith trio offered the call to worship: Father Robert George  
Stephanopoulos, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; Rabbi Marcus L.  
Burstein; and Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf. Lois M. Dauway, a member of The  
Interchurch Center board, led a responsive reading.

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop and Primate of  the 
Episcopal Church, led a litany of remembrance and rededication.

The Lord's Prayer was led by the Rev. Dr. Kermit J. DeGraffenreidt,  
Secretary-Editor for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a  former 
member of The Interchurch Center board.

Kinnamon noted that present-day occupants of The Interchurch Center may  have 
forgotten how the National Council of Churches dominated the Center  in its 
early days.

There was a time, I'm told, when the NCC occupied three whole floors of  The 
Interchurch Center," Kinnamon said. "Retired NCC staff still tell  the story of 
Claire Randall, another of my eight predecessors, who was  known for her 
no-nonsense style of administration.

"Each day when she was here, the story goes, she would practice  "management by 
wandering around," appearing unexpectedly on one of the  three floors where her 
staff worked, occasionally surprising them on  too-long coffee breaks. Quickly 
the staff created a telephone alerting  tree for those occasions when Claire 
left her office, "General Secretary  rolling." If the story is true, Claire 
rarely found her staff goofing  off after that.

"Suffice it to say, Kinnamon said, "that I can wander all the floors of  this 
beautiful building without creating the slightest stress.  (I  should add, of 
course, that no one on the NCC staff goofs off. There's  too much work and too 
few of us.)"

No one can predict the future of The Interchurch Center, Kinnamon said.  "Just 
state your plans for the next 50 years if you want to hear God  laugh."

But regardless of what the future holds, we take heart in the assurance  that 
the future is in God's hands," said Kinnamon. "And our hearts take  us to the 
same place Harry Emerson Fosdick did so many years ago: God,  grant us the 
wisdom, vision, generosity and devotion, that in our use of  the high privilege 
here given us, we will not fail humankind or God." 
-----                  

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of  Christ in 
the USA has been the leading force for ecumenical cooperation  among Christians 
in the United States. The NCC's member faith groups --  from a wide spectrum of 
Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical,  historic African American and 
Living Peace churches -- include 45  million persons in more than 100,000 local 
congregations in communities  across the nation.

>-----

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office),  646-853-4212 
(cell),  pjenks@ncccusa.org

>See www.ncccusa.org