The
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (usually identified as
National Council of Churches or
NCC) is an
ecumenicalEcumenism or oecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice...
partnership of 37
ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
faith groups in the United States. Its member denominations, churches, conventions, and archdioceses include Mainline Protestant,
OrthodoxThe Orthodox Church, officially called the Orthodox Catholic Church and commonly referred to as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is the second largest Christian denomination in the world, with an estimated 300 million adherents mainly in the countries of Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece,...
, African American,
EvangelicalEvangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
, and historic
peace churchesPeace churches are Christian churches, groups or communities advocating Christian pacifism. The term historic peace churches refers specifically only to three church groups among pacifist churches: Church of the Brethren, Mennonites including the Amish, and Religious Society of Friends and has...
. Together, they encompass 100,000 local congregations and 45 million adherents.
Publishing and research
The NCC holds the copyright on the
Revised Standard VersionThe Revised Standard Version is an English translation of the Bible published in the mid-20th century. It traces its history to William Tyndale's New Testament translation of 1525. The RSV is an authorized revision of the American Standard Version of 1901...
and the
New Revised Standard VersionThe New Revised Standard Version of the Bible is an English translation of the Bible released in 1989 in the USA. It is a thorough revision of the Revised Standard Version .There are three editions of the NRSV:...
of the
BibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
.
The NCC sponsors the research program on which the
Uniform Sunday School Lesson Series is based. The series began in 1872 under the auspices of the National Sunday School Convention.
Theological and educational dialogue
The NCC
Faith and Order Commission is an ongoing, scholarly, ecumenical dialogue among North American Christian theologians and church historians, including Evangelical, Pentecostal,
Roman CatholicThe Catholic Church has been heavily involved in the ecumenical movement since the Second Vatican Council .- Before the Second Vatican Council :...
, Orthodox, mainline Protestant, and African-American scholars. In 2007, the Commission celebrated its fiftieth anniversary.
Web and television production
The NCC is an insitutional member of the Interfaith Broadcasting Commission, a partnership established in 1980 with the stated goal of providing religious programming for
ABCThe American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
,
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
and
CBSCBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
. The current IBC members include the NCC, the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the
New York Board of RabbisThe New York Board of Rabbis is an organization of Orthodox, Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist rabbis in New York State and the surrounding portions of Connecticut and New Jersey....
, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the
Islamic Society of North AmericaThe Islamic Society of North America , based in Plainfield, Indiana, USA, is a Muslim umbrella group. It has been described in the media as the largest Muslim organization in North America.-History:...
.
Social and political advocacy
The member churches have engaged on issues of public policy and moral values, including by adopting the "Social Creed of the Churches" in 1908, a document which was updated by the NCC General Assembly in 2007.
The Council has supported minimum wage laws,
environmentalistEnvironmentalism is a broad philosophy, ideology and social movement regarding concerns for environmental conservation and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks to incorporate the concerns of non-human elements...
policies, and
affirmative actionAffirmative action refers to policies that take factors including "race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation or national origin" into consideration in order to benefit an underrepresented group, usually as a means to counter the effects of a history of discrimination.-Origins:The term...
, and played a significant role in the
civil rights movementThe civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
in the 1960s.
NCC partners with other faith-based groups, such as Bread for the World, Habitat for Humanity, and Children's Defense Fund, to press for broad policy initiatives that address poverty issues. The Council helped launch the Let Justice Roll grassroots anti-poverty campaign that has been successful in raising the minimum wage in more than 20 states since 2005.
In July 2005, the Antiochian Orthodox Church suspended its participation in the NCC because, according to an assistant to the denomination's senior cleric, "the NCC...seems to have taken a turn toward political positioning."
Membership
NCC member organizations subscribe to the NCC's statement of faith.
Facilities
The Council's headquarters are located in The
Interchurch CenterThe Interchurch Center is a 19-story granite-clad office building located at 475 Riverside Drive and West 120th Street in New York City. Besides renting to many secular non-profits, it is the headquarters for the National Council of Churches USA and its sister humanitarian organization Church...
in New York City. The NCC also operates a public-policy office in Washington DC.