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National Council of Churches
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The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (usually identified as National Council of Churches, or NCC) is an ecumenical fellowship of 35 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member communions -- also variously called denominations, churches, conventions, or archdioceses -- include a wide variety of Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African-American, and historic Peace churches.
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The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (usually identified as National Council of Churches, or NCC) is an ecumenical fellowship of 35 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member communions -- also variously called denominations, churches, conventions, or archdioceses -- include a wide variety of Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African-American, and historic Peace churches. Together, they encompass 100,000 local congregations and 45 million adherents.
The NCC has long been a leading force in the Christian ecumenical movement in the United States. It was organized in 1950 as a merger of the Federal Council of Churches, formed in 1908, and the International Council of Religious Education, formed in 1905, with origins in the 1830's.
The Council's headquarters are located at 475 Riverside Drive, a 19-story building in New York City called The Interchurch Center, built in the 1950's with a generous contribution from John D. Rockefeller to promote and facilitate cooperation among America's churches. President Dwight D. Eisenhower laid the cornerstone in 1958 before a crowd of 10,000 who had gathered to dedicate the building. Many denominations and ecumenical ministries have offices in the Center. Its location opposite The Riverside Church on Manhattan's Upper West Side puts it within a few blocks' walk of three theological seminaries, the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and the campus of Columbia University.
The NCC also operates a public-policy office at 110 Maryland Avenue, N.E., opposite the Supreme Court building on Capitol Hill in Washington DC. A dozen other denominational and ecumenical bodies also have offices in the same facility.
The Council's sister organization, Church World Service, is a humanitarian and relief arm of the NCC's member communions which has work in more than 80 nations.
Delegates from the NCC's member denominations meet together each fall in a joint General Assembly with Church World Service. Between assemblies, a smaller governing board conducts NCC business several times a year.
Much of the Council's work is done through five ecumenical program commissions -- Communication, Education and Leadership Ministries, Faith and Order, Interfaith Relations, and Justice and Advocacy. Membership in these commissions extends beyond the NCC's member communions to involve participants from more than 50 U.S. faith groups, including Roman Catholics, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals.
The Council is related fraternally to hundreds of local and state councils of churches and interfaith organizations, and to the World Council of Churches. Even though these councils may include many of the same member churches, they have no fiscal or administrative connections to each other.
Similar ecumenical organizations abroad include National Councils of Churches in Australia, India, Kenya, Korea, the Philippines and numerous other countries. In the U.S., the National Council of Churches, with its broad, diverse spectrum of member faith groups, is sometimes contrasted with more narrowly focused, doctrinally-based associations such as the fundamentalist American Council of Christian Churches or the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).
Theological Foundation
The Council's statement of faith, found in the preamble to its constitution, reads as follows:
"The National Council of Churches is a community of Christian communions, which, in response to the gospel as revealed in the Scriptures, confess Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word of God, as Savior and Lord. These communions covenant with one another to manifest ever more fully the unity of the Church. Relying upon the transforming power of the Holy Spirit, the communions come together as the Council in common mission, serving in all creation to the glory of God."
This general statement is accepted by all of the NCC's member communions, which as Christian bodies hold these and many other beliefs in common. Each of the member communions also has a unique heritage, including teachings and practices that differ from those of other members.
Leadership
General Secretary
The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, a Disciples of Christ minister, theologian, and a long-time leader in ecumenical activities, became the Council's ninth General Secretary on January 1, 2008. He came to the NCC from Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, where he had been the Allen and Dottie Miller Professor of Mission, Peace and Ecumenical Studies since 2000. He was Professor of Theology and Ecumenical Studies at Lexington Theological Seminary in Kentucky from 1988 to 2000 and was Dean of the seminary from 1988 to 1998. He also taught at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, from 1983 to 1988, and was a visiting professor at United Theological College and South Asian Theological Institute, Bangalore, India, in 1987 and 1997.
Kinnamon was Executive Secretary of the World Council of Churches' Commission on Faith and Order from 1980 to 1983, and was General Secretary of the Consultation on Church Union, which became Churches Uniting in Christ, from 1999 to 2002.
His predecessor at NCC was Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist and a former pastor, seminary president, and six-term member of Congress, who led the NCC from January 2000 until mid-2007. Edgar is now President and CEO of Common Cause, a national public policy advocacy organization founded by the late John W. Gardner and industrialist J. Irwin Miller, who was the first lay president of the NCC (1960-63).
Previous general secretaries were: Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell (1991-1999), James A. Hamilton, Esq. (1989-1991), Rev. Arie R. Brouwer (1985-1989), Claire Randall (1974-1984), R.H. Edwin Espy (1963-1973), Rev. Roy G. Ross (1954-1963), and Rev. Samuel McCrea Cavert(1950-1954).
President
The current President of the Council, who began a two-year term in January 2008, is Archbishop Vicken Aykazian of Washington, D.C., Turkish-born legate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern). Archbishop Aykazian, who is the former Primate of the Armenian Church of Switzerland, holds a Ph.D in history and is working on a second Ph.D in theology at Catholic University in Washington. In addition to his membership on the NCC's Governing Board, he has been active in the World Council of Churches as a member of the Mission and Evangelism Unit, the Orthodox Task Force and the Central Committee. He is fluent in English, Armenian, French and Turkish.
The president-elect, who will succeed Aykazian in January 2010, is Rev. Peg Chemberlin, a Moravian minister who is executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches, Minneapolis.
The President of the NCC also presides over sessions of the annual General Assembly of the NCC and its partner humanitarian ministry, Church World Service.
Previous NCC presidents were: Rt. Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill (1950-1952), Bishop William C. Martin (1952-1954), Rev. Eugene Carson Blake (1954-1957), Rev. Edwin T. Dahlberg (1957-1960), J. Irwin Miller (1960-1963), Bishop Reuben H. Mueller (1963-1966), Arthur S. Flemming (1966-1969), Cynthia C. Wedel (1969-1972), Rev. W. Sterling Cary (1972-1975), William P. Thompson (1975-1978), Rev. M. William Howard (1979-1981), Bishop James Armstrong (1982-1983), Bishop Philip R. Cousin (1983-1987), Rev. Patricia McClurg (1988-1989), Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky (1990-1991), Rev. Dr. Syngman Rhee (1992-1993), Rev. Dr. Gordon L. Sommers (1994-1995), Bishop Melvin G. Talbert (1996-1997), Rt. Rev. Craig B. Anderson (1998-1999), Ambassador Andrew Young (2000-2001), Elenie K. Huszagh (2002-2003), Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr (2004-2005), and Rev. Michael Livingston (2006-2007).
Research and publishing contributions
RSV and NRSV Bible translations
The NCC holds the copyright on the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. The RSV, completed in 1952, was intended by its translation team to be highly readable and literally accurate. It benefits from previously unavailable manuscripts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls, and from the collaborative insights of Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox translators. The NRSV was completed in 1989. These translations, widely used in churches, and the leading Bible translations used in college and seminary classrooms, have been highly praised by Biblical scholars, pastors, and teachers.
Both translations have also been criticized. Scholar R. Laird Harris derisively called the RSV "a monument of higher critical scholarship" when referring to the RSV's translation of Old Testament passages concerning Christian claims of Jesus's foretelling. The NRSV has also come under fire for its tendency toward gender-neutral language. Some Orthodox bodies in the NCC have been hesitant to support either translation.
Other publications
- The NCC sponsors the research program on which the Uniform Sunday School Lesson Series is based. The long-running series that began in 1872 under the auspices of the National Sunday School Convention is now produced by 46 volunteer writers, editors and Bible scholars from 18 mainline, historic African American and evangelical denominations, ranging from United Methodist and National Baptist, to Church of God-Anderson and Cumberland Presbyterian. They meet in an annual session to determine curriculum topics and lesson design, followed by individual research and writing on assigned sections of the year's studies.
- The Council operates , a publishing arm that fosters and distributes books, curriculum and other resources for church constituents.
Theological and educational dialogue
- The NCC is an ongoing, scholarly, ecumenical dialogue among North American Christian theologians and church historians. Its participants represent more than 50 faith groups, including Evangelical, Pentecostal, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, mainline Protestant, and African-American churches. In 2007, the Commission celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a major convocation at Oberlin, Ohio.
- The NCC conducts dialogues and provides resources for Christians to explore the challenges and opportunities of living among people of other faiths in an increasingly pluralistic and multi-ethnic nation. The Commission produces study guides, newsletters and conferences. It also consults with congregations, denominational bodies, and community organizations about their interfaith relations concerns.
- The NCC is an umbrella organization for fifteen ecumenical program committees and two project teams made up of participants from dozens of denominations, working together to develop lesson materials, research, guidelines and demonstration projects that support local congregations in educational ministry.
Web and television production
- , a religion news distribution website, was developed and is administered by the NCC . It holds more than 40,000 archived news stories and receives more than 10 million visits per month, with a record high of 18 million in June 2007. WFN grants reporters and editors full permission to reproduce, copy, or quote all documents submitted by participating faith groups.
- The NCC is one of the founding members of the , a partnership fostering the production of a dozen documentaries and four to six seasonal liturgical programs each year for the television affiliates of ABC, NBC and CBS. The current IBC members include the NCC, the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the New York Board of Rabbis, the Union for Reform Judaism, and the Islamic Society of North America.
- The NCC is also a founding member of the National Interfaith Cable Coalition (NICC), now operating as . This consortium of about 70 Christian, Jewish, and Muslim groups, formerly known as Faith and Values Media, produces and distributes programming through the FaithStreams website. NICC's earlier initiatives included the VISN satellite network, which later became the Odyssey cable channel, and finally the Hallmark Channel, where NICC has retained a small amount of air time to present its members' programs.
Social and political advocacy
The NCC office in Washington DC addresses the moral and ethical dimensions of public policy issues, working from a policy base developed and approved by the member communions over many decades. Its activities are carried out under the guidance of the Council's . From its founding in 1950, the Council has sought to keep church constituencies informed about developments of interest in the realm of public policy, and has made the views of the ecumenical community known to government leaders and others in places of public leadership. Where its member communions have not reached a policy consensus on an issue, the NCC does not speak.
The Council has long voiced support for minimum wage laws, environmentalist policies, and affirmative action. The organization also played an important role in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It partners with other faith-inspired 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 withdrew from the NCC. Father George Kevorkian, an assistant to the denomination's senior cleric, said that the Church left because "the NCC...seems to have taken a turn toward political positioning."
Figures in the conservative movement accuse the NCC of holding a biased policy towards Cuba, and criticize relative silence by the NCC towards political and religious prisoners in countries with left-leaning and totalitarian leadership.
In spring 2007, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Tehran with a visiting delegation of Christian leaders from a number of U.S. faith groups, including some from the National Council of Churches. During the candid conversation, the group challenged Ahmadinejad's statements about the Holocaust and his alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, was among those who criticized the visit.
Member denominations
See also
External links
- , a citizens advocacy project initiated by the NCC
- , a movement begun by the NCC's Poverty Mobilization Project
- , a January 1951 newsreel hosted by Internet Archive, which features a segment on the formation of the NCC (9:48)
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