Episcopal Press and News
"Broader Ecumenical Vision" Spread Before NCC General Assembly
Episcopal News Service. November 15, 2000 [2000-199]
Jan Nunley
(ENS) The National Council of Churches' annual General Assembly opened in Atlanta November 14 to a welcome from its president, former Ambassador Andrew Young, who described his hometown as so segregated 40 years ago that it could have gone "the way of Bosnia or the Middle East." But Atlantans have learned to appreciate their differences, he said.
Now "we see a government unable to govern itself through the normal processes of elections, it seems, but looking at it another way, we have no choice but to find ways to work together regardless of who gets to be president," Young commented. "He won't be able to get a thing done without reaching out to the other side."
Addressing delegates sent by the Council's broad diversity of 35 member communions, ranging from Quaker to Orthodox, Young said, "We hold in this room some hope for the world, that we can disagree but not be disagreeable, come together bearing witness to different visions, be strengthened by them and learn to grow in grace."
The NCC's business included launching a 10-year ecumenical mobilization to overcome poverty. Young encouraged the churches to be as demanding of business and the private sector as they have been of the government. The second major focus is exploring how a divided U.S. church might find new ways to work together.
In a keynote speech, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, professor at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis and General Secretary of the Consultation on Church Union, said that the central question for the NCC is "what is the ecumenical future that God is creating for the churches and how can we best embrace it?"
Kinnamon traced more than 50 years of work initiated by the NCC, the World Council of Churches, the Vatican and others, and emphasized that "the essence of a council of churches is not only what we do together but what we are together, the relationship of the churches to one another....Expanding the table must include deepening our commitment to each other," he said, "or we are in danger of losing more than we gain."
Before the general assembly opened., the NCC's 50-member Executive Board heard Dr. Bob Edgar, the NCC's General Secretary, and Barbara Ellen Black, the NCC's Interim General Manager, confirm a small surplus in operating revenue over expenditures for January-June 2000. They said they expect the same for July-December 2000, and brought forward a balanced budget for January-June 2001, which was adopted by the Executive Board.
The Executive Board celebrated the end to years of deficit spending and restoration of the Council's fiscal integrity, including implementation of a host of financial controls and efficiencies. Results include a "clean" audit, with "no material weaknesses," for January-June 2000.
During calendar year 2000, the Council's global humanitarian response ministry, Church World Service, took responsibility for its own financial and administrative management.
"We now have a clear focus in the NCC's ministries of faith, justice and education and on how much money this part of the NCC has to manage," Edgar said.