Episcopal Press and News
NCC Governing Board Holds Mid-Winter Session
Diocesan Press Service. March 11, 1974 [74074]
LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- The Governing Board of the National Council of Churches, in four-day policy sessions ending here Feb. 28, struggled to combine its traditional social ministry with efforts to dig deeper into the meaning of the Christian witness in the world.
Meeting at the Los Angeles Hilton hotel, delegates from 31 member churches in the Council spent two days in five "Sections " in often frustrating attempts to arrive at common understandings of renewal, human need, culture, systemic change and unity.
At the same time they submitted themselves to an eight-hour ongoing workshop on racism led by two consultants and several "third world" facilitators, incorporated within the NCC structure a special commission of American Indians, Chicanos, Blacks and Asians, and passed several resolutions concerning national and international concerns.
The actions taken by the board reflected both the reaching inward and reaching outward of this agenda: a working group on evangelism was formed to press this concern more deeply; the Commission on Justice, Liberation and Development (of third worlders) was charged with continuing to press the rights of minorities; commitments were made to continue to study and work on the five Section concerns; funding of a Jewish-Christian Relations desk was announced; resolutions calling for ethics in government and freedom of speech overseas were passed.
The meeting was perhaps best summed up by the two consultants, Paul Shultz and Robert Terry, who led the racism workshop. They described the NCC as an organization "clearly committed to basic respect for human beings and deep in the struggle of what that means institutionally. "
And rather than regarding the conflict of various styles and agendas as "bad," to them it was a sign of "progress."
The board passed several resolutions. It called on Congress to act "expeditiously" in the matter of impeachment so that the President "may have his day in court" and full opportunity is given "to restore confidence in the office of the President of the United States. "
It acknowledged that impeachment procedures " will be a trying experience for the people of the United States. " At the same time it declared "a nation is only as strong as the moral will it can muster to face its internal problems and resolve them through the orderly processes provided by its far-sighted founders."
In the Board's judgment, "the charges leveled against the President are sufficient in numbers and severity" that the only way to resolve them "in fairness both to the President and the American people " is for the Senate to examine them as provided for by the Constitution.
" It is apparent to many citizens that the President has abused or permitted those who serve at his will to abuse the prerogatives of his office and infringe upon the rights and protections guaranteed every person by the Constitution, " the Board declared.
The statement listed the following: "Individuals directly and personally answerable to the President have authorized or engaged in illegal wiretaps, burglary, the secret bombing of Cambodia and falsification of military records, instructions to commit perjury for alleged national security reasons, the obstruction of justice and corruption of the election process."
It also declared: "The Presidency, whose prerogatives the incumbent is purporting to protect, is not the property of successive presidents but of the people, and they are entitled to an accounting without concealments or evasions."
In a companion resolution, the board suggested that Congress explore the possibility of public financing for national political campaigns.
In other action church delegates asserted that the detention in jails of 120 Haitian refugees, some of whom fled political persecution, is in violation of the United Nations Protocol on the Status of Refugees and called for an exhaustive investigation of their cases. The Board will entertain proposals to assist those refugees at its next meeting in June.
NCC Washington staff were authorized to bring a previously established policy in favor of amnesty for " all in legal jeopardy because of the Indochina war " to the attention of the House Committee on the Judiciary at its hearings in early March.
The Board then went on record in favor of stopping U.S. expenditures in Indochina " for any military or paramilitary operations, " cessation of military assistance to South Vietnam until that government restores freedom of speech and complies with the Paris Peace Agreement, and blockage of funds for police and prison systems in that country.
The board declared its solidarity with those Christians in Korea suffering from "increasing repression of human rights" and pledged its support when called upon to do so by the Korean churches.
It also reaffirmed support for the United Farm Workers after a warm speech by that organization's president, Cesar Chavez. Mr. Chavez thanked the NCC "for being the first religious body to join with us in this struggle. "
"Our struggle is not one that is basically about money, " he said, "or about hiring halls or any of the reasons they (the grower) give, but about who Is to lead out union black, brown or white. "
" The Teamster Union may have the contracts, but we have the patience and we will win. The struggle has become our way of life. We do not hate, for then we would lose, but we work and trust and our organization grows steadily across the country as more people support our boycotts."
Some 10 members of the board visited officials of the Gallo Wine Corporation on behalf of the UFW to ask for free elections. Reporting back to the board on their unsuccessful visit, they were authorized to continue their efforts on its behalf.
Another major speaker was Dr. William Kennedy of the World Council of Churches. Education is his major concern and he contended that throughout the world educational systems "perpetuate racism, sex-role stereotypes, cultural imperialism and socio- economic class discrimination.
" Even Christians who are most enthusiastically working to improve . . . theological education, church-related colleges, confirmation classes, Sunday schools, etc. . . . find themselves frustrated because their improvements do not keep the bigger wave of change and critique from flowing over them," Dr. Kennedy said.
Los Angeles Mayor Thomas Bradley had good words for both the local L.A. Council of Churches and the NCC. Our (local) council has been on of the "most concerned, most active and least worried about what-has-been" agency in the city, he said. "We politicians and church people must do everything we can to help overcome today's prevailing mood that the world is moving in a direction which we don't like and cannot control. "
"We are led by God into a sincere concern for every issue that sets human beings against each other . . to declare responsible involvement in social and political action 'off limits ' neither protects nor serves the church but may make it irrelevant. "
Timothy Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Los Angeles, was another local speaker to underscore the fact that stress is appropriate for the Church. "Warmth, hospitality and peace are not the total lot of any Church, for tensions and areas of deep concern fill each of our faith communities," he said.
One of the tensions that has recently been a part of the NCC was again raised in Los Angeles by a group of supporters of Father Robert Chapman who, with all other staff of the NCC Division of Church and Society, had been dismissed last year at a time of financial crisis for the division. He was among the majority who could not be rehired.
Representatives of the New York-based group, who in the previous week had taken over one floor of the Council's headquarters offices and barred access to staff for a day and a half, appeared before the Board with several demands. Among them: creation of a new program division on racism, the dismissal of the NCC's newly installed General Secretary, Dr. Claire Randall, and the "vindication" of Father Chapman with public apologies to him for what was alleged to be shoddy treatment. The demands were rejected.
In announcing the receipt of funds for a Jewish-Christian Relations Desk (from the Lilly Foundation), Dr. Randall said almost $200, 000 would be split equally between the new desk and the existing Middle East unit of the council. The enlargement of the latter office will now require it to seek better relations with Jews in this country where feasible and possible.
Commenting on the action in a joint statement, Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum and Rabbi A. James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee said "we are particularly heartened by an emphasis that is intended to seek out ways to overcome past misunderstanding and to promote reconciliation and direct communication among Jews, Christians and Moslems in the U. S. and wherever possible abroad."
The next meeting of the Governing Board will take place October 10 -14 in New York City.