Episcopal Press and News
NCC General Board Joins Public Debate on Persian Gulf Crisis, Elects New Leadership
Episcopal News Service. November 29, 1990 [90305]
At the end of a long and sometimes arduous organization, the General Board of the National Council of Churches (NCC) endorsed a new structure, elected a new general secretary, and renewed its determination to speak on public issues with a strong statement on the crisis in the Persian Gulf at its meeting, November 14-16, in Portland, Oregon.
The 270-member policy-setting board representing 32 Christian denominations in the United States unanimously adopted a strongly worded statement calling for "an immediate halt to the buildup and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the [Persian] Gulf region" except those explicitly recommended by the United Nations Security Council.
The board's 12-point resolution, accompanied by a five-page "Message on the Gulf and the Middle East Crisis," pressed President Bush and the Congress "to pursue every means for a negotiated political solution to the crisis in the Gulf, including direct negotiations with Iraq."
The board called on Iraq to release all hostages and to withdraw immediately from Kuwait, and urged the "continuing rigorous application of the sanctions against Iraq authorized by the United Nations Security Council until such time as it withdraws its forces from Kuwait.
"The rationales offered for the steady expansion of the U.S. presence have often been misleading and sometimes contradictory," the message said. "Such talk has given rise to widespread speculation in our country, in the Middle East and elsewhere that the United States will initiate war."
"In the face of such reckless and imprudent behavior, as representatives of churches in the United States we feel that we have a moral responsibility publicly and unequivocally to oppose actions that could have such dire consequences."
The board followed its resolution with a 10-point "Covenant for Action." Among its recommendations, the covenant called on NCC member communions, local and regional ecumenical agencies, congregations, and individuals to:
- read the NCC's message and resolution from the pulpits of congregations across the United States;
- visit members of Congress to urge them "to restrain any and all attempts to import weapons to the Middle East and/or to initiate unilateral military action" in the Persian Gulf;
- accept invitations from Middle East Christians for strategic visits to the Middle East and facilitate the trips of members of Congress and make recommendations to them when they visit the area to engage in dialogue with religious leaders of all faiths;
- adopt lifestyles that help to conserve energy and petroleum resources;
- organize community prayers for peace in the Middle East, attempting to bring together in each community Jews, Muslims, Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians.
The resolution and message echoed an address to the NCC General Board by Gabriel Habib, head of the Middle East Council of Churches. Habib urged the U.S. churches to press their government to "exhaust all peaceful means," even to talk with Saddam Hussein himself, before resorting to military action in the Persian Gulf.
"Why shouldn't the President [Bush] talk to all the parties involved?" Habib asked in his address. "War can be avoided. Further calamity and human suffering can be avoided. Humanity is God's gift and should not be sacrificed by conflict between rulers."
Habib, a Lebanese Christian and a member of the Orthodox Church of Antioch, called on churches to "pray for Iraq, Kuwait, and all neighboring countries." He also commented, "No one would want to be in the shoes of President Bush. We should pray for him to take a proper solution."
After several years of reorganization and what some observers said was a crisis of leadership at the NCC, the bold statement on the Persian Gulf represented an attempt by the NCC governing board to recapture a leadership role in national and world events.
In addition, the board urged member churches to respond to the continuing civil war in Liberia. It pledged to "spare no effort in assisting the churches and others in Liberia and abroad who would help to reconcile differences among competing factions and bring an end to the armed violence," and urged the United Nations to intensify its support for an end to hostilities.
The board also welcomed the Rev. Frank Chikane, general secretary of the South African Council of Churches, who told members to "keep the pressure on" for change in South Africa.
"The only people who can assist us is the international community," Chikane said. He called for support and pressure to get the South African government "to the negotiating table as soon as possible" so that South Africans might enjoy "a new society" free from apartheid.
The board also overwhelmingly approved a new policy that names family violence as sin, and calls churches to address family violence and abuse. The "Policy Statement on Family Violence and Abuse" reviews the social, legal, psychological, pastoral, and ecclesial contexts of domestic violence and offers a scriptural basis for addressing the problem.
In a unanimous vote that concluded months of restructure and a search for a new general secretary, the NCC General Board elected the Rev. Joan Campbell to lead the council as chief executive staff officer through 1995.
The first ordained woman to serve as NCC general secretary since the organization was founded 40 years ago, Campbell commented, "I realize my election...carries the aspirations of many who have felt marginalized in the mainstream life of the church.
"What we need in the time ahead," Campbell said, "is to strengthen the base of ecumenically minded persons across the country" so that a corps is built of "many, many people who not only tolerate the ecumenical movement, but demand it."
In addition to Campbell, the board welcomed new directors of the NCC's four units: Lani Havens, Church World Service and Witness Unit; Constance Tarasar, Unite and Relationships Unit; Kenyon Burke, Prophetic Justice Unit; and Martin Bailey, Education, Communication and Discipleship Unit.
The board also adopted a $48.2 million budget for 1991.
"I think the board meeting was evidence that the council is moving beyond the crisis of the past and the restructuring," said the Rev. William Lawson of Lynn, Massachusetts, a member of the NCC General Board and a key participant in the restructure. "There was a sense of enthusiasm at the meeting -- a feeling of a new beginning with the election of Joan Campbell and the appointment of the other officers. It was a breath of fresh air."
According to Lawson, the resolution on the Persian Gulf crisis represented "the kind of thing that we should be doing as a council. We arrived at the statement after a great deal of thought and prayer in the context of concerns we were hearing at the grassroots." He said that the statement was not meant to be a confrontational "damning of the 'party in power"' but rather, developed from "a real sense that war is not acceptable in this century.
Lawson said that the NCC General Board now realizes that it must accompany its resolutions with concrete strategies to implement them. "In the future we will keep in mind that we need to spend as much time developing strategy as we do in making wonderful pronouncements. This will go a long way in enhancing the credibility of the council," he said.