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 association of 35 Christian denominations in the United States, with 100,000 local congregations and more than 45,000,000 adherents. Its member faith groups currently (2007) include Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, African-American and historic Peace churches. It is widely regarded as a leading force within the ecumenical movement of Christianity. NCC is related fraternally to hundreds of local and state councils of churches and interfaith organizations, and to the World Council of Churches, but though they may include many of the same member churches, these councils have no fiscal or administrative connections to each other.
The National Council of Churches was organized in 1950, and its forerunner, the Federal Council of Churches, in 1908. A sister organization, Church World Service, is a humanitarian and relief arm of the NCC's member denominations.
Headquarters are located in the Interchurch Center in New York, New York, with a public-policy office on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.
Representatives of the NCC's member denominations meet together annually in a general assembly, with several other meetings each year by a smaller governing board.
Most 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 far beyond the NCC's 35 member communions to involve participants from more than 50 U.S. faith groups, including Roman Catholics, Evangelicals and Pentecostals.
The NCC's current General Secretary, Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist, is a former pastor, seminary president, and six-term member of Congress.
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[edit] Contributions
Among the NCC's contributions are:
- the translation and publication of the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, the first to use findings from the Dead Sea Scrolls and a preferred translation in seminaries and divinity schools.
- the Uniform Sunday School Lesson Series, used for more than a century by many denominations as the basis for curriculum and study materials.
- the publication of the annual Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, a comprehensive work that is considered the most reliable directory to the religious life of North America.
- extensive work on environmental, peace and social justice issues.
- administration of Worldwide Faith News[1], a web-based interfaith news distribution system affording large and small faith groups, even those in developing nations, equal access to media.
[edit] Criticism
[edit] From Member Churches
The NCC is a complex organization which was created to seek and to foster unity and collaboration among groups with widely diverse views. Inevitably, some friction will occur. In September 2005, the United Methodist Church (the largest member of the Council) sent a "letter of concern" seeking to understand why the Antiochian Orthodox Church left the NCC. It was later determined that the Antiochian Church left because of disagreements with its sister communions over issues of human sexuality, an area in which the NCC itself has made no policy initiatives.[citation needed]
[edit] Meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
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. "Ahmadinejad comes across as a very religious man," said the Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana, NCC's Associate General Secretary for Interfaith Relations. J. Daryl Byler, Director of the Mennonite Central Committee Washington Office (not an NCC member group), reportedly described Ahmadinejad as having a measured tone, seeming reasonable and having a witty personality. Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of Anti-Defamation League, criticized the visit: "By meeting with Ahmadinejad, these American Christian leaders are collaborating with a dangerous despot who calls for the destruction of Israel and denies the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust," Foxman said. [2]
[edit] Conservative and Far Right
There has been a vigorous, ongoing conservative reaction to the work of the NCC. Some evangelicals, fundamentalists, and the politically-aligned religious right, notably the privately-funded Institute on Religion and Democracy, generally accuse the NCC of being a left-wing organization. The NCC has long voiced support for minimum wage laws, environmentalist policies, affirmative action [3], and other policies generally opposed by the political right. In addition, some conservatives object that the Revised Standard and New Revised Standard versions of the Bible, translated under NCC sponsorship, are reflections of theological liberalism. The NRSV has been especially criticized for its tendency toward gender-neutral language. Some criticism from the right includes reputed past support for Marxist regimes, what some critics call a biased policy towards Cuba, and relative silence by the NCC towards political and religious prisoners in countries with left-leaning and totalitarian leadership.[citation needed] The NCC has also been accused of being infiltrated by New Age philosophies.
[edit] Liberal
The NCC has consistently declined to take public positions on issues where there is not consensus among its diverse constituent member bodies, and this results in criticism by some liberal Protestants. One issue raised is that the NCC has declined to extend membership to both the Metropolitan Community Church and Unitarian Universalist Association, organizations whose ministry advocates full participation by gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.
[edit] Online
The NCC provides extensive, searchable online resources through its Web site (http://www.ncccusa.org) and at a membership-based public advocacy Web site, FaithfulAmerica (http://www.FaithfulAmerica.org). Occasional e-mailed updates and newsletters about these services, sent to constituents, sometimes cause critics to accuse the NCC of spamming; however, every such message provides a clearly identified "unsubscribe" option in full compliance with all regulations.
[edit] Member denominations (February 2007)
- African Methodist Episcopal Church -- [4]
- The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church
- Alliance of Baptists -- [5]
- American Baptist Churches USA -- [6]
- Diocese of the Armenian Church of America -- [7]
- Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) -- [8]
- Christian Methodist Episcopal Church -- [9]
- Church of the Brethren -- [10]
- The Coptic Orthodox Church in North America -- [11]
- The Episcopal Church in the United States of America -- [12]
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America -- [13]
- Friends United Meeting -- [14]
- Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America -- [15]
- Hungarian Reformed Church in America -- [16]
- International Council of Community Churches -- [17]
- Korean Presbyterian Church in America
- Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church
- Mar Thoma Church
- Moravian Church in America Northern Province and Southern Province -- [18]
- National Baptist Convention of America -- [19]
- National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. -- [20]
- National Missionary Baptist Convention of America -- [21]
- Orthodox Church in America -- [22]
- Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the USA -- [23]
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends -- [24]
- Polish National Catholic Church of America -- [25]
- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) -- [26]
- Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. -- [27]
- Reformed Church in America -- [28]
- Serbian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A. and Canada -- [29]
- The Swedenborgian Church of North America -- [30]
- Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch -- [31]
- Ukrainian Orthodox Church of America -- [32]
- United Church of Christ -- [33]
- The United Methodist Church -- [34]
