National Council of Churches


The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, usually identified as the National Council of Churches, is the largest ecumenical body in the United States. NCC is an ecumenical partnership of 38 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member communions include mainline Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, African-American, evangelical, and historic peace churches. Together, it encompasses more than 100,000 local congregations and 40 million adherents. It began as the Federal Council of Churches in 1908, and expanded through merger with several other ecumenical organizations to become the National Council of Churches in 1950. Its Interim President and General Secretary is Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie.

History

The first efforts at ecumenical organization emerged in May 1908 with the creation of the Federal Council of Churches. The FCC was created as a response to "industrial problems" that arose during the rapid industrialization of the United States. The primary concern was the protection of workers in a host of areas including wages, working conditions, child labor, and a six-day work week.
During the next 40 plus years, FCC remained engaged in the domestic social problems of the day as well as international problems that threatened to draw the US into war. Its progressive social program along with support of conscientious objectors to World War II garnered stiff criticism from Christian fundamentalist circles. By 1950, numerous programs and efforts of social uplift had formed in addition to the FCC. Seeking greater unity, a dozen ecumenical bodies gathered in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1950 to discuss how to more effectively organize their common work. Out of this meeting, via the merger of the Federal Council of Churches with several other ecumenical bodies, emerged the NCC.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, the National Council of Churches received some funding from the "Foundation for Youth and Student Affairs", a front funded by the CIA to oppose communism.

Membership

The council's 38 member communions include mainline Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, African-American, evangelical, and historic peace churches. Individual adherents of more than 50 Christian faith groups actively participate in NCC study groups, commissions, and ministries. Some of these participants belong to Christian faith groups such as the Catholic Church, fundamentalist groups, Southern Baptists, and Missouri Synod Lutherans, which are not officially a part of the council's membership.
All NCC member organizations subscribe to the NCC's statement of faith, which forms the preamble to the NCC's charter:

Social and political advocacy

The Social Creeds

Since its founding in 1950, one of the primary activities of NCC has been to effect positive change for the betterment of society. Adopted in December 1908, "The Social Creed of the Churches" was a statement by members of the Federal Council of Churches against what it described as "industrial problems". The document spelled out a list of principles, including:
  • Equal rights and complete justice for all men in all stations of life
  • Protection of the worker from dangerous machinery, occupational disease, injuries, and mortality
  • Abolition of child labor
  • Regulation of the conditions of toil for women as shall safeguard the physical and moral health of the community
  • A living wage as a minimum in every industry
  • Provision for the old age of the workers and for those incapacitated by injury
  • Abatement of poverty
In 2007, the NCC updated its social creed to reflect a new era of globalization. The goal was to "offer a vision of a society that shares more and consumes less, seeks compassion over suspicion and equality over domination, and finds security in joined hands rather than massed arms." In addition to those areas mentioned in the 1908 creed, the "Social Creed for the 21st Century" included additional principles, including:
These creeds have formed the basis, growing out of a common Christian faith, of the work of the NCC in public policy matters.

The NCC in Washington

For a number of years, the NCC maintained a separate policy advocacy office in Washington, D.C. Located in the United Methodist Building on Capitol Hill, the NCC Washington Office served as an ecumenical hub through which it could interact with the numerous denominational policy offices also located in the Methodist Building. Its work centered on areas mentioned in the creeds but also primarily focused around two programs, Eco-Justice and the Ecumenical Poverty Initiative. Both of these programs have been spun off into separate independent organizations since NCC restructuring in 2013.
NCC partners with dozens of other faith-based groups in DC and elsewhere, 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 2018, the council issued a statement opposing the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

Civil rights movement

NCC was closely aligned with leaders in the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Andrew Young. The NCC was an important link to mainline churches for the civil rights movement and it consistently condemned segregation during the Montgomery bus boycott and other actions. In a speech to NCC in 1957, King thanked the NCC for its support: "This great body—the National Council of Churches—has condemned segregation over and over again, and has requested its constituent denominations to do likewise."
The NCC continued to be closely intertwined with the civil rights movement throughout the 1950s and 1960s. NCC created a Race Relations Sunday to educate and call to action mainline Christians nationwide. In 1961, Andrew Young left his position with the National Council of Churches to join the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, eventually becoming that organization's executive director. When the Civil Rights Act was introduced in 1964, NCC lobbied heavily for its swift adoption. In January 1963, the NCC together with the Synagogue Council of America and the National Catholic Welfare Conference, convened the National Conference on Religion and Race, which issued An Appeal to the Conscience of the American People for a moral end to racism. From 1966 until 1973 Olivia P. Stokes was associate director of urban education in the NCC's Department of Educational Development, developing the Black Curriculum Resource Center. W. Sterling Cary, the first Black president of the NCC who was elected in 1972, was a vocal advocate for racial justice and the Black Power movement.

Vietnam War

Since its inception, the NCC had been skeptical of the usefulness of war. During World War II, the Federal Council of Churches formed a Committee on Conscientious Objectors to advocate for the right of people of faith to refuse military service. During the Vietnam War, the NCC found itself in opposition to growing US military action. In 1965, the General Board stated that "unilateral action by the United States in Southeast Asia will not lead to peace." The NCC's position against the Vietnam War became increasingly strident in the 1960s and 1970s, and in some cases, alienated the laity of some member communions.

Middle East peace

NCC has been a consistent supporter of a negotiated solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. In partnership with the World Council of Churches, it has traditionally sought to balance its approach, seeking safety and protection for both the Jewish and Palestinian communities. It has focused on meeting needs of the victims of this conflict in all communities and supporting continued negotiations. Since the late 1960s the NCC has taken positions sympathetic towards Palestinian land rights and supportive of a secure Israel.
More recently, NCC has been particularly concerned with the plight of Christian communities in the region. Some of NCC's member communions have congregations or partners in the region that are being directly affected. However, the NCC's "witness to the need for vigilance in brokering peace extends to our concern for all people in the region, whether they be Christians, Jews, Muslims, Baháʼís or others, and whether they be Israelis, Palestinians, Syrians, Egyptians, or others."

Poverty

The council has supported many poverty alleviation efforts, including increases to the minimum wage and ecumenical efforts such as the Circle of Protection and the Faithful Budget Campaign. In 2013, during restructuring, NCC spun off its department dealing with poverty issues into a new organization, the Ecumenical Poverty Initiative. NCC continues its work on poverty through its support of EPI as well as partnerships with other likeminded organizations.

Environment

During the oil crisis of the 1970s, NCC issued a statement in which it called for "Ecological Justice". The statement called for more work on renewable energy, reductions in energy sources that pollute, and support for energy sources that did not have adverse effects on communities. This statement helped form the basis for the creation of the NCC's Eco-Justice program. Housed in the NCC Washington Office, the program focused on federal environmental policy. In 2013, the Eco-Justice program was spun off into its own organization, Creation Justice Ministries. CJM continues to work with NCC and its 38 member communions to coordinate efforts to protect the environment.