Church Women United links shake-up to financial problems
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, January 18, 2001
The nation’s largest ecumenical women’s movement appears to be in financial trouble, according to information sent to The Presbyterian Layman Jan. 17.
A fax copy of a letter by Church Women United President Jerrye Gray Champion said the organization’s board had moved quickly to fire its five top staff members “while the possibility for financial recovery still existed.”
On Dec. 19, The Layman broke the national story about the shake-up at Church World Service. But Champion and other leaders of the organization would not divulge why the staff leaders had been fired, and Champion would not consent to a telephone interview with The Layman.
Her Jan. 17 fax of a copy of a letter dated Jan. 11 still did not divulge the details of the staff firings, but it did reveal that there was a financial connection.
“As you are well aware, the board has fiduciary responsibility at all times to make decisions in the interest of the movement,” she wrote, “and the board believed that immediate action must be taken while the possibility for financial recovery still existed. Support within the board for the action taken was overwhelming.”
Champion’s letter included no additional information about the staff firings. She asked supporters of Church Women United to understand that the organization’s board intends to “treat personnel information as private and confidential.”
Church Women United includes the national organization and state and local affiliates and is supported financially by most mainline Protestant denominations.
The offices of Church Women United are on the fifth floor of what’s known as the “God Box” on Riverside Drive in uptown New York City. The National Council of Churches, which has had its own financial crisis, occupies the first floor of the building.
The movement that eventually became Church Women United began in December 1941, a few days after Pearl Harbor, essentially as a summons for women to pray. It was originally named the United Council of Church Women. In 1950, the council joined with 11 other interdenominational agencies to form the National Council of Churches. In 1996, the organization separated from the National Council of Churches and became autonomous as Church Women United.
Church Women United is best known for three annual worship services, World Day of Prayer, May Fellowship Day and World Community Day. Offerings at the services, held throughout the nation, help underwrite some of the national organization’s costs. The PCUSA and several other denominations make annual contributions.