NCC seeks to forge ecumenical alliance through the bond of poverty
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, October 6, 2000
NEW YORK – The executive board of the National Council of Churches has decided that poverty may be the ramp to ecumenical collaboration and a new financial lease on life.
During its meeting Oct. 2-3 in New York, the board voted on two related measures: 1) a call for a broad-based ecumenical “mobilization” to eliminate poverty and 2) talks with evangelicals, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics aimed at using the poverty issue to forge wider ecumenical collaboration.
Earlier this year, Robert Edgar, the NCC’s new general secretary, was suggesting that children become the uniting theme in the struggling mainline ecumenical movement. At that time, he and other NCC leaders were media stars because of their efforts to get the United States to send Elian Gonzalez back to Communist Cuba. “A little child shall lead them” was one of his favorite lines for the press.
But now, facing the urgency of forging some kind of ecumenical alliance, possibly rescuing what’s left of the NCC from its impending financial ruin, Edgar is counting on poverty to bond Christian groups that have rarely seen eye to eye. All Christians want to help the poor, Edgar told the executive board.
After numerous editorial changes, the executive board approved his “Proposed Plan and Timeline for a Protocol on the Mobilization to Overcome Poverty to Present to the General Assembly.” Also with numerous editorial changes, the board approved a resolution titled “Expanding the Ecumenical Vision.” The General Assembly of the NCC will meet in Atlanta in November to consider the proposal.
The ecumenical vision resolution, originally titled “Expanding the Ecumenical Table,” calls for a meeting in 2001 to include the NCC, evangelicals – particularly the National Association of Evangelicals – Pentecostals and Roman Catholics. The resolution was thoroughly and cautiously rewritten so that evangelicals, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics would not draw the impression that the NCC is trying to gather them under its wing.
The board also chided Edgar for being overly aggressive in his public comments about the possibility of a collaborative effort among the different Christian constituencies in the U.S. He was quoted by The Los Angeles Times as saying that the NCC would be “disbanded” and a new ecumenical organization would take its place.
Since its financial crisis was disclosed in 1999, the NCC has looked for opportunity to forge some kind of ecumenical alliance that might provide more financial support and greater credibility for its work. But there are deep theological differences between the NCC and the evangelicals, Pentecostals and Roman Catholics.
“While we disagree on lots and lots of issues, we are all working and speaking to the issue of poverty,” Edgar said. “What if we find a way to come to the table, talk about our commonality and differences? And as we learn more about each other, at the time we’re building that table, is there one issue that would bring us together? Who else is going to care about the poor?”
In an ecumenical thrust of its own, the National Association of Evangelicals announced recently that it would open its membership to denominations now affiliated with the National Council of Churches. But that invitation does not guarantee admission – the applying denomination would have to subscribe to the NAE’s statement of faith, which describes Scripture as the “infallible word of God.”