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General Assembly adjourns after adding a new member church; sends messages on Fort Hood tragedy and nuclear disarmament
The General Assembly adjourned Thursday night following the installation of National Council of Churches President Peg Chemberlin and President Elect Kathryn Lohre in St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral here. In its three-day meeting here, the General Assembly voted the Apostolic Catholic Church into membership, adopted a resolution calling for nuclear disarmament, and issued messages regarding the tragedy at Ford Hood, citing the urgency of health care reform, and urging that money saved by international reductions in military spending be used to reduce infant mortality and extreme poverty. The General Assembly also issued a message of appreciation regarding the recent visit of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the U.S. The General Assembly agenda also included a challenging keynote address by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer, Associate Professor of New Testament and Chair of Biblical Studies at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, who also addressed the Clare Randall Women's Luncheon. Bible Study, on I Thessalonians 5:16-18, "Rejoice Always, Pray without ceasing, Give thanks in all circumstances," the Assembly's theme, was led by the Rev. Dr. Charles Amjad-Ali, Martin Luther King Jr. Professor for Justice and Christian Community and Director of Islamic Studies at Luther Seminary in Minneapolis.
Presiding over sessions of the General Assembly were Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, who is finishing his two-year term as NCC President, and Bishop Johncy Itty, chair of the CWS board of directors. The Assembly program was designed by a committee chaired by he Rev. Dr. Raymon Hunt of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Individuals and agencies that have given outstanding service to the ecumenical movement in the United States and around the world were honored Wednesday in a special Assembly awards program. Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, greeted the Assembly on its second day of business and offered his best wishes to The Rev. Peg Chemberlin, executive director of the Minnesota Council of Churches, who was installed as NCC president Thursday night. "We’ll be cheering you on as you take over the reigns of this organization," Pawlenty told Chemberlin. "We know you’ll lead it as you always do, with diligence, and we’re proud of you." The installation Thursday night of the President and President Elect of the National Council of Churches featured welcoming statements by the Very Rev. James L. Jelinek, Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, the Very Rev. Spenser D. Simrill, Dean of St. Mark's Cathedral, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, both Democrats. The Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, Jr., former pastor of The Riverside Church in New York and President of the Healing Nations Foundation, delivered the installation sermon. Fort Hood The General Assembly gathered a week following the violence at Fort Hood, Texas, in which 13 people were killed and 42 injured by gunfire, allegedly by an Army psychiatrist.
The message encouraged "all Christians and religious communities of good will to reach out to one another through personal dialogue, local awareness building, national advocacy advancements, and other means of fostering relationships of trust and mutuality. These are the uncommon responses in the present that will help to shape our collective tomorrow." The General Assembly also acted to ask the NCC General Secretary and CWS Executive Director and CEO to draft a letter of appreciation to Chaplain (Colonel) Michael T. Lembke, the Evangelical Lutheran chaplain who led the pastoral response to the tragedy. Global Securities Act The General Assembly sent a message to Congress and member communions urging support of the Global Security Priorities bill and commending the legislation's sponsors, Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) and Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) The Global Priorities Campaign
is seeking ways to use money saved in reducing military spending to meet
human needs.
Nuclear Disarmament Both the Governing Board of the National Council of Churches and the Board of Directors of Church World service earlier this fall passed identical resolutions calling for nuclear disarmament. (See NCC story here.) The General Assembly unanimously adopted the resolution with the following new conclusion: THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the member communions of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCCC) and Church World Service (CWS), speaking together through their respective governing boards, hereby reaffirm the goal of the total disarmament of nuclear weapons and commit themselves: 1. to ask for commitments toward this end from national, state, and local governmental and ecumenical representatives and agencies.
3. to encourage appropriate working groups/committees to designate nuclear disarmament as a central theme for the 2011 Ecumenical Advocacy Days. 4. to develop measurable outcomes that inform faith-based educational materials. BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President and the General Secretary of the NCCC and the Chairperson and Executive Director/CEO of the CWS communicate this commitment to the President of the United States and congressional leaders. AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the President and the General Secretary of the NCCC and the Chairperson and Executive Director/CEO of the CWS report regularly to the General Assembly regarding their actions toward the end of nuclear disarmament. The full text of the General Assembly resolution is here. Fire Arms Control Concerns about fire arms control were expressed by a panel led by the Rev. Michael Livingston, former president of the National Council of Churches and executive director of the International Council of Community Churches. Panelists included Sylvia Graves, General Secretary of Friends United Meeting; Mor Cyril Aphrem Karim, Archbishop for Eastern U.S., Syrian (Syriac) Orthodox Church of Antioch, and the Rev. NaKeisha Sylver Blount of the NCC and United Church of Christ staff. Recalling the Fort Hood tragedy, Livingston said, "It is not simply that this is tragic; the awful truth, the stark reality is that mass killing is America is commonplace, it is normal. One editorial (in the NY Times) called the shooting, the “latest appalling outrage.” The day after, a disaffected perhaps mentally ill man who had been laid off from his job went back to his former workplace and killed a co-worker and wounded several others. The grotesque is ordinary. Shame on a nation such as this." The full text of Livingston's remarks can be found here. Mountain Top Removal
Next year in New Orleans The 2010 General Assembly -- the first of the General Assembly biennial meetings -- will meet November 9-11, 2010 in New Orleans. The meeting marks 100 years since the meeting of church agencies and mission societies in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910, the gathering church historians describe as the birth of the modern ecumenical movement. The theme of the meeting will be "Witnesses of these things: Ecumenical engagement in a new era."
General Assembly Media Contacts: Photos by Kathleen Cameron |
Minneapolis,
November 16, 2009 -- The General Assembly of the National Council of
Churches and Church World Service, celebrating the biblical call to rejoice,
pray and give thanks, also called upon churches and governments to take
additional steps toward worldwide justice and peace.
Worship
services were conducted in the traditions of the Assembly's Methodist and
Orthodox members, and by the young adult participants in the pre-Assembly
"During extreme crises, we
rightly seek both reasons for their occurrence and justice for the
alleviation of their pain," the message said. "Religious communities of good
will in this country are endeavoring together to comprehensively engage
these crises, and are therefore singularly and deeply pained by the deaths
at Fort Hood."
The Global Securities bill, House Resolution 278, calls for
deep reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, saving at least $13
billion annually, The money saved would be used to reduce child
morality and eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
2.
to engage in international anti-violence advocacy efforts including the
programs and events of the World Council of Churches such as the Decade
for Overcoming Violence.
The
General Assembly affirmed a statement by the West Virginia Council of
Churches condemning the removal of mountain tops as a mining practice. The
Assembly referred the statement to the NCC Justice and Advocacy Commission
for consideration.