November 11, 1999

CLEVELAND—Justice "never comes easily, never without struggle," said the Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell in a sermon here. "But justice comes – just as surely as the scripture says to us. It will roll down." Dr. Campbell preached for the morning worship service Wednesday Nov. 10) at the 50th anniversary meeting of the National Council of Churches of Christ (NCC).

Campbell recalled a time in the 1960s when she had never heard of the NCC. She was a member of a Cleveland congregation’s voter registration committee. The NCC funded the registration drive for the vote that elected Carl B. Stokes, the first African American mayor of a major U.S. city. She said she savors the irony that she went on to become the general secretary of the NCC.

Dr. Campbell invited the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to speak at her congregation that season. Dr. King was in town in support of the Stokes campaign; he commented that he had never been asked to speak in a white Cleveland congregation. From the audience, Dr. Campbell raised her hand and extended the invitation. She said her own justice journey, including her service as NCC general secretary, began when she raised her hand that day.

Dr. Campbell’s sense of justice is informed by her theology. "It was not learned in the classroom," she said. When people around the world take part in the Lord’s Supper, and the celebrant says "These are the gifts of God for the people of God," there are no adjectives. "The lessons of justice are taught to us every time we break the bread – every time we drink the wine," she said.

Anthony Mattox, a student at Heights High School, Cleveland Heights, and a member of the United Group, also spoke, and the Rt. Rev. Arthur Williams of the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio served as the liturgist at the morning worship service.