Rev. Dr. Robert W. Edgar

November 13, 1999

CLEVELAND—Claremont School of Theology President and former U.S. Representative Robert W. Edgar, an ordained United Methodist elder who describes himself as an optimist, a futurist and a coalition builder, yesterday was elected unanimously to the National Council of Churches' top staff post, that of general secretary.

Effective Jan. 1, 2000, Dr. Edgar, 56, will head the nation's leading ecumenical organization, with headquarters in New York City and a budget of some $60 million a year. Through the NCC, 35 Protestant and Orthodox member communions (denominations) engage together in witness, service and the search for greater Christian unity.

The new general secretary (a salaried position equivalent to that of chief executive officer) will share leadership with Ambassador Andrew Young, installed Nov. 11 to serve in 2000-2001 as NCC president (a non-salaried post). As it happens, Dr. Edgar and Ambassador Young served overlapping terms in Congress, participating together in the Clergy Caucus, which Ambassador Young founded.

Dr. Edgar's election took place during the NCC's 50th anniversary celebration Nov. 9-12, which drew together some 1,000 participants from across the United States and from several countries for worship, study and visioning of ecumenism's future at the turn of the 21st century.

Yet Dr. Edgar also takes office at a time of intense worry about the Council's financial and organizational viability. His nomination (by a 25-member search committee) was confirmed by the NCC's General Assembly, its highest policy-setting board, which also endorsed a plan to radically restructure the Council, cut staff and budget and give greater administrative autonomy to the NCC's largest program, Church World Service.

And, as Dr. Edgar himself noted, few of the nearly 52 million congregants in the NCC's member communions know much, if anything, about the great legacy and ongoing ministries of the National Council of Churches.

Unfazed, Bob Edgar expressed his confidence in the reservoir of "goodwill nationally and internationally to see organizations like the NCC achieve," and said, "I am a person who can help institutions re-envision themselves. I have no issue with the history of the NCC but like all bureaucracies or institutions, simply by nature of how institutions and organizations work, they often need renewal and refreshment."

The NCC's current fiscal challenge "clouds people's remembrance of the great things it has done, and makes fuzzy any vision of the future," he continued. "I may be able to look more clearly at seeing the opportunities of the future, asking what systemic changes can be made where the NCC can be more effective, more connected and more able to leverage its power at the local and regional level for the good of the church, to do for the member communions what they are finding it difficult to do for themselves, to care for needs of people, love neighbor and enemy, seek justice and improve the quality of life on the planet."

Clearly, Dr. Edgar's achievements during his 12-year tenure as President of Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, Calif., caught the NCC's eye as it sought its new general secretary in anticipation of the Rev. Dr. Joan B. Campbell's retirement Dec. 31, 1999, after nine years in that post.

"When I came to Claremont," Dr. Edgar said, "it was just a hiccup away from going out of business. I led in changing the spirit and image of the school around, and now people see it as a model of how to salvage institutions in financial distress."

During this past decade-plus of redevelopment and growth, Claremont has become what Dr. Edgar describes as "the most ecumenical of the Methodist seminaries." Theological schools of five denominations—Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Methodist Church—now share the campus, and more than 30 denominations send students to the school. "We think we do a better-than-adequate job educating Christians for leadership positions in the church," he said.

Dr. Edgar's whole ministry has been "interdenominational and bipartisan," he said, and "my whole life reflects an ecumenical spirit, doing the unexpected, winning the unwinnable race."

In 1974, he was the first Democrat in more than 120 years to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from his heavily Republican district, Pennsylvania's Seventh District. "I got elected as a 'Watergate baby,'" he said, "was re-elected five additional times, then voluntarily stepped down in 1987 from the House because I believe in term limits."

He ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 1986, won the primary despite the fact that he was not his party's endorsed nominee, but lost the election. In spring 1987, as Eugene Lang Visiting Professor for Social Change, he taught a course on the "Politics of the Future" at Swarthmore (Pa.) College. From 1987-88, he served as finance director for Sen. Paul Simon's presidential campaign, and from 1988-90 was Director of the Committee for National Security in Washington, D.C., a national private "think tank."

"I've done a lot of work with Paul Simon and his brother, Art, former head of Bread for the World, on food and hunger issues, and on environmental issues," Dr. Edgar said. While in the U.S. Congress, he led efforts to improve public transportation, authored the Community Right to Know provisions of Super Fund legislation, fought wasteful water projects and supported environmental goals.

He also served as chair of the Congressional Clearinghouse on the Future (1982-86) and as a member of the Select Committee on Assassinations (1976-78), which investigated the deaths of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and President John F. Kennedy. He also served the House Veterans' Affairs Committee and its Subcommittees on Hospitals and Health and on Education, where he co-authored the new GI bill for the all-volunteer service.

Before he was elected to the U.S. Congress, Dr. Edgar was the United Protestant Chaplain at Philadelphia's Drexel University (1971-74) and, from 1972-74, served concurrently as associate pastor at Lansdowne (Pa.) United Methodist Church. During that period he co-founded the People's Emergency Center, Philadelphia's first shelter for women and children, a project that became a national model.

Earlier he was pastor of several United Methodist churches in Pennsylvania. He received the master of divinity degree from the Theological School of Drew University, Madison, N.J., and the bachelor of arts degree in history and religion from Lycoming College, Williamsport, Pa.

A member of Claremont United Methodist Church in Claremont, Calif., he is a member of the United Methodist University Senate and serves on the General Commission on Communications of the United Methodist Church, both based in Nashville. He also is a member of the board of directors of Pacific Media Ministry in San Diego, Calif., and serves on the Advisory Board of the Skirball Institute for American Values in Los Angeles.

The Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky (Orthodox Church in America), chair of the NCC search committee for general secretary, commented that Dr. Edgar's "fresh leadership will be a gift. Moreover, he brings a passionate yet lucid commitment to social justice."

As he anticipates new challenges as the NCC's general secretary, Dr. Edgar said, "My background of 12 years in politics gives me connections with the political and activist elements across the country. My service in higher education brings me in touch with the academic community. I spent several years in the peace and justice community. As a young seminarian, I met Martin Luther King, Jr., and am passionate about civil rights and human rights."

"At the local level, the ecumenical movement is alive and well. People break a common bread and share a common cup, they exchange among traditions, they are interested in a spirituality that doesn't necessarily have a label. As an optimist, I see a great opportunity to connect to that local passion from a national level and find ways to really make a difference. I look forward to working with a lot of people at a variety of levels on what are the local handles for finding ways for the NCC to be helpful and appropriate in shaping the ecumenical vision for the future. Organizing 35 communions and the people in them to take seriously the covenants of the Old and New Testaments is a challenge I'm ready to take on."

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