President Obama names Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw
to International Religious Freedom Commission

Washington, June 29, 2010 -- The Rev. Dr. William J. Shaw, a former member of the National Council of Churches Governing Board and immediate past president of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., has been named to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom by President Obama. 

Shaw, who has been pastor of White Rock Baptist Church in Philadelphia since 1956, also served as a member of the President’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. 

He served on the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund and is currently a member of the board of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Shaw has served as president of the Baptist Minister’s Conference of Philadelphia and Vicinity, the Metropolitan Christian Council of Philadelphia, and the Union Theological Seminary National Alumni Association. 

From 1981 through 1994, Dr. Shaw served as Director of the Ministers’ Division of the National Congress of Christian Education. He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including most recently, the Unitas Award, given by the Alumni Association of the Union Theological Seminary and the T. B. Maston Foundation Christian Ethics Award from the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.                         

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for ecumenical cooperation among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 36 member faith groups — from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches — include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office), 646-853-4212 (cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org