Garland F. Pierce to leave NCC education position in May
to join staff of World Council of Churches general secretary

New York, February 16, 2011 -- The Rev. Garland F. Pierce, National Council of Churches associate general secretary, Education and Leadership Ministries, will leave that position in May to join the staff of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland.

The announcement was made in a letter to NCC board and staff by the NCC General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, who said Pierce has been "a highly-valued and effective member of the NCC staff."

Pierce has accepted a call to be senior assistant to the World Council of Churches General Secretary, the Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit.

The position is similar to one held by Jean S. Stromberg in the 1980s and 1990s under former WCC General Secretary Emilio Castro. When Stromberg directed the WCC's U.S. office in New York, she introduced Pierce to ecumenical work when she appointed him a young adult intern in 1995.

Pierce joined the National Council of Churches staff in 2003 as associate director of the Education and Leadership Ministries Commission. His responsibilities then included program ministry administration and planning, program interpretation, advocacy for Christian education, leader development and ecumenical formation, staff support for the NCC Inclusiveness and Justice Standing Committee, and staff support to NCC General Assembly Caucuses, Young Adult, Racial/Ethnic, and Historic Black Churches.

Pierce's travels during his tenure as a member of the WCC staff, and later as an AME delegate and member of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, included meetings in Brazil, Zimbabwe, Thailand, Tonga, Cuba, Greece and elsewhere.

Before he joined the WCC U.S. Office, Pierce was Youth Minister at Greater Bethel AME Church in Nashville from 1994-1995. He was a curriculum Resource Specialist in the AME Department of Christian Education in Nashville from 1993-1995.

Pierce holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Furman University, Greenville, S.C., and the Master of Divinity degree from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and he is a Ph.D student at Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, Calif. He was interim director of the Claremont McNair Scholars Program in 2002. Pierce served as Youth Minister of First AME Church, Pasadena, Calif.

Kinnamon said Pierce "will certainly be missed on this side of the Atlantic!

"At the same time, we celebrate the opportunity this represents for him to pursue ecumenical ministry in a global setting. This new position means that Garland will accompany the WCC General Secretary, Olav Fykse Tveit, on official travel, serve as liaison for staff relations, work on communications and media matters, and assist with the General Secretary’s messaging. And be another good friend for the NCC in Geneva!"

Pierce will be with the NCC through the end of April, concluding his work with the National Council by guiding a major ELMC Futuring Consultation.

"This event will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the merger of the World Council on Christian Education with the WCC, a visible sign that education belongs alongside faith and order, life and work, and mission and evangelism in the vision of the ecumenical movement," Kinnamon said. "It will be a fitting culmination to his ministry at the National Council."

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC's 37 member communions -- 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 Photo by Kathleen Cameron

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