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Veteran ecumenical mentors honored
in New York Circles of Names reception


New York, June 15, 2011-- Three women with long experience and many devoted admirers in the ecumenical movement were honored here June 14 at the National Council of Churches’ “Circles of Names” recognition reception in The Interchurch Center.

 

Attended by nearly 100 guests, the reception also served as a fundraiser for women’s ministry and gender justice programs at the NCC.

 

The three women honored at the New York reception were Marge Christie, an Episcopal educator and communicator from Newark, N.J.; Lois McCullough Dauway, a Methodist activist, leader in the UMC's Division of Women's Ministries, and former assistant general secretary of the National Council of Churches for justice and liberation; and Peggy L. Shriver, a Presbyterian writer, researcher and former assistant general secretary of the National Council of Churches.

 

Dauway, who is recovering from a recent illness, was not present but observed the meeting by video hook-up. The United Methodist Board of Global Ministries provided space for the gathering, as well as video streaming of the event.

 

The reception is one of several gatherings being held around the country. The Circles of Names campaign is a project of the NCC to create a circle of support for women's ministries by asking a thousand persons to give $100 in the name of a woman who helped shape their faith. In so doing, the campaign will lift up the stories of a thousand women as sources of inspiration and empowerment of the churches' witness for gender justice. 

 

The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC general secretary, welcomed the participants and thanked them for their ongoing support of gender justice ministries in the NCC and in NCC member communions.

 

Following the introductions of the three honorees, participants in the gathering were invited to honor women who have been important in their spiritual development.

 

Christie, a long time leader in the Episcopal Church, both nationally and in the diocese of Newark, heard a greeting from the Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop and primate of the Episcopal Church, read by the Rev. Canon C.K. Robertson, canon to the presiding bishop.

 

In expressing appreciation for the honor, Christie said she hoped the Circles of Names campaign will encourage the continuation of programs of justice for women.

 

A surprise guest at the New York reception was the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, Dean of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, who was one of the honorees at a similar meeting in Cleveland last week. "Marge Christie has had a major influence on my life and I wanted to come to tell her that," Lind said.

 

Dauway, who communicated with the gathering in front of a video camera, sat next to Harriett Olson, head of the women's division of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Olson said Dauway had "made a big imprint on United Methodist women."

 

Clare J. Chapman, deputy general secretary and chief counsel of the NCC, also a Methodist, said Dauway had a knack for "making the local global and the global local." Dauway never lost her temper, even in tense discussions, Chapman said, praising her leadership style. "But you knew that when she raised her finger, with a certain expression on her face, she was about to reboot the conversation."

 

The Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, a former member of the NCC staff, praised Peggy Shriver for her self-effacing leadership and communication skills. "Her prose was legendary and her poetry is soaring," Lindner said.

 

Lindner joked that she thought so much of Shriver that "I asked her to write the epilogue to my first book. It was a terrible mistake. The epilogue was stronger than the book." The ecumenical movement owes Shriver "an incalculable debt," Lindner said.

 

Representatives from Aetna came to the reception to present the NCC with a check for $25,000 to help create tools NCC member communions can use to generate ideas and implement action plans to promote racial and ethnic health care equality in communities around the U.S.  These tools will target maternal health issues. 

 

Maternal health care in the USA is among the worst of the top 40 industrialized nations, even though the U.S. spends the most money on health care, said Miguel A. Centeno, MPA, Aetna's regional director, Northeast, Community Relations & Urban Marketing.

"Aetna looks forward to working with the National Council of Churches on this very important issue," Centeno said.

 

The program would be implemented in three NCC program areas: the NCC Health Task Force, the Justice for Women Working Group and the Racial Justice Program. 

 

The New York City area Circles of Names Steering Committee includes Suzanne Campise, Clare Chapman, Esq., the Rev. Deborah DeWinter, Joan Gardner, Karen Hessel, the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, the Rev. Dr. Eileen Lindner, Meagan Manas, Paula Mayo, the Rev. John L. McCullough, Harriett Olson, Esq., Edna Palmer, Wesley M. "Pat" Pattillo, the Rev. Dr. Larry Pickens, Ammon Ripple, the Rev. Canon Charles K. Robertson, Andris Salter, Shirley Struchen and the Rev. Clara Wong.

 



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

 

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