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1999 NCC News Archives

Mayors' Sept. 9 March for Effective Gun Control Legislation

NCC Contributes Interfaith Group to Speak, Pray in Support

National Council of Churches General Secretary the Rev. Dr. Joan B. Campbell and other leaders from the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities will join U.S. mayors and police chiefs on the U.S. Capitol steps at noon Sept. 9 to call on Congress to support responsible and effective gun control legislation.

Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb, who also serves as the President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM), asked the NCC to send representatives to the Sept. 9 event and also to encourage its membership to organize a national one-hour noon-time prayer vigil in communities throughout the nation to pray for victims of gun violence and to "for Congress to listen to the wishes of the American public."

Said Dr. Campbell, who will speak at the Sept. 9 event, "I replied immediately to Mayor Webb with an enthusiastic ‘Yes!’ The National Council of Churches has spoken out repeatedly over the years in favor of gun control and has addressed many specific incidents of gun violence.

"We welcome the opportunity to stand with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and to call our 35 Protestant and Orthodox member denominations and their 52 million members to prayer and activism," she said.

Besides Dr. Campbell, the Rev. Dr. Staccato Powell (New York, NCC Associate General Secretary for National Ministries), and the Rev. C. Mackey Daniels (Louisville, Ky.) of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc., will represent the NCC at the Sept. 9 event. The NCC has requested The Interfaith Alliance to participate and to name Muslim and Jewish representatives to the U.S. Capitol event. Confirmed are the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy (Washington, D.C.), TIA’s Executive Director, a Baptist, and Imam Gaith Kashif (Washington, D.C.), Imam of Masjid As-Shura.

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