A first: Muslim, evangelical leaders to address NCC

c. 1996 Religion News Service UNDATED _ The National Council of Churches, the ecumenical agency of 33 mainline Protestant and Orthodox denominations, extends its search for common ground among U.S. religions bodies with two symbolic firsts when it meets next week in Chicago. The council’s General Assembly, which convenes Nov. 13-15, will hear addresses by […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ The National Council of Churches, the ecumenical agency of 33 mainline Protestant and Orthodox denominations, extends its search for common ground among U.S. religions bodies with two symbolic firsts when it meets next week in Chicago.

The council’s General Assembly, which convenes Nov. 13-15, will hear addresses by the Rev. Don Argue, president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) and by Warith Deen Mohammed, leader of Al-Islam, the largest orthodox African-American Muslim organization in the United States.


The three-day meeting of 270 top leaders and delegates is the highest decision-making body of the council and brings together the top leadership from the council’s 33 denominations with some 40 million members.

Argue’s appearance at the NCC marks the first time the leader of the premier cooperative agency of the nation’s conservative Christians has addressed the generally more liberal NCC.

Both Argue and the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the NCC, have made reconciliation and the search for common ground among America’s fractured religious communities main themes of their tenures.

The NCC and the NAE, have historically been divided by sharp theological differences and a sense of mutual suspicion. Those differences have, at times, spilled over into radically different positions on public policy issues.

While Argue’s appearance is largely symbolic and not expected to lead to any immediate proposals for increased cooperation between the two agencies, it could set the stage for presenting a common front on such areas as the religious persecution of Christians and others abroad.

Mohammed’s appearance is also a first for the council.

In addition to speaking, however, Mohammed and the Rev. Will Herzfeld of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, will outline plans for a national African-American Christian-Muslim consultation.

A key part of the NCC’s assembly meeting will be a discussion of the council-led effort to rebuild churches hit by a wave of arsons, predominantly in the south, earlier this year.


The council has been both praised and damned for its efforts; officials and pastors from three of the burned churches will report on the progress of the campaign.

During the meeting, the church leaders will also celebrate the 50th anniversary of Church World Service, the NCC’s disaster relief and humanitarian aid agency that is perhaps best known for its”Cropwalk,”the pioneer of walking and running fund-raising programs.

The Rev. Desmond Tutu, Nobel peace prize winner and Anglican archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, will lead the CWS jubilee celebration.

On public policy matters, the assembly will discuss the next steps for churches as the controversial welfare reform measure passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton is implemented. The council and most of its member churches strongly opposed by the legislation.

JC END ANDERSON

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!