NEWS STORY: Black Pentecostal denomination considering NCC membership

c. 1998 Religion News Service UNDATED _ In what could signal a major breakthrough in ecumenical relations, the Church of God in Christ, the nation’s largest black Pentecostal denomination, is considering an invitation to join the National Council of Churches, the nation’s premier ecumenical agency. The invitation to COGIC was offered April 15 by the […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ In what could signal a major breakthrough in ecumenical relations, the Church of God in Christ, the nation’s largest black Pentecostal denomination, is considering an invitation to join the National Council of Churches, the nation’s premier ecumenical agency.

The invitation to COGIC was offered April 15 by the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the 34-member NCC, at a meeting with the Pentecostal denomination’s leaders during its general assembly in Memphis, Tenn.”My general board is taking it under advisement,”COGIC Presiding Bishop Chandler David Owens said in an interview with RNS.”We had a lengthy and a beautiful discussion with her. She met the top board of our church and it was quite fruitful.” Campbell said the denomination’s size _ it reports 8.5 million members _ as well as its theology and mission objectives mesh nicely with those of other NCC members.”If they were to join, they would be the first Pentecostal church to join and this obviously would be significant in terms of expanding the families of churches that are members of the council,”Campbell said in an interview.


Campbell said if the invitation is accepted, COGIC’s membership would be voted on by representatives of the 34 mainline Protestant, Orthodox and historic black churches of the NCC.

Owens said he did not know exactly when COGIC officials will act on the invitation, but called it”a very important decision for our church.” The Pentecostal denomination has already forged some working ties with the NCC, and during its April 14-16 general assembly officially joined the Black Church Environmental Justice Program, a project of the NCC’s Eco-Justice Working Group and the Black Church Liaison Committee. Owens sent a church representative on its March tour to parts of Louisiana where African-American communities are located near toxic waste dumps.”The more they become involved with us programmatically, the more it makes sense that they would become full members,”Campbell said.

Others ties include working together to rebuild black churches burned in a spate of arsons mostly in the South. Earlier, COGIC representatives joined the NCC when it voiced concerns about South Africa’s former policy of apartheid. The denomination also has had a representative on the NCC’s Faith and Order Commission, which deals with theological issues.”We really are renewing conversations that have had some history,”Campbell said.”As general secretary, I would be enormously pleased if the Church of God in Christ would decide that they wanted to be members of the National Council of Churches.” Campbell said the invitation to COGIC fits into efforts by the NCC to foster relations with Pentecostals in particular and evangelicals in general.”I think we quite rightly feel once you begin to seek unity you never can be complete until you have included as many as possible,”she said.

In 1996, the president of the theologically conservative National Association of Evangelicals addressed the NCC’s General Assembly in Chicago, a first for the two groups.

The NCC tends to be theologically more liberal than the NAE. Owens described his denomination, which is not a member of the NAE, as”tremendously liberal on the social agenda but … ultraconservative when it comes down to our theology.” Campbell said she would like to see COGIC officials”take their place at the table”with other major Christian denominations in the NCC.”I think the Pentecostal piece is missing and I think it’s a very important piece,”she said.”This is also one of the fastest growing churches in the United States. They would be the second-largest member church after the United Methodists.”The United Methodist Church has about 8.5 million members.

Owens said the talks with Campbell clarified some questions COGIC had about the ecumenical group. He said COGIC officials, who generally oppose homosexuality, mistakenly believed the council supported ordination of gay clergy.”We learned that the Council of Churches as a body does not do this but doesn’t speak against member churches doing their own thing,”said Owens.”That made a great difference to us.” Campbell said there have been misunderstandings of NCC positions in the past.”We, for instance, are often quoted as having a position on abortion and we don’t have a position on abortion,”she said.”We are not a church, therefore, issues of ordination are not issues that we can determine. Those are determined by the member churches.”

DEA END BANKS

Donate to Support Independent Journalism!

Donate Now!