c. 1999 Religion News Service
UNDATED _ He is known as a former ambassador, congressman and mayor but the Rev. Andrew Young considers himself, most of all, to be a pastor.”I viewed being in the Congress … like I was pastor of a 435-member church,”said Young, who represented a Georgia district in the 1970s.
As the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Atlanta’s mayor, he considered his negotiations to be a version of the Christian tradition of”breaking bread.” Now, Young, 67, will put his negotiating skills and religious fervor into practice again as the president of the National Council of Churches, an ecumenical organization of 35 Protestant and Orthodox denominations struggling with financial problems and facing organizational challenges.
Young, who worked for the New York-based council in the 1950s before becoming active in the civil rights movement, said the ecumenical body and mainline Protestantism in general are in need of”a dramatic infusion of the spirit,”one that could lead adherents to better address issues such as poverty.”I think American Protestantism is at a crisis moment,”said Young, a member of the United Church of Christ.”It’s not just that people are losing interest in the ecumenical movement. They’re losing interest in their own denominations and they’re losing interest in the mainstream local churches.” But Young’s plans for helping to shape the council and the ecumenical community it represents are now shadowed by his announcement earlier this month (October) that he has”very early cancer of the prostate.” In a letter to the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the council, Young said,”The good news is that my doctor confirms that the disease was detected early and is highly curable.” Campbell said Young, who is scheduled for surgery in December, will be installed Nov. 11 as the president of the council at the group’s General Assembly in Cleveland, but will not participate in an NCC delegation’s trip to Cuba in December. He expects to resume his full schedule after February.
In addition to his work for the council, Young serves as the chairman of GoodWorks International, an Atlanta-based consulting group that fosters economic development in Africa and the Caribbean. The former co-chairman of the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games also is a board member of several organizations, including the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Non-Violent Social Change.
He will become the NCC’s 20th president, serving from 2000-2001 as essentially the chairman of the board of the council, the nation’s pre-eminent church unity agency, poised to celebrate its 50th anniversary but facing a very uncertain future. In recent weeks, the United Methodist Church, the NCC’s largest member denomination, temporarily suspended its funding of the council because of concerns about an expected budget shortfall of about $4 million this year.
Young said he became Atlanta’s mayor when the city was in decline and has been involved in many other challenging situations.”It’s only when we’re at the end of our power and are almost in despair over our own human weakness that we are open to God’s power in our own lives and in our institutions and culture,”he said in a phone interview.
Young’s experience in the corporate and political worlds as well as religious realms was a key factor in the nominating committee’s unanimous endorsement of him as NCC’s president.”I think Andy’s sense of positive leadership and his experience in the corporate world will help us choose the right paths toward steady performance and steady economic support,”said the Rev. Jeffrey R. Newhall, pastor of Greendale People’s Church in Worcester, Mass., and chair of the nominating committee that chose Young.”If ever there was a man called for such a moment as this, it’s Andrew Young.” Bishop J. Clinton Hoggard, a retired bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church who worked in the council’s building on New York’s Riverside Drive when Young was still there in the early 1960s, said Young’s skills as an ambassador will help bring”cohesiveness to the current splintered life of the National Council of Churches.” Young’s first exposure to the council’s work was at a church youth retreat at a camp in Texas, when he was one of only two African-Americans in attendance.
Although he struggled with a decision to leave his work as a pastor in Thomasville, Ga., he took an offer from the NCC in 1957 to work with its youth department.
Young credits his time with the council’s camp programs and staff as”excellent preparation”for his later pursuits _ from becoming media-savvy through NCC’s television production work to learning about the international scene through his involvement with an ecumenical youth assembly in Europe.”He made a remarkable contribution to the lives of a lot of youth when he was on the staff,”recalled Al Cox, now a consultant to the NCC but a former director of youth evangelism who worked with Young in the 1950s.”He was a wonderful counselor and listener and able to talk to teen-agers on their level.” Those listening skills were part of his work as a negotiator during the civil rights movement, his colleagues say.
Lawrence Guyot, a Washington community activist who worked in the movement in Mississippi, recalled that Young was the one used by movement leaders when they wanted a calming presence.”Andy would be sent to stabilize and arrange some parameters with both sides and then Martin Luther King was brought in only if necessary,”said Guyot, whom Young bailed out of a Mississippi jail during the movement.
Young said his work as a negotiator _ which continued through his times in city, national and international posts _ was tied to his beliefs in prayerful consideration and pastoral outreach.”I believe in the power of communion,”he said.”Communion is not just a first-Sunday-of-the-month ritual for me. It’s whenever two or three are gathered, even though everybody might not be gathered in Christ’s name.”The breaking of bread together becomes a sacrament that brings about the presence of the Holy Spirit of Christ, which leads to peace.” Some of the words of King that he heard working by the side of the assassinated civil rights leader remain with Young to this day as he thinks about contributions he could help the council make in society.”Dr. King always said that America cannot continue to exist with so many people isolated on lonely islands of poverty in the midst of this ocean of material wealth,”said Young.”Most of the problems that we’re facing in America derive from those islands of poverty, and we tend to treat the symptoms but not wipe out the poverty.” He hopes attention to the poor can galvanize the various churches affiliated with the council and lead to societal change, just as the council helped spur churches to be involved in the civil rights movement more than three decades ago.”I think now our challenge is to say that poverty is no longer just a political and economic issue, but poverty in America is … a religious and moral issue,”Young said.”In mobilizing to deal with the least of these, God’s children, I think the churches will be empowered in a new way in the 21st century.” (BEGIN FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)
Despite his belief in NCC’s concept of”unity amid diversity,”Young acknowledges it is difficult for groups with vastly different perspectives to come together. A fan of traditional texts in hymns and liturgy, he has found himself uncomfortable with the inclusive language in many United Church of Christ congregations.”When I sit next to my daughter in church and they say `Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise God all creatures here below,’ instead of `Praise him all creatures here below,’ that gets me upset,”said Young, who calls himself a”strong advocate”of women’s equality.”If I am so challenged by the inclusive language on gender, I ought to be understanding of people who are challenged by the … difficulties of bringing people together who are diverse in other ways,”he said.”It’s those of us of every race who are afraid, who are nervous about the breadth and diversity of God’s kingdom, that need to be reassured and recommitted.” (END FIRST OPTIONAL TRIM)
Young continues to be involved in his denomination, helping raise about $21 million for its endowment and serving more recently on the clergy team at First Congregational Church in Atlanta, preaching in a rotation with others.
Though his travel schedule has not always allowed it, Young lets his clergy colleagues know of his availability to step into the pulpit on short notice.”Throughout my political career, I have tried never to turn down an invitation to preach if I’m free ’cause I think that’s my calling,”he said.”If someone’s not feeling good and calls me on a Saturday night … I’m always available.” (BEGIN SECOND OPTIONAL TRIM _ STORY MAY END HERE)
The Rev. Wesley Hotchkiss, a retired general secretary for the United Church Board for Homeland Ministries, finds Young’s continuing ties to the denomination and his general once-a-pastor, always-a-pastor mentality refreshing.”Many people in a field outside the ministry sort of forget that they ever were ministers, but Andy was one of those people who never forgot that he was a clergyperson and maintained that identity even through his other political successes,”Hotchkiss said.
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