c. 1999 Religion News Service

CLEVELAND _ The nominee to be the new general secretary of the National Council of Churches has some harsh words for the nation’s leading ecumenical agency, calling it a”35-hump camel”_ a reference to its 35 member denominations.

Addressing the NCC’s organizational problems, the Rev. Bob Edgar, a United Methodist who has spent the last nine years as president of the Claremont School of Theology in Claremont, Calif., said he was not surprised”that (the organization) doesn’t work.” Why”should we expect a 35-hump camel to work?”he said.”Of course it’s going to walk a little crooked. But we should celebrate what it has done,”he said, citing the organization’s civil rights work, commitment to justice for the poor, and its translation of what is considered to be the most accurate version of the Bible available.

Edgar, a blunt-speaking, savvy nine-term former member of Congress from Pennsylvania, will be formally nominated Friday (Nov. 12) to replace the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, who is leaving after nine years as general secretary.

In an interview with RNS Wednesday (Nov. 10), Edgar said he would bring major management and administrative changes to the NCC, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this week in Cleveland, the city where it was born.

Edgar provided few specifics about what the changes might include.

As it celebrates its past, the council is gripped by a financial crisis, including a deficit of $4 million, a lack of confidence among some of its major member denominations and an uncertain vision about its future.

The crisis, which has been building for several years, was brought to a head last month when the United Methodist Church, the council’s largest contributor, announced it was suspending payment of some $340,000 to the council. Edgar called the Methodist action a”sledgehammer”and said he hoped the funds are restored”quickly.” He compared the council to a man standing on a cliff with one foot over the edge.”The first thing you do is bring that foot back,”he said. And, switching metaphors, added,”and you walk up the hill slowly, not quickly.” Edgar called himself a”salvager”who can bring back troubled institutions, as he is credited with doing at Claremont. He also labeled himself an optimist, futurist and coalition builder _ skills he said can help repair the damaged relations between the NCC’s national office and its member denominations, as well as improve outreach to Roman Catholics, Pentecostals and evangelicals Protestants who historically have not been part of the established ecumenical movement.

He will join former Atlanta mayor and civil rights pioneer Andrew Young, who will be installed Thursday evening as the NCC’s new president, in heading the organization’s new management team.

Earlier on Wednesday, the council opened its General Assembly _ its highest policy-making body _ and quickly adopted a policy statement on interreligious relations meant to guide both the council and its member denominations in their relationships with non-Christian bodies.

The 7,500-word statement acknowledges the tension between the Christian commitment to evangelism and the respect for other faiths in a religiously diverse world.

It affirms”that the integrity of our Christian faith and commitment is to be preserved in all our interfaith relationships”and recommits the NCC and its member communions to”pursue religious liberty and religious freedom for all.” It comes at a time when renewed attention is being focused on issues of interreligious relations, prompted in part by Pope John Paul II’s visit to India, where increased Hindu-Christian strife has resulted in violence over the past year, and the Southern Baptist Convention’s publication of guidelines for praying for the conversion of non-Christians.

Noting that the impulse to evangelize is often voiced in the Christian commitment to love of neighbor, the statement says,”We do not always agree, however, on how best to love our neighbors.”Commitment to justice and mutual respect is the paramount consideration for some,”the statement said.”For them the practice of Christian love is the most powerful witness to the truth of the gospel. Others, while not denying the witness of faithful lives, believe that love demands the verbal proclamation of the Gospel and an open invitation to all people to be reconciled to God in Christ. Still others understand evangelization as our participation in God’s transformation of human society.” The statement said, however, that”we all must seek to avoid ways of interaction which do violence to the integrity of human persons and communities, such as coercive proselytism, which violates the right of the human person, Christian or non-Christian, to be free from external coercion in religious matters.” It also condemned”all forms of religious, ethnic and racial bias, especially anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-Asian and anti-Native American bias, and other forms of sinful bigotry which turn religious differences into excuses for defamation, stereotyping and violence.” Interreligious dialogue, the statement said, involves risk.”When we approach others with an open heart, it is possible that we may be hurt,”it said.”When we encounter others with an open mind, we may have to change our positions or give up certainty, but we may gain new insights.” Adoption of the statement came after many of the 1,000 people registered for the Nov. 9-12 meeting attended a dramatic worship service of reconciliation in Cleveland’s historic Old Stone Presbyterian Church bringing together Korean survivors of the No Gun Ri massacre and U.S. veterans who allegedly participated in the killing.

Some 400 people were killed in the July 26-29, 1950 Korean War massacre, which survivors say was carried out by U.S military personnel.

At the”Service of Reconciliation and Remembrance,”leaders of the NCC and the National Council of Churches of Korea issued a joint statement praising the veterans who have come forward to corroborate the survivors’ accounts, and to urge South Korean and U.S. government authorities”to rise to the challenge of revealing the truth.””The history of our two nations has not been without deceit, especially when national security is said to be at stake,”the joint statement said.

The NCC, acting on the request of the Korean council, had pushed the U.S. government to investigate the survivors’ claims but was repeatedly told no such incident had occurred. Earlier this fall, the Associated Press, citing U.S. veterans accounts, reported the incident and the initiation of a probe into the allegations by the Defense Department.”We thank you (God) that we have witnessed here as a congregation in the Old Stone Presbyterian Church new possibilities of reconciliation between the people of the United States and the Korean people,”the congregation prayed.

IR END ANDERSON