Woodbridge, NJ—The National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America (NCCCUSA, hereafter NCC) has elected new individuals to fill its two top offices for the next quadrennium (2008–2011). The Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, the NCC’s next general secretary, and Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, the next president, and were elected and installed on November 8. They took office at a difficult time for an organization struggling with financial pressures and lack of participation by member communions.
The elections and installation service occurred near the conclusion of the NCC’s 2007 General Assembly, which was held over a three-day period in Woodbridge, NJ. Kinnamon, a seminary professor from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), will replace Acting General Secretary Clare Chapman, who is fulfilling a term originally held by the Rev. Bob Edgar. Aykazian, a top official in the Diocese of the Armenian Church in America (Eastern), will succeed the outgoing Rev. Michael Livingston.
Archbishop Vicken Aykazian (l) and the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon are installed as president and general secretary, respectively, of the National Council of Churches. |
Edgar had engendered controversy by increasing the NCC’s reliance on secular, politically liberal foundations for financial support. The move initially helped the NCC financially, but the picture of the organization’s finances presented at the 2007 General Assembly was an almost unremittingly bleak one. Livingston spoke of reorganization and staff cuts on the first day, warning, “It’s been frustrating, the tension, conflict, and we’re surely not beyond that … in the future.” Chapman presented a similar picture, saying that the council “face[s] difficult days ahead.” Lack of participation by member communions was also a primary concern for the NCC leaders.
The NCC faced increasing criticism in recent years for emphasizing liberal political and social action at the expense of the Christian gospel. That concern led the Antiochan Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America to withdraw from the NCC in July 2005.
The elections of Kinnamon and Aykazian could be interpreted as reactions to such concerns. Both men presented calls to Christian unity as a focal point of their vision for the NCC. At the banquet that followed the installation, Aykazian spoke of the failure of liberal utopian views, lamenting: “We Christians, we thought the 20th century was going to be a century of peace and prosperity, and we were wrong! … [The 20th century was] a century of bloodshed.”
Earlier, at the installation service, Kinnamon reported that a Jewish friend recently told him, “Right now, you Christians are a testimony to fragmentation,” not unity. The new general secretary spoke of the need for deeper unity among the NCC member communions in understanding each others’ theology and in praying for each other. He seemed to imply that unity would have to go deeper than the cooperation on liberal social action that has characterized the NCC.
It remains to be seen whether Kinnamon and Aykazian will lead the NCC to a broader Christian unity than one that is grounded in liberal responses to social ills. (The majority of the assembly centered on such activism.) They take office at a time when the NCC is struggling with its identity and is facing major financial difficulties. During his installation charge, Kinnamon said that the organization was “alive and well” and “on a sound financial footing.” Livingston and Chapman had made it clear, however, that the next few years would be difficult ones for the council.
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