This is the first of two articles about the 2014 NCC Christian Unity Gathering. To read about the NCC focus on mass incarceration, please click here.
Seeking to rebound from an extended period of difficulty and reorganization, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) convened this week inaugurating a new structure, president and mission focus. Meeting outside Washington, D.C., the gathering of approximately 200 church officials and representatives sought to highlight the council’s efforts working against mass incarceration.
The NCC Christian Unity Gathering was the first national event for the ecumenical council since it met in New Orleans in 2010. Financial shortfalls precipitated the conclusion or spinoff of many council programs and reduced staff to six persons.
NCC General Secretary and President Jim Winkler gave an inaugural address during a midday celebration service at the conference. As head of the United Methodist Church public policy arm in Washington, the General Board on Church and Society (GBCS), Winkler already had close ties to the NCC. Both organizations are headquartered in the Capitol Hill United Methodist building.
The council’s focus on mass incarceration, Winkler explained, “is rooted in its commitment to civil rights and Jesus’ commitment to proclaiming relief for the captives and freedom of the oppressed.”
“Most of our member communions have long been struggling with membership loss,” Winkler acknowledged. “Were our churches to have members waiting outside every day the nearly 5,000 jails and prisons in this nation, ready and willing to welcome and aid the more than 600,000 people who are released each year, not only would we reverse membership loss, we would be more fully living out the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Winkler also highlighted the other of the NCC’s two priorities: interreligious relations with a focus on peace.
“This requires us to confront powerful systems of domination and to be in solidarity with those who find themselves working for peace – often in the midst of war,” the incoming NCC President stated.
Noting that the Nigerian girls abducted by Islamist extremist group Boko Haram were from a Church of the Brethren school, Winkler stated that “each of us are imagining them as our own daughters.”
“The Nigerian church is engaged in some peacemaking work that will close the gap in those communities between Muslim and Christian neighbors,” Winkler shared. “In the midst of the crisis is the church. They are steadfast in their faith as nonviolent disciples of Jesus Christ, seeking to reconcile the brokenness between humanity and God and humanity to itself. It is a tremendous demonstration of faith. Oh, how I yearn for a people of this depth of faith in the United States, where our allegiances are clearly devoted towards God and not to a nation state.”
Winkler celebrated how a Muslim Imam in the Central African Republic has been taken in by the Roman Catholic bishop after his home was attacked by “Christian extremists.” The new NCC president also affirmed Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and Episcopal Church colleagues “as they respond to the unfolding tragedy in the Sudan.”
Lastly, Winkler said he stood alongside Armenian Christians mourning deaths in the village of Kessab, Syria where churches were desecrated and believers murdered. Winkler said the council has called upon the U.S. government to address the violence committed against civilians in Syria.
“Ecumenism for so many people is not a concept,” Winkler asserted. “It is a deep and important reality.”
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