National council visit highlights churches' relationships, challenges
Episcopal News Service. October 28, 2008 [102808-02]
Solange De Santis
Stressing that the National Council of Churches (NCC) is not an agency that works for churches, but an organization that reflects churches' commitment to each other, General Secretary Michael Kinnamon on October 27 brought members of the ecumenical group to the Episcopal Church Center in New York on a "getting to know you" visit.
It was the fourth such event since Kinnamon, who is an ordained member of the Disciples of Christ, took office ten months ago, and it brought together representatives of the Episcopal Church, Armenian Orthodox Church, International Council of Community Churches, United Methodist Church and Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Such efforts to build relationships are especially important today, when "churches are more and more tempted to focus on survival and society seems fractured," said Kinnamon in introductory remarks.
Noting that the Episcopal Church is "wrestling with internal tensions and divisions," he described it as "a church in special need of prayer and support." He added that "churches like yours are used to being the givers. We come not to get anything but to give."
Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, of the Armenian Orthodox Church and president of the NCC, said divisions occur in many churches, including his. "Is there any church on earth that has no problems? I don't think so. I have no right to judge you. I may disagree with you, but we are going to solve those problems together and talk together," he told the group of about 20.
Members of two dioceses and about 45 congregations outside of those dioceses have voted to leave the Episcopal Church over theological differences that include the church's stand toward homosexuality.
Episcopal Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said the disagreements "have more to do with a changing understanding of leadership in the church," but the church regrets that some have "chosen to go elsewhere."
She outlined the diverse nature of the Episcopal Church, which includes Europe and 15 countries outside the United States. "The number of Spanish-speaking congregations is larger than ten years ago. Some (dioceses outside the U.S.) began as ministries to expatriate Americans and now worship in the local language," she said.
In Europe, she said, the church is in a full communion relationship with the Old Catholic Churches. Within the United States, she said, the church's General Convention next year will consider a full communion relationship with the Moravian church.
Bishop Christopher Epting, the Episcopal Church's deputy for ecumenical and interfaith relations, said the main avenues of the church's interfaith work is the NCC and the World Council of Churches, since the point of interfaith dialogue is to address, say, Christian-Muslim relations rather than Episcopal Church-Muslim relations. However, often local dialogue and events arise from broader conversations, he said.
Kinnamon said such local initiative has arisen from the "getting to know you" sessions, which have previously included the Armenian Orthodox church, Syrian Orthodox church and Church of the Brethren. The Syrian Orthodox visit resulted in exchanges with a church of that denomination in New Jersey and an African Methodist Episcopal congregation in Harlem, he said.
Turning to the benefits of ecumenical cooperation, the Rev. Nicholas Genevieve-Tweed, a pastor in the Macedonia African Methodist Episcopal Church, said churches need to be a "voice of prophetic witness" to systems of economic and social injustice and "not simply be about ministering to the person battered and beaten on the Jericho road."
Maureen Shea, of the Episcopal Church's Washington, D.C.-based Office of Government Relations, said the church works with other churches to bring a "stronger faith voice on public policy issues" to the seat of American federal government.
Kinnamon said he is working to improve the NCC's ability to speak out on such issues as poverty. In terms of war, he said, "the ecumenical view is that war is contrary to the will of God."
Martha Gardner, of the office of the Anglican Communion Observer at the United Nations, said that the General Assembly's new president, the Rev. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, is a Roman Catholic priest and the "faith voice is more and more recognized."
Kinnamon noted that liturgy is extremely important in the Episcopal context and asked "are there things you would like to see the NCC do to lift up the importance of prayer and worship?"
Ecumenical worship can be difficult, said Epting. Some faith traditions, for instance, bar taking communion with members of other denominations. However, Jefferts Schori said that the continued use of the Episcopal baptismal covenant's call to respect the dignity of every human being and strive for justice and peace "has changed the ethos of this church." Kinnamon asked that it be made available to the NCC.
In developing further ideas about the challenges to today's churches and the benefits of ecumenical cooperation, Jefferts Schori talked about "thinking creatively about forms of faith communities that may be ecumenical, not solely Anglican or AME (African Methodist Episcopal)."
The Rev. Michael Livingston, executive director of the International Council of Community Churches and immediate past president of the NCC, spoke of a retirement community that created a non-denominational worship space and said such initiatives are attracting "people who don't want to choose and who don't feel 'brand loyalty'" to a particular faith tradition.
Founded in 1950, the NCC's 35 member faith groups represent Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches. Together, they include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations across the United States.