As the nation prepares to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus in America, the governing board of the National Council of Churches (NCC) passed a resolution calling his arrival in the New World an "invasion" that resulted in the slavery and genocide of native peoples. It asked member churches to regard 1992 as "a year of reflection and repentance."

The board said that "what represented newness of freedom, hope, and opportunity for some was the occasion for oppression, degradation, and genocide for others," particularly the indigenous people of America and the Africans brought here as slaves.

"American people have so digested the myth of American history that they have lost sight of the truth -- the pain of so many people who live on the continent," said the Rev. George Tinker, an Osage Indian and member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church who introduced the resolution. He said the celebration "symbolizes a very personal and painful history of genocide" and that the resolution means the council can "take some steps to be part of healing."

A substitute resolution was introduced by Bishop David Reed of Louisville, Kentucky. Although it acknowledged the injustice and pain suffered by Native Americans following the arrival of European settlers, it sought to add some of the positive aspects of the last five centuries by adding a two-page "message to the churches." Reed said the original resolution was too negative. "Many of us find it hard to state this is not a time for celebration," he said. "There are many things over the past 500 years to thank God for."

The two resolutions touched off a heated debate among delegates to the semiannual meeting of the NCC board in Pittsburgh. After Reed's resolution was weakened, the original resolution was passed easily. In other actions the governing board:

• expressed its "extreme outrage and distress" at the recent Supreme Court ruling against Native Americans who were denied unemployment compensation after being fired for using peyote in a ritual ceremony of the Native American Church;
• celebrated the publication of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, a major new ecumenical translation it had authorized and endorsed, in a service of blessing and thanksgiving at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral;
• announced a search process to find a new general secretary, with expectations that a candidate will be presented at the board's November meeting;
• adjourned and transformed itself into the General Board, in line with restructure of the council;
• approved a new policy on "equal pay for work of equal value" and gave first reading to a proposed policy statement on family violence and abuse;
• appealed to U.S. companies to stop buying Salvadoran coffee and urged the Administration to negotiate the withdrawal of military personnel and installations from the Philippines;
• commended President George Bush for his "dialogical approach" to the current crisis in the Soviet Union;
• condemned the occupation by Jewish settlers of St. John's Hospice in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem's Old City;
• thanked God for "the working of the Spirit in the unprecedented events which have taken place in Central and Eastern Europe during the past year"; and
• renewed its commitment to work for the day "when all South Africans will be truly free," and called for renewed efforts to "maintain and strengthen economic sanctions" as a means of change.