National Council of Churches General Board Meets in Memphis
Diocesan Press Service. February 25, 1969 [74-16]
Peter Day, Ecumenical Officer, Executive Council
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Financial gloom was thick at the meeting of the General Board of the National Council of Churches in Memphis, Tenn., January 21 to 24. Of the Council's $20, 000,000 budget, only $831, 000 is expected to consist of funds for general purposes in 1969. All the rest is earmarked for Divisions or even more narrowly for programs within Divisions. The result is severe continuing pressure upon the general administration of the Council and upon the new Division of Christian Unity, which is supported in part from general funds.
For several years general operating reserves have been drawn upon to make up deficits in these items, but 1969 will bring these reserves down to zero.
Also suffering is the Crisis in the Nation Program, for which $301,000 was asked in 1968 and only $240,000 was received. For the 1969 program, $360,000 is asked and only $250,000 is expected to come in. The Episcopal Church was shown as having given nothing to its $24,000 quota for this program in 1968, but did in fact appropriate $6,800, which had been delayed in transmission.
This session of the board was unusual in that no policy statements were adopted. Two significant reports which may lead to later policy statements were presented, however: one on alcohol problems which is endorsed by Episcopalians concerned in this area as sound and in agreement with general Episcopal Church policy; and one on social violence.
General Board members marched to the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King and held a memorial service there. The Rev. Jesse Anderson, Sr., carried the banner of the Episcopal Church delegation. Later, at an evening session, the board had an opportunity for dialogue with members of the Black community of Memphis, including a group of young militants known as the "Invaders."
Three Episcopalians figured in personnel changes approved by the General Board. Owen H. Brooks, a layman who has been serving as associate director of the Delta Ministry, was promoted to the post of director. The Rev. Harry J. Bowie, a priest of the Episcopal Church, succeeds him as associate director. The Rev. Robert C. Chapman of Detroit was approved as director of racial justice in the Department of Social Justice. All three men are Negroes.
Four Roman Catholics also were added to the elected staff -- a priest, a sister, and two lay women, one of whom belongs to the Eastern Rite Ukrainian Catholic Church.