Governance and Relationships |
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Introduction Theological Foundation Governance and relationships Leadership Facilities Research and publishing contributions Social and political advocacy Member denominations This page was last modified on 8 February 2010 Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License |
Approximately 300 delegates from the member denominations meet together every November (beginning in 2010, every other November) in a joint General Assembly with the Council's humanitarian partner organization, Church World Service. CWS is governed by its own board made up of representatives from the NCC member communions. The General Assembly serves as a forum for discussing major issues and, where appropriate, to approve policy statements, resolutions and other official documents that speak to the common concerns of the member churches. Much of the Council's work is done through its five ecumenical program commissions: Communication; Education and Leadership Ministries; Faith and Order; Interfaith Relations; and Justice and Advocacy. Membership in these commissions extends beyond the NCC's member communions to involve participants from more than 50 U.S. faith groups, including Roman Catholics, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals. In addition, many of the communions have specific ecumenical officers who assist the Council in building relationships among the member bodies and with other ecumenical and interfaith bodies. The NCC is related fraternally to hundreds of local and state councils of churches and interfaith organizations, and to the World Council of Churches. Even though these councils may include many of the same member churches, they have no fiscal or administrative connections to each other. Similar ecumenical organizations abroad include National Councils of Churches in Australia, India, Kenya, Korea, the Philippines and numerous other countries. In the U.S., the National Council of Churches, with its broad, diverse spectrum of member faith groups, is sometimes contrasted with more narrowly focused, doctrinally-based associations such as the fundamentalist American Council of Christian Churches or the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). Next page: Leadership of the NCC
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The NCC's Governing Board, composed of representatives of the member communions, provides ongoing legislative leadership for the Council. A president, several vice presidents, and the chairs of the program commissions make up an Executive Committee of the board.