As general secretary of the National Council of Churches (NCC), Dr. Kinnamon, a Disciples of Christ minister and theologian, reminded the Board that the paradox between honoring denominational identity and working for Christian unity is a tension that informs our faith.
“No part is finally self-determining; we are all interdependent members of Christ’s body. We are already bound to one another not by what we have done, but by what God has done through Jesus to reconcile us—both to God and to one another.”
“We don’t set the entrance requirements,” he reminded representatives. “We simply try to make visible what God has accomplished and thereby serve as a sign of God’s power to unite.”
Kinnamon sees part of his role in the NCC as helping covenanting churches to understand the nature of a “council of churches.” It is not an organization churches have joined, he stresses, but “a covenantal relationship you have made with 34 other communions to live out a unity which is already yours in Christ.”
“The essence of a council is the relationship of the churches with each other,” he insists. “It’s a community in which conflicting perspectives meet in dialogue.”
A council of churches has the “challenge of becoming a place where the Church’s most difficult issues can be discussed and addressed,” Kinnamon noted. “This means understanding that our unity is a gift from God and not the result of human agreement.”
Kinnamon went on to lay out the organization and work of the NCC and the challenges it faces, which includes living ecumenically in lean times, raising up a new generation of ecumenical leaders, and being more truly prophetic in its public witness.
In other business, the General Board sought to respond to the current healthcare crisis in the U.S. by affirming its 1991 Policy Statement on “Health, Healing, and Wholeness,” and its 1992 Resolution on “Health Care for All.”
David Gregg, a representative from Chicago, asked the representatives to bring these statements to the front of their thoughts, remind their constituents of the position American Baptists have taken, and to mobilize ABCUSA to pray for, write to, and meet with elected officials, to give voice to their concern about the need for a healthcare system that is accessible to all people. He further encouraged representatives to join with other organizations to adopt national healthcare policies that embody the principles laid out in earlier statements.
After the ABC of the Pacific Southwest withdrew from the denomination in 2006 to create Transformation Ministries, almost 180 churches continued to be associated with ABCUSA at varying levels of involvement. Those churches have become the American Baptist Congregations of the Southwest and Hawaii (ABCOSH).
Joe DeRoulhac, president of ABCOSH, updated delegates on the current status of this new configuration of churches, which is functioning as an autonomous association working with American Baptist Churches of Los Angeles (ABCLA) as one regional body. At the end of five years, both ABCLA and ABCOSH will evaluate their relationship and the feasibility of ABCOSH becoming a separate region of ABCUSA, and how best to partner in the future.
The meeting was adjourned after a preview of the Biennial, which begins Friday evening with an address by Dr. Kirk Byron Jones, author and professor of ethics and preaching at Andover Newton Theological School.
American Baptist Churches is one of the most diverse Christian denominations today, with 5,500 local congregations comprised of 1.3 million members across the United States and Puerto Rico, all engaged in God’s mission around the world.