Turbulent Triennium: NCC Pledges Half Million While Budget Shrinks

Members of the National Council of Churches’ General Board climaxed a turbulent triennium when they agreed to the council’s response to the Black Manifesto. Their two-day September session in Indianapolis was the last meeting of the policymakers before they gather at Detroit in late November on the eve of the NCC’s triennial General Assembly.

The board members pledged to raise $500,000 immediately and to propose a plan to the assembly for seeking “tens of millions of dollars” for black economic development. The Marott Hotel’s ballroom was crowded during an afternoon of debate over the proposal.

The Black Economic Development Conference (BEDC)—made famous by James Forman’s disruption of church offices and events—was not named as a recipient of the initial contribution, but the funds will go to two organizations known to be friendly conduits. The solution, skirting direct funding of the BEDC but financing black churchmen who support it, was similar to that adopted earlier last month by the Episcopal Church (see September 26 issue, pages 37 and 42).

An executive-committee report hammered out since Forman’s May address to the board was approved, including its rejection of the manifesto’s ideology. However, the council policy makers acknowledged the BEDC as a “programmatic expression of the aspirations of black churchmen.” The document also said: “The Black Economic Development Conference is a new agency among those agencies in the black community directed toward the achievement of economic justice for the deprived peoples of this land.”

President Arthur S. Flemming, who presented the executive-committee report, stressed that board members were approving a “no strings” grant to the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO), which sponsored the conference that originally produced the manifesto, and to the National Committee of Black Churchmen (NCBC). “Self determination,” he insisted, “was the clearcut issue.”

New York pastor M. L. Wilson, board chairman of the NCBC, made the same point. He told the NCC policymakers he was under instructions to accept no restricted money. He is a member of the BEDC’s steering committee. Before the vote was taken, board members heard from one of their veteran colleagues, Disciples executive George Beazley, that a July meeting of the executive committee was told there was a “high probability” that a portion of the money would go to the BEDC. He reminded them that the manifesto that launched the BEDC pledged to overthrow the American system.

Even though the debate was sometimes heated, the executive-committee report had more than enough support to meet each challenge. Three attempts to amend it were easily defeated.

The first proposal offered from the floor would have made the board’s rejection of the manifesto doctrines more explicit. Proponents of the executive-committee document argued that the NCC response should avoid excessive rejection in its tone. Then the board voted down a proposed amendment that would have denied the $500,000 to any organization advocating violence or violent overthrow of the nation’s political or economic systems. Finally, a proposal to eliminate IFCO as a money conduit was defeated. The $500,000 is to fund five regional conferences of black churchmen and to aid other programs aimed at eliminating “injustice.”

Other items in the board’s response to the manifesto are: A call for “massive government involvement” at all levels to end the crisis; realignment of NCC program priorities “to meet more substantially the Crisis in the Nation Program”; and continued consultation with the BEDC and other minority groups.

The action was taken against the backdrop of severe financial problems for the NCC. The Crisis in the Nation Program was launched in February, 1968, with a nine-month budget of $300,000. Denominations responded with $247,000. For 1969, a twelve-month budget of $350,000 was originally approved, but later it was trimmed to $250,000. By September, though, only $152,000 had been promised in support.

NCC general secretary R. H. Edwin Espy reviewed the over-all financial situation this way: “In spite of increasing demands for services by and through the council, the proposed 1970 budget totals almost $2.5 million less than the budget presented to you a year ago. Deep cuts have been made in amounts asked for almost all of the division and office budgets in view of reduced income prospects.”

The council’s chief executive noted that over the past eight years reserves had been depleted by $392,000, and that $150,000 of further dipping into this source had been authorized. In one attempt to ease the financial strain, especially for the central administration of the NCC, the board decided to phase out its 18-year-old “Committed Fund.” Some fifty staff positions (from the assistant general secretary for financial development to clerks) are being vacated in the budget squeeze.

A budget of $21.5 million was approved for 1970, including reimbursable ocean-freight costs of $3.5 million. If the budget is followed, total expenditures will be the lowest in five years. But the council was instructed by its governing body to put more youths on the payroll in staff positions, as the result of a special committee report on the young generation. The report also asked for a “fair proportion of members of the young generation” on the board itself. As adopted, the document establishes a task force to keep all council units alert to youth.

Children and young people were the subject of another presentation to the board. Dr. Mary S. Calderone, executive director of the Sex Information and Education Council of the U. S. (SIECUS), defended her organization and was accorded a standing ovation by the NCC policy-makers. She asked for an NCC investigation of charges against SIECUS by opponents of sex education in the schools. The board made no immediate response to her request.

Three resolutions were passed under extraordinary procedure (bypassing the requirement for first reading at an earlier meeting). The board went on record in favor of broader family-assistance grants; in opposition to certain restrictions of foundation contributions in the tax-reform bill; and in favor of more federal action to fight hunger. Also passed was a statement of concern on the continued occupation of Czechoslovakia. And the board authorized NCC promotion of a movie on the late Martin Luther King, Jr.

ARTHUR H. MATTHEWS

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