Black Pentecostals May Join Council

In what could signal a major breakthrough in ecumenical relations, the Church of God in Christ, the nation’s largest black Pentecostal denomination, is considering an invitation to join the National Council of Churches, the nation’s premier ecumenical agency.

The invitation was offered April 15 by the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the 34-member National Council of Churches at a meeting with the Pentecostal denomination’s leaders during its general assembly in Memphis, Tenn.

“My general board is taking it under advisement,” Churches of God in Christ Presiding Bishop Chandler David Owens said. “We had a lengthy and a beautiful discussion with her. She met the top board of our church and it was quite fruitful.”

Campbell said the denomination’s size--it reports 8.5 million members--as well as its theology and mission objectives mesh nicely with those of other National Council of Churches members.

“If they were to join, they would be the first Pentecostal church to join and this obviously would be significant in terms of expanding the families of churches that are members of the council,” Campbell said.

The Council of Churches is generally considered a liberal organization, and Pentecostal churches tend to be conservative, particularly on social issues.

For example, Owens said that Churches of God in Christ officials, who generally oppose homosexuality, mistakenly had believed the council supported ordination of gay clergy. Talks with Campbell clarified that issue and others that the denomination had about the ecumenical group, he said.

“We learned that the Council of Churches as a body does not” take a position on ordaining gay clergy “but doesn’t speak against member churches doing their own thing,” Owens said. “That made a great difference to us.”

Campbell said there have been misunderstandings of Council of Churches positions in the past.

“We, for instance, are often quoted as having a position on abortion and we don’t have a position on abortion,” she said. “We are not a church, therefore issues of ordination are not issues that we can determine. Those are determined by the member churches.”

Campbell said that if the Churches of God in Christ accepts the invitation, its membership would be voted on by representatives of the 34 mainline Protestant, Orthodox and historic black churches of the council.

Owens said he did not know when denomination officials will act on the invitation, but called it “a very important decision for our church.”

The Pentecostal denomination has already forged some working ties with the council. During its April 14-16 general assembly, the denomination officially joined the Black Church Environmental Justice Program, a project of the council’s Eco-Justice Working Group and the Black Church Liaison Committee. Owens sent a church representative on its March tour to parts of Louisiana where African American communities are located near toxic waste dumps.

“The more they become involved with us programmatically, the more it makes sense that they would become full members,” Campbell said.

Others ties include working together to rebuild black churches burned in a spate of arsons, mostly in the South. Earlier, denomination representatives joined the council when it voiced concerns about South Africa’s former policy of apartheid. The denomination also has had a representative on the council’s Faith and Order Commission, which deals with theological issues.

Campbell said she would like to see denomination officials “take their place at the table” with other major Christian denominations in the council.

“I think the Pentecostal piece is missing and I think it’s a very important piece,” she said. “This is also one of the fastest-growing churches in the United States. They would be the second-largest member church after the United Methodists.”

The United Methodist Church has about 8.5 million members.