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McCullough calls for even more ecumenical collaboration in global work

November 8, 2007

In remarks celebrating the collaborative efforts to end hunger and poverty by Church World Service's member denominations, the global humanitarian agency's Executive Director and CEO John L. McCullough urged the gathering to be even "more intentional about working together to address problems throughout the world." Following is the text of Rev. McCullough's Nov. 6 report to the General Assembly of NCC/CWS, meeting Nov. 6 - 8, 2007 in Woodbridge, New Jersey:

Grace and Peace, to this the General Assembly of the National Council of the Churches of Christ - and - Church World Service.

I would like to offer a special word of greetings to H. E. Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, as he assumes the Presidency of the General Assembly, and to Dr. Michael Kinnamon, in anticipation of his election as General Secretary of the National Council of Churches. We look forward to working in partnership with you in the years ahead, as together, and along with our member communions, we help shape the ecumenical agenda and witness.

I have just recently returned from the Balkans where I had the opportunity to view firsthand the work our family of communions has undertaken as an expression of our humanitarian witness for the love of Christ, especially for the poor and vulnerable in what remains one of the more volatile regions in the world. There I visited our program working with Roma children in Serbia, uprooted along with their families from Kosovo: children living in what at best can be described as temporary shelter that, due largely to the illegality of their location, may be swept away in the middle of the night by local authorities; children, many of whom are not attend schooling, and instead are daily pouring through makeshift dumps, collecting recyclables in order to make enough money to put bread and cheese on the family table. In Serbia, Church World Service has initiated a strategy as part of its work with vulnerable children, a brilliant collaboration with school and municipal authorities, along with the Roma families, resulting in a first-class primary education program including language training, computer sciences, and a library. This effort has been paired with an income generation entrepreneurship strategy equipping Roma parents with jobs training and professional equipment enabling them to ply their trades as an alternative to their children working in the dumps, while being susceptible to untold diseases and a future filled with disappointment and depression.

Bosnia and Herzegovina continues to present the stark contrasts of a nation recovering from war and ethnic strife. In many ways Sarajevo and several other communities are experiencing a fabulous economic revival, and return to normalcy. Yet, at the same time other communities remain barely repopulated - the haunting scars of hatred and brutality visibly seen on buildings sprayed with shrapnel; broken windows and charred cement; and school yards remaining silenced from the sounds of children at play. Church World Service in collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Croatia has just completed a housing project (88 newly constructed houses) enabling the return of eighty-eight Croatian-Bosnian families, returnees to Bosnia hoping to embrace a more hopeful and secure future of peace with justice. The Croatian Ambassador, the Honorable Joºip Vrbošiæ marked the occasion saying, "It is my great privilege to express our sincere gratitude to humanitarian organization Church World Service for its significant financial support… Without this participation [the project] would be more difficult and not finished in such a short period." He went on to indicate his government's interest in further collaboration "based on mutual understanding of our common goal to help and support those in need, who are without resources to secure their own existence."

Since the last meeting of the General Assembly, Church World Service has sought to be faithful to its calling as an expression of the global humanitarian ministries of our family of communions and denominations. Our mission is one of Christians working with partners to eradicate hunger and poverty and to promote peace and justice around the world. This continues to be an enormous challenge in an increasingly complex global theatre, but our mission is one of empowering human resolve and a transforming spirit.

At the October 2007 meeting of the CWS Board of Directors we celebrated the signing of a covenant with our communion members to continue and strengthen this collaboration, and work with each other in the unfolding of this mission. I cannot understate the importance of this act, nor can I overstate the importance of our faithfulness to the covenant.

The humanitarian needs of our current generation are largely unprecedented and well beyond the scope of any one of us to effectively address. We need to be far more intentional about our collaboration with each other, about the potential impact of our work together as Orthodox, Protestants, Historic Black, Anglicans, and Peace Churches, and in our public demonstration that there is in fact a qualifiedly and quantifiable difference that takes place in the lives of people all over the world when our presence and witness is felt. People do know the difference. When I met with Mr. Duško Bilear, Mayor of the Municipality of Bosanko Grahovo (BiH), probably the hardest hit and still most desolate urban community following the Balkans War, he was very clear that unlike other international NGO’s and some governmental organizations, CWS met with community leadership as part of a community organizing methodology, discussed in detail the needs and appropriate strategies for development, offered to combine resources with local resources - representative of true partnership and the valuing of each others contributions regardless of the magnitude, and provided assistance of vital importance in the interest of sustainable community development. To him this has made all the difference.

We are committed to making a positive difference. While CWS continues to participate in the Burma Border Consortium, we are in direct contact with our ecumenical partners in Myanmar, offering them a voice of support during this difficult period as that southern Asian country wrestles with the meaning of nationhood, respect for the rights of all citizens, as well as the equitable and just rule of law. This December we will participate in a specially called meeting by the World Council of Churches on the status of Myanmar.

Likewise, CWS has maintained an importance presence and witness in Pakistan for more than fifty years. Since 2001 this has been one of the most critical, violent, and unstable countries in the world. CWS has continued to provide sustainable development projects in concert with the ecumenical family in Pakistan, is still assisting victims of the Pakistan earthquake in 2005, and using Pakistan as a base of operations, is expanding our programs of assistance to the peoples of Afghanistan. During Pakistan’s state of emergency in we call upon our member Communions to uplift the people of Pakistan, her churches, and our more than 300 staff persons in your prayers.

Along with them, we remember the families affected by the California wildfires, the people and our partners impacted by recent tropical storms in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Mexico. Through our Emergency Response Program we are assisting people as they try to put their lives and communities back together. Your encouragement of congregational support for assembling hygiene kits and clean-up buckets programs - where current demands exceed the available supply, and financial contributions to our public emergency appeals will make a substantial difference in the lives of thousands of persons.

Whether it is supporting the indigenous peoples of the Grand Chaco Region of South America in their efforts to protect historic and ancestral land rights against multi-national corporations and the seemingly perpetual global march of privatization; or working with an expanded community of churches and organizations across the US to open their doors and hearts not only to new immigrant populations, but also advocating for a legislative solution to the status of illegal aliens that honors humanity and the plight of the poor for a brighter economic future for their families, or any other number of causes, events, and services rendered in the interim period since the last General Assembly, Church World Service has sought to be faithful to its mission, purpose and values.

As we look ahead, CWS anticipates facilitating a fact-finding visit to Thailand and the Burma Border by our communion Heads of Mission. While we expect to welcome many new Burmese and Iraqi families to the United States; we will continue the important work with orphaned and vulnerable children across Africa, our advocacy of Water for Life, Water for All, and proceed with an ecumenical delegation to Sudan in February 2008. And, we will examine how Climate Change is impacting the challenge of humanitarian assistance and how we will need to adapt our efforts accordingly.

Whether it is humanitarian assistance, sustainable development, public advocacy, or relationship building, we do this as the people called Church World Service, because in our vernacular this is what it means - to be the manifestation of the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

For more info, see General Assembly convenes in NJ and NY

Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;

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