National Council of Churches of Christ USA records, 1939 -- 1976

The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) is an ecumenical fellowship of 37 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member communions include Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African-American, Evangelical, and historic Peace churches. Driven by the conviction that Christian faith demands social action, the NCC has worked nationally and internationally to promote brotherhood between Christians and non-Christians through cross-cultural understanding, peace, human rights, and anti-poverty measures. The NCC was founded in 1950 as a cooperative agency of Christian churches in the United states, when the Federal Council of Churches merged with several other existing ecumenical organizations including the Foreign Missions Conference of North America, the Home Missions Council of North America, the International Council of Religious Education, the Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada, the National Protestant Council on Higher Education, the United Council of Church Women, and the United Stewardship Council. The work of the NCC was originally carried out through four main divisions: the Division of Christian Education, the Division of Life and Work, the Division of Home Missions, and the Division of Foreign Missions. It provided support to its member groups through consultation, conferences, workshops, publications, public lobbies, and service agencies. NCC's Division of Foreign Missions (DFM) continued the work of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America (FMCNA), and like its predecessor, was organized into "area committees" based on geographic location, "functional committees" that provided services in specialized fields such as literacy, education, audiovisual communication, medical, agricultural work, and "standing committees" that carried out the executive administration of the DFM, including administration of the Missionary Research Library until 1967. The DFM continued holding annual assemblies until 1965, when it merged with Church World Service (CWS) – an independent overseas relief and development organization – to form the Division of Overseas Ministries (DOM). The DOM became the largest unit of the NCC both financially and administratively, continuing the work of the DFM's area committees through regional departments that had both a "mission" director, representing the interests of the DFM, and a "service" director, representing the interests of CWS. The work of the DFM's functional committees was continued under the DOM's Department of Specialized Ministries. Robert C. Dodds served as General Director of the NCC Planning Committee until 1965, when he spearheaded the Ecumenical Affairs Committee. This committee was established in addition to the already existing "Department of Faith and Order Studies," which began in 1959 to respond to the call for unity and affirm the oneness of the Church of Jesus Christ. During the 1970s, social instability, suspicion of corporatism and authority, and demands for minority rights, along with theological trends including feminist and liberation theologies, the rise of Evangelical and Pentecostal churches, and an increasing focus among mainline denominations on alleviating oppression and interreligious dialogue, led to a slow but overall decline in the NCC's influence, particularly in the area of foreign missions. The Division of Overseas Ministries published its final triennial report in 1987. Today, the main work of the NCC is carried out through five main program commissions: Justice and Advocacy, Communication, Interfaith Relations, Education and Leadership Ministries, and Faith and Order.