Oakland, CA
Meeting on November 17, the National Council of Churches’ 280-member Governing Board elected former South Dakota bishop Craig Anderson to serve as president-elect for the 1996-97 term and as President for the 1998-99 term. Bishop Anderson is now president and dean of General Theological Seminary in New York City.
President Bill Clinton greets and congratulates Bishop Craig Anderson, president-elect of the National Council of Churches, during a November 18 Oval Office meeting with other officers of the NCC
The National Council of Churches is considered the prominent expression in the United States of Christian unity. Its 33 Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox churches represent nearly 50 million Christian people working together to build a wider sense of unity, with many local, national, and global expressions. Formed in 1950, the NCC also provides international disaster relief, educational and worship services, and is active in the areas of social justice and Bible translation.
“I feel deeply honored to be asked to serve as president of the NCC,” said Bishop Anderson following the election, “not only because I personally believe so strongly in the organization’s mission but also because it parallels the ecumenical agenda of the Episcopal Church and the General Seminary.
Following the Oakland meeting, Bishop Anderson traveled to Washington with other NCC officers for a meeting with President Bill Clinton during which they urged him to continue efforts to maintain government funding of programs which benefit the nation’s poor and disadvantaged.
Just prior to Christmas, Bishop Anderson was asked by the President to serve as a member of a 13-member Presidential Delegation to observe the recent election in Haiti. Noting that while this was the second presidential election in Haiti, Bishop Anderson commented that it was the first “democratic election wherein there was a peaceful transfer of power from one president to another.”
Anderson served as eighth bishop of South Dakota from 1984 until 1992 when he was called to his ministry at GTS.