c. 1996 Religion News Service
NCC workers protest layoffs, subcontracting work
(RNS) Concerned about staff layoffs and the subcontracting of work to outside firms, the employees’ union at the National Council of Churches, the ecumenical agency of 33 Protestant and Orthodox denominations, has asked for outside arbitration.
On Aug. 8, the NCC, headquartered in New York City, announced it was eliminating 11 jobs in its administrative and financial services department, the first in a set of reductions it said would save more than $500,000 a year in administrative costs.”The money saved will be used by the council’s program units for their mission budgets,”said the Rev. Clifford Droke, the NCC’s chief financial officer.”The result is better stewardship of the resources entrusted to us by our donors.” Eight of the positions slated to be eliminated are”appointed,”or hourly workers covered by the union and three are”elected,”or non-union jobs. The NCC bargaining unit is the Association of Ecumenical Employees, a local of the United Auto Workers union.
Before the announced layoffs, the NCC had a staff of 69 non-union and 278 union positions.
In its protest, the union said the NCC’s actions violate agreements between the union and NCC management.”The NCC has laid off union employees and has hired vendors to come on site to do their jobs without having reached an agreement with the union over subcontracting,”said Jane Lowicki, president of the union.
Lowicki charged the NCC with shabby treatment of the terminated employees.
The employees, she said, with over 200 collective years of service to the NCC”were told to collect their things, turn in their badges, to leave the premises and not to return.”This might be how some big profit-seeking corporation treats people, but no one would expect it from a Christian organization, especially not one that sets addressing racism and related economic justice issues as its priorities,”Lowicki said.
Former Klan members indicted on charges of conspiring to burn black church
(RNS) Two former members of the Ku Klux Klan were indicted Friday (Aug. 16) on charges of conspiring to burn a predominantly black church in South Carolina.
The additional charges come as more money and manpower are devoted to rebuilding burned churches.
Arthur Allen Haley and Hubert”Herbert”Lavon Rowell were indicted in a Charleston, S.C., court for conspiring to burn Macedonia Baptist Church in Bloomville, S.C., in June 1995, the Associated Press reported.
Haley, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, allegedly organized rallies that were attended by Gary C. Cox, 22 and Timothy A. Welch, 24. Those two men pleaded guilty Wednesday (August 14) to burning Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greeleyville, S.C. and the Bloomville church. The indictment said Haley chose the Bloomville church for arson and Rowell told Cox and Welch how to make the materials to set it afire.
Meanwhile, the National Council of Churches announced plans to give $105,000 Monday (Aug. 19) to Salem Baptist Church in Fruitland, Tenn., which was destroyed by arson in December 1995. The donation includes contributions from the New York Board of Rabbis; the Catholic Diocese in Cleveland, Ohio; Lutheran and AME churches in Akron, Ohio; as well as money from the NCC’s Burned Churches Fund.
President Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper were scheduled to work with volunteers at a work camp Monday (Aug. 19) to help begin rebuilding the Fruitland church.
National & International Religion Report ceases publication
(RNS) National & International Religion Report, a biweekly summary of religion news, has discontinued publication.
Stephen Wike, president and publisher of Religion Today, the non-profit owner of the report, said he informed his staff of the shutdown on August 6. He also discontinued Servant Life, a newsletter for lay people and ministers.”Religion Today was completely out of money and I can’t continue to underwrite it,”he said of the Roanoke, Va.-based company.
National & International Religion Report began publication in January 1987. Wike said the publication’s list of paid subscribers, mostly evangelical Christians, reached about 8,200, but stood at 5,300 when it shut down. Servant Life, which began in August 1994, had more than 3,000 subscribers at one time, but that number had dropped to about 2,000, he said.
The two publications had a total staff of four.
Despite his decision, Wike said he thinks religion news is a viable business.”I think that people who have the resources to grow or to market their publications in our field could be successful if they have the financial resources and the management expertise,”he said.”I do believe there is a demand and our renewal rate seems to validate that.” Wike will continue his role as president of Media Management, whose projects include GOSHEN (Global On-line Service Helping Evangelize Nations) and”card packets”of church advertisements that are sent to ministers across the country.
Metropolitan Community Church pastor distributes pot in protest of raid
(RNS) The pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco distributed marijuana to some in his congregation Sunday (Aug. 18) to protest a state raid on a marijuana club that provided the drug to people with AIDS.”I did it here because the sanctuary is traditionally seen as a safe place,”said the Rev. Jim Mitulski.”I acted in good faith and I expected that the people were here to receive it in good faith.” Mitulski was protesting an Aug. 4 raid on the Cannabis Buyers’ Club, which gives marijuana to terminally ill patients with AIDS, cancer and other diseases, the Associated Press reported. The club claims to serve 11,000 clients.
Authorities did not attempt to arrest Mitulski, but the pastor said he had a physician on hand to ensure that the 25 people who lined up for the tiny packets of marijuana had a medical need for it.
Steve Telliano, a spokesman for state Attorney General Dan Lungren, told the San Francisco Chronicle that he was not aware of the church’s action and declined to comment further.
In November, voters will consider a ballot measure about whether the use of marijuana should be legalized for medical purposes.
Mitulski said he does not know if he will distribute the drug again.”I did it this time to make a statement,”he said.”If I do it again, I need to sit and think about it and pray about it.”
Quote of the day: President Bill Clinton on character
(RNS) President Bill Clinton, featured Sunday (Aug. 18) in a lengthy interview on CBS'”60 Minutes”responded to personal and ethical accusations leveled against him by Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole and others during the recent Republican National Convention:”I don’t believe frankly that the Republicans could do anything to damage my character. They may be able to attack my reputation, but God is the ultimate judge of people’s character and he knows all facts … and there’s no angle there.”
MJP END RNS
