The Washington Post has our story that Bob Edgar will be leaving the National Council of Churches next year.

He said he had wrestled with his decision for nine months but decided that “two terms seemed enough, both to me and the executive committee.”

The former Democratic member of the U.S. House and seminary president inherited a $6 million deficit when he arrived at the NCC in 2000. After cutting budgets and increasing revenues, he has left the agency with nearly $8 million in reserve funds.

“I’m really known as a salvager, and I’ve left the council better thanI found it,” Edgar said Tuesday in an interview. “The health of the council is healthy enough that foundations . . . that said they would never give the council money because we were going out of business have turned around and given us resources.”