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News Release June 10, 2002
NEW BOOK CHRONICLES HISTORY OF COMMONWEALTH ECUMENISM
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Rev. Dr. Diane C. Kessler, 617-523-2771
One hundred years of ecumenical witness in Massachusetts has been captured in a new book being published this month by the Massachusetts Council of Churches.
Entitled “That They May All be One: Celebrating a Century of Ecumenical Witness” the book is being launched at a time when the Massachusetts Council of Churches is in the midst of a year-long celebration of its founding in 1902.
Church historian Elizabeth C. Nordbeck is author of the book. MCC Executive Director Diane C. Kessler oversaw the project as editor. Considerable MCC archival material was plumbed to put together a fascinating account of the origin and evolution of what is one of the oldest continuous ecumenical bodies in the world. The MA Council and even a number of local councils of churches in the Commonwealth pre-date the formation of the World Council of Churches by fifty years.
Starting with the MCC’s predecessors---the MA Sunday School Association and the Council of Religious Education---the richly-detailed story of the Council of Churches is organized around a number of identifiable periods. Each period generally coincides with the tenure of one or more of the eight executive directors who have headed the MCC staff.
The Council in its present form began in 1933 and for the next twenty years was led first by Roy Guild and then Frank Jennings. “The Council Comes of Age” is the title of the section devoted to the period from 1953-1969 when Forrest L. Knapp was executive director. From an “Identity Crisis” in the early 1970s, the narrative moves “Toward a More Balanced Purpose” during the thirteen years when James Nash was executive director from 1975-1988.
“The Council Today,” as the final chapter is headed, is under the direction of Diane Kessler who joined the staff nearly 27 years ago and has been its executive director since 1988. As Dr. Nordbeck observes, this material “properly belongs to current events, not history.”
“This book will be a wonderful journey of memory for those who have been committed to the Council and its ecumenical witness,” said Kessler. “Perhaps even more importantly, it will inspire those who want to know more about how the sturdy ecumenical spirit of the past continues to inform the present and shape the future.”
Illustrating the many stages of life and highpoints in the MCC’s century are dozens of historical photographs, newspaper accounts, and print pieces, including portraits of many of the ecumenical leaders.
“It will be an important addition to any church or personal library,” noted Rev. Dr. Kessler. “Elizabeth Nordbeck has explored a tremendous amount of material and has assembled a very readable and absorbing account of a remarkable movement and institution. We are grateful also to MCC board member Eden Grace who, in creating a multi-media presentation for our 100th Anniversary earlier this year, searched the archives for distinctive historic visual materials. Much of that visual material has made its way into this book.”
“That They May All Be One” goes on sale today and is available through the Massachusetts Council of Churches web-site www.masscouncilofchurches.org. Cost for the 64-page volume is $10.
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