Dr Bernice Powell Jackson, the executive minister of the Justice and Witness ministries of the United Church of Christ in the USA, is the newly elected World Council of Churches (WCC) president from North America, joining seven co-presidents from other regions. A member of the WCC Central Committee since 1998, Powell Jackson is the spokesperson for this year’s WCC Decade to Overcome Violence focus on the US.

What do you see as your primary responsibilities as World Council of Churches (WCC) president from North America?
Primarily my job is to spread the word about the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the work that the churches do together around the world and especially here in the United States. Let me clarify because I think it’s a little confusing to many people that this job as the President for North America of the World Council of Churches is a voluntary role. I will continue to do the work in justice ministries of the United Church of Christ.

What positions helped ready you for this challenge?
As an African-American woman growing up in the United States a lot of what I have focused on around civil rights issues and human rights issues, women’s rights issues, have all helped to prepare me for this opportunity.

For readers not familiar with the WCC, how would you define this organization?
It’s a fellowship of more than 300 churches from around the world. We meet every seven years at our assemblies with the next meeting being held 2006 in Brazil. Those of us who are US members meet about once a year. Our annual meeting of the US Churches, who are members of the WCC, will meet in Atlanta on October 5-6, 2004. (For regular updates about the Annual Meeting of the United States Conference for the WCC visit our website at or www.overcomingviolence.org.)

What were your biggest challenges when you served on the World Council of Churches' 18-person search committee for the next WCC general secretary?
That was an extraordinary challenge and it was also a wonderful opportunity to really look at what we thought the organization of the WCC needed for the 21^st century, and try to find the very best church leader in the world to lead this premier organization. We were very blessed to have the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia from Kenya, who was named as our new General Secretary. He’s been on the staff of the WCC for a number of years, so he knows many of the church leaders around the world and the WCC very well. He’s a person who believes deeply in God and deeply in community and in this world.

How do you see yourself working with the six other presidents?
Periodically, I talk with the other six presidents around the world, as we offer guidance to the WCC leadership and bring up issues that are of concern to each one of the continents.

As you're the North American President, what is your relationship to the Churches in Canada and Mexico?
We do work closely with the churches in Canada, and one of the vice moderators of the WCC is from Canada. As churches in Mexico are considered part of the Latin America group in the WCC, they work more closely with the other Latin American churches. I don't know if we have particular plans to work together but I think that when you talk about economic justice issues of the world, their concerns would certainly be included in that.

How do you see the WCC interfacing with the evangelical and Pentecostal mega churches, as well as the televangelists scattered throughout the United States?
Well that’s a question that the whole WCC has been talking about for the past seven or eight years. We have begun to be in dialogue with some of the Pentecostal churches, not only in the United States but around the world and particularly in Latin America. We're really kind of exploring through these conversations over a long period of time how we can develop new kinds of relationships.

What can you do as President to strengthen these relationships?
As President, I will be working with the staff to lift up the concern that we continue to talk and to invite the Pentecostal churches and other churches to join in the conversation.

How do you see yourself helping to achieve the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia’s goal to strengthen dialogue with the North American churches in a post 9-11 environment?
Many of the member churches of the WCC that are based in the United States have been strong voices against war before the war began, and we continue to lift up our concerns about the war. So, I think that that’s important. At the same time, a lot of people didn't realize that in the days right after 9-11, the churches from around the world sent a delegation to the United States to express their sympathy. So they went to Ground Zero, Chicago, Los Angeles, and across the country speaking to churches in the United States to let them know that churches around the world were lifting them up in prayer and were supporting them. While a lot of that did not receive much press attention in those days after 9-11, it was an important moment for many in churches in the US when they were able to talk to people from churches in many war torn countries that came here.

What is the Decade to Overcome Violence?
It's really a decade to focus churches on the issues of violence in the world whether we're talking about the violence of war, domestic violence, or the structures that do violence to people, who are poor and oppressed. So, it’s really an affirmation of life and to say that we as churches have to be moral agents on behalf of life as opposed to death, and to encourage the members of our churches to be involved in working against violence in the world.

What is your role as spokesman for the US Focus for the DOV?
A lot of times it means I go to a place, where I give a speech and encourage churches. I try to explain to the rest of the community and the rest of the world that the churches in the WCC believe that ending violence is one of the most important things that we can do in the world today.

In your first public speech as the North American President at the Presbyterian Church, USA ecumenical breakfast, you read off a list of Dos for the DOV. What are those Dos?
They included being involved in your local community, setting up domestic violence shelters, speaking out on violence, being aware of what video games your children are using. There were a dozen ways that local church members can actively be involved in ending violence in our world.

As we enter into a critical Presidential election and are currently engaged in the War in Iraq, could you elaborate on the importance of selecting the US as the 2004 regional focus for the DOV?
Well the 2004 regional focus for the DOV was not because of the election but really just a way to focus the attention of churches around the world on the role that the United States has played and continues to play in keeping violence alive in the world. We're not just talking the government’s role but we're also talking about the role of the entertainment industry, the arms manufacturers, the many corporations that do business in a way that oppresses people around the world, and all other forms of violence. But what we are saying to people of faith in 2004 is yes, your moral values should play a part of how you make a decision in the voting booth. For each one of us, we have to decide what that means but our moral values are not separate and apart from our voting values.

Why do you feel that for many of us the word mission connotes paternalism, colonialism and cultural genocide?
Well I think history has shown that too often the Christian church in its own definition has meant that we've seen ourselves as going out and spreading the Gospel and killing off the culture if you will whether it be Native American people, Native Hawaiian people or African people. In many instances, what that meant was that the culture of the people had to be negated. So, that’s where I think the negative connotations of mission came.

How can we redefine mission so the work of the church reflects the liberating message of the Gospel?
Mission today is about how we live our lives as Christians wherever we are and understanding that mission is not just in some far off place to some exotic people but it’s also through our own people and our own communities. We do need to reclaim that word mission and redefine it for the 21st century. As it’s said, “I've come to bring good news to the poor, release to the captives and sight to the blind.” That’s the mission that we must be about.

Why was it important that the launch for the US focus for the DOV lift up the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.?
Well I think Dr. King was such a gift to the whole world in speaking out on behalf of nonviolence. So, it was a natural for us to lift up Dr. King and his many words of wisdom through which he tried to help our nation and the whole world understand that the power of nonviolence and change in the world. It’s no accident either that in the last year of his life Dr. King spoke out very vocally about the war in Vietnam. While he was a great civil rights hero, he was more than that.

What can churches do to increase awareness regarding Black History Month?
I try to encourage people to see every month as Black History Month because there’s so much African-American history that we don't know and so much that was written out of history books or left out of history books. It ’s so important for us all to know not only African-American history but the history of Asian-Americans, Latino Americans, and Native Americans because we all play an integral role in the building of this nation, and as such, we all have a right to be here and we're all fully American. I think that that might be one of the most important things for young people to learn because the reality is the nation and the world is already multicultural. In less than a generation, our nation will have no racial ethnic minority group. So, what does that mean to a leader in this century? Hence, we all need to know all of those histories.

What resources would you recommend for churches?
I think that there are so many good books by African-American, Latino and Native American authors, and it's really important for us as people of faith to not just read from our own racial ethnic group whatever that is but to intentionally seek out nonfiction and fiction works by all different kinds of people because we can learn from them.

How have you adjusted moving from New York City to Cleveland?
I grew up in Washington, DC and then I lived for many years in New York. I moved in 1990 when the United Church of Christ moved its national offices. Cleveland is different than those two cities. It's not as large but it's got wonderful things about it. The thing that I think you learn about this nation is each place has its own beauty and it’s up to us to find the beauty of it.

Who are the religious figures that that have influenced you?
I guess one of the most important ones has been Archbishop Desmond Tutu. I used to work for him when we developed a scholarship program for Southern African refugee students in the 1980s. Working with him was extraordinary. But I've been blessed to work with many men and women who are leaders in church movements around the world, and I've grown and learned from each and every one of them.