The statement came at the conclusion of CCT’s annual meeting in Birmingham Jan. 11-14 and was issued just before the federal Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 17. Among the signers of the statement was Gradye Parsons, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly.
In a press release accompanying their statement, CCT leaders say they “remember with gratitude the sacrifices of the leaders of the civil rights movement, who demonstrated the power of Christian, nonviolent action.”
They also express repentance that “some of us have not progressed far enough beyond the initial message from the Birmingham clergy” to King that prompted the late civil rights icon to write his famed letter. In their “Call for Unity,” those clergy appealed for restraint and “common sense,” and a withdrawal of support for the civil rights demonstrations going on at the time in the south.
CCT was born in 2007 to create a broader ecumenical forum than existed prior to its formation. Its primary foci are church unity, evangelism, and “examining poverty through the lens of racism.”
It includes Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Historic Black, and Evangelical/Pentecostal “families,” the American Bible Society, Bread for the World, Evangelicals for Social Action, Habitat for Humanity, Sojourners, and World Vision.
