Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
On November 12, 2001, The San Francisco Chronicle reported that "the greatest challenge facing the nation's largest ecumenical agency is not getting along with U.S. Muslims -- although terrorism, humanitarian relief and Muslim/Christian cooperation will be on the agenda when its General Assembly meets this week in Oakland..In recent years, the group has been struggling to reinvent itself, broaden its membership base and stay out of debt. Although the National Council of Churches encompasses 36 Protestant denominations and Orthodox churches claiming some 50 million members, it does not include the nation's two largest Christian communions -- the 62 million-member Roman Catholic Church and the 15 million conservative evangelicals in the Southern Baptist Convention."