National Council of the Churches of Christ

(noun)

The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (usually identified as National Council of Churches or NCC) is an ecumenical partnership of 37 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member denominations, churches, conventions, and archdioceses include Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African American, Evangelical, and historic peace churches.

Related Terms

Examples of National Council of the Churches of Christ in the following topics:

  • Protestantism

    • These early Protestant settlers represented a diversity of Protestant sects, including Anglicanism, Baptism, Congregationalism, Presbyterianism, Lutheranism, Quakerism, the Mennonite Church and the Moravian Church.
    • The Federal Council of Churches, founded in 1908, marked the first major expression of a growing, modern ecumenical movement among Christians in the United States.
    • In 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (usually identified as National Council of Churches, or NCC) represented a dramatic expansion in the development of ecumenical cooperation.
    • It was a merger of the Federal Council of Churches, the International Council of Religious Education, and several other interchurch ministries.
    • As the center of community life, Black churches played a leadership role in the Civil Rights Movement.

  • The Christian Church

    • The Christian Church is the assembly of followers of Jesus Christ; in Christianity, a church is the building where its members meet.
    • The Christian Church is the assembly or association of followers of Jesus Christ.
    • The early Church originated in Roman Judea in the first century AD, founded on the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who is believed by Christians to be the Son of God and Christ the Messiah.
    • State churches are not necessarily national churches in the ethnic sense of the term, but the two concepts may overlap in a nation state where the state boundary largely corresponds to the distribution of a single ethnic group defined by a specific denomination.
    • Describe the Church as the assembly of followers of Jesus Christ, and the building where its members meet.

  • The Chora Church in Constantinople

    • The Chora Church's full name is the Church of the Holy Savior in Chora.
    • In another important scene above the entrance to the naos, Christ Enthroned is depicted receiving the donor of the church.
    • He offers Christ a representation of the Chora Church in his hands.
    • The depictions of Christ in the Chora Church differ greatly from those of the third and fourth centuries.
    • The images of Christ in the frescoes and mosaics of the Chora Church depict an authoritative bearded man who occupies the role of both savior and judge.

  • The Mormon Exodus

    • The Mormon exodus of 1846-47 was a large migration of members of the Church of Latter Day Saints from their home in Illinois to Salt Lake Valley, Utah.
    • The Mormon Trail was the 1,300 mile route that members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon pioneers, traveled from 1846 to 1868.
    • Today the Mormon Trail is a part of the United States National Trails System, known as the Mormon Pioneer National Historic Trail.
    • This harsh treatment caused the body of the Church to move from one place to another - from Ohio to Missouri, and then to Illinois, where church members built the city of Nauvoo.
    • Map showing the westward exodus of the LDS Church between 1846 and 1869.

  • Romanesque Sculpture: Majestat Batlló

    • Carved wooden images were a fundamental element in churches as objects of worship, and one of the most elaborate types in Catalonia was the Christ in Majesty: images of Christ on the Cross that symbolize his triumph over death.
    • Although the corners of his mouth turn slightly downward, Christ's open eyes and unfurrowed brow create the impression of a self-possessed impassivity.
    • They can be seen as a visualization or image of the Apocalyptic Christ from the Book of Revelation.
    • The Majestat Batlló is a large 12th century Romanesque wooden crucifix, now in the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona.
    • It is one of the most elaborate examples in Catalonia of an image of Christ on the Cross symbolizing his triumph over death.

  • Mannerism and the Counter-Reformation

    • Furthermore, a great divergence had arisen between the Catholic Church and Protestant reformers of Northern Europe regarding the content and style of art work.
    • Church pressure to restrain religious imagery affected art from the 1530s and influenced several decrees from the final session of the Council of Trent in 1563.
    • Scipione Pulzone's painting of the Lamentation, commissioned for the Gesu Church in 1589, gives a clear demonstration of what the Council of Trent was striving for in the new style of religious art.
    • With the focus of the painting giving direct attention to the crucifixion of Christ, it complies with the religious content of the council and shows the story of the Passion while keeping Christ in the image of the ideal human.
    • On the other hand, in Paolo Veronese's painting The Last Supper (subsequently renamed The Feast in the House of Levi), one can see what the Council regarded as inappropriate.

  • The Revolution and Churches

    • At the beginning of the war, some ministers were persuaded that, with God's help, America might become "the principal Seat of the glorious Kingdom which Christ shall erect upon Earth in the latter Days."
    • Victory over the British was taken as a sign of God's partiality for America and stimulated an outpouring of millennialist expectations—the conviction that Christ would rule on earth for 1,000 years.
    • This attitude, combined with a groundswell of secular optimism about the future of America, helped to create the buoyant mood of the new nation that became so evident after Jefferson assumed the presidency in 1801.
    • This was because the English monarch was the head of the church.
    • The Anglican Communion was created, allowing a separated Episcopal Church of the United States that would still be in communion with the Church of England.

  • The Church During the Italian Renaissance

    • While the schism was resolved by the Council of Constance (1414), a resulting reform movement known as Conciliarism sought to limit the power of the pope.
    • Although the papacy eventually emerged supreme in ecclesiastical matters by the Fifth Council of the Lateran (1511), it was dogged by continued accusations of corruption, most famously in the person of Pope Alexander VI, who was accused variously of simony, nepotism and fathering four children.
    • The Counter-Reformation, also called the Catholic Reformation or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation, beginning with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) and ending at the close of the Thirty Years' War (1648).
    • Such reforms included the foundation of seminaries for the proper training of priests in the spiritual life and the theological traditions of the Church, the reform of religious life by returning orders to their spiritual foundations, and new spiritual movements focusing on the devotional life and a personal relationship with Christ, including the Spanish mystics and the French school of spirituality.
    • Analyze the Church's role in Italy at the time of the Renaissance

  • The Catholic Church

    • The history of the Catholic Church begins with the teachings of Jesus Christ, who lived in the 1st century CE in the province of Judea of the Roman Empire.
    • In 313, the struggles of the early church were lessened by the legalization of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine I.
    • This was followed by orders banning the pictorial representation of the family of Christ, subsequent Christian saints, and biblical scenes.
    • Empress Irene, siding with the pope, called for an Ecumenical Council.
    • In 787, the fathers of the Second Council of Nicaea "warmly received the papal delegates and his message."

  • Discontent with the Roman Catholic Church

    • Hus was later condemned and burned at the stake despite promise of safe-conduct when he voiced his views to church leaders at the Council of Constance (1414–1418).
    • The Reformation led to the creation of new national Protestant churches.
    • The Roman Catholic Church responded with a Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent and spearheaded by the new order of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), specifically organized to counter the Protestant movement.
    • Execution of Jan Hus at the Council of Constance in 1415.
    • Painting representing the artist's depiction of The Council of Trent.