Figure in National Council of Churches Power Struggle Quits

J. Richard Butler, head of Church World Service, the overseas relief and development arm of the National Council of Churches, has resigned, ending a bitter power struggle with the council’s executive director, officials said this week.

But Butler’s resignation sent shock waves through the leadership of the ecumenical agency that brings together 32 major Protestant and Orthodox denominations with a membership of approximately 40 million people.

The officials announced that Butler had tendered his resignation May 19 at a meeting of Church World Service’s unit committee--equivalent to a board of directors--being held in connection with the National Council’s Gathering of Christians and Governing Board meeting in Arlington, Tex.

Officials ‘Stunned’

Church World Service officials said they were “stunned” by the resignation and demanded an investigation.

The resignation climaxed a long and acrimonious struggle between Butler and the National Council of Churches general secretary, the Rev. Arie Brouwer. Members of the Church World Service group called on the council “to conduct an immediate and full review and assessment” of Brouwer’s “ability to continue effectively as general secretary.”

Brouwer said he was “surprised and saddened” when Butler told him he was resigning but refused other comment, saying legal factors “make it impossible to comment further at this time.”

The 220-member governing board’s executive committee called a special closed meeting of Church World Service leaders and council officers for late Tuesday to discuss the situation that has thrown the ecumenical agency into a turmoil.

Brouwer and Butler have been feuding for more than a year over Brouwer’s effort to bring the relief arm--which controls about 70% of the council’s $53-million budget--more closely into the council’s structure.

Last October, Brouwer demanded Butler’s resignation but then, as now, Butler had the solid support of his unit committee--governing board members who oversee the work of the agency--and a confrontation was avoided when the two agreed to attempt to resolve their differences through mediation.

But in a statement released Tuesday in the wake of Butler’s resignation, Church World Service leaders suggested that Brouwer has misled them about progress in the reconciliation process and said he has failed to comply with the process.

‘Express Our Grief’

“We express our grief, outrage and sense of loss for Church World Service, the National Council of Churches and suffering humanity throughout the world by the loss of service of J. Richard Butler to the ecumenical movement that he has served for over 25 years,” the Church World Service leaders said in a statement.

They said Butler’s resignation “does not resolve the issues but further aggravates them for us.”

Instead, they sharply criticized Brouwer’s heavy-handed leadership style, charging that there is “a loss of trust and hope among members of denominations, and this style of leadership has affected other units of the council as well.”

In a formal resolution, the unit committee called on the 40-member executive committee “to conduct an immediate and full review and assessment of Dr. Arie Brouwer’s ability to continue effectively as general secretary of the National Council of Churches.”

But the executive committee rejected that proposal the next day. The Rev. Patricia McClurg, the president of the National Council of Churches, defended the way Brouwer has conducted himself. “Many severely criticize the general secretary in ways that I could never, never, ever accept,” McClurg said.

McClurg noted that the executive committee rejected conducting an immediate review of Brouwer’s performance because “we thought there’s not enough substance to have any special review before next fall.”

At the same time, she said, “all agreed that the general secretary needs to be reviewed, as does all the staff. All have a stake in seeing that all staff of the council are performing in ways that are pleasing to the organization.”