Bishop Vashti McKenzie Named NCC President and General Secretary

The Governing Board of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America (NCC) is pleased to annou nce that it has elected Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie to serve as president and general secretary of the ecumenical organization. She is the first African American woman to serve as both president and general secretary of the organization. The Governing Board announced this news during its annual Spring meeting, held in Washington, District of Columbia, May 15–16, 2023.

Bishop McKenzie has served as interim since April 1, 2022, and immersed herself in the organization’s work without delay. During her year as interim, she led an extensive review of NCC’s foundational documents, initiated Voter Empowerment 2022: A Church-Based Action Plan campaign, testified on Capitol Hill on behalf of low-wage earners and poor children, and served as keynote speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast.

She has also represented NCC internationally at the World Council of Churches’ Regional Ecumenical Officers annual meeting at the Ecumenical Center in Bossey, Switzerland, and attended the 11 th Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Germany.

Bishop McKenzie has reinstituted the NCC’s Health and Wellness Taskforce to dive deeper into health and healthcare priorities that impact persons of all races, ethnicities, and socioeconomic and geographic status. As part of the taskforce relaunch, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy was the keynote speaker at the recent Governing Board Health and Wellness Taskforce Luncheon.

She also has initiated a new Policy Roundtable to create space for NCC’s communions and partners to speak to and with each other and hear from policy experts on critical issues that strengthen its impact

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