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Jim Winkler NCC
Compiled from NCC News and Staff Reports
Washington, November 5, 2013 – A leading advocate for international justice with experience as a missionary and deep family roots in The United Methodist Church is the nominee for General Secretary/President of the National Council of Churches.
James E. Winkler, general secretary of the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society, will be placed in nomination during the NCC Governing Board meeting on Nov. 18.
Winkler has led the United Methodist international public policy and social justice agency in Washington since November 2000. As the chief executive of the agency, Winkler leads a staff of 22 who seek the implementation of the Church’s social principles through education, witness, and advocacy. He was the first layperson to lead the social justice agency.
If elected to the NCC leadership post, Winkler will assume office on January 1, 2014. He would follow in the footsteps of another prominent United Methodist social activist, the Rev. Bob Edgar, who died earlier this year. A former U.S. congressman and pastor, Edgar was president of Common Cause at the time of his death.
In addition, Winkler would serve with another United Methodist leader, the Rev. John McCullough, who heads Church World Service, the NCC's related humanitarian outreach and development agency.
The office of General Secretary/President, formerly General Secretary, is the leading staff position in the NCC.
The General Secretary/President serves as the executive leader of the NCC, with overall responsibility for personnel, deploying resources to achieve the priorities of the NCC, organizational and board development, fund-raising, vision-setting, long-range planning, financial management, external relationships and thought leadership.
Winkler is the son, brother, nephew and great-grandson of United Methodist preachers and United Methodist Women. He studied history at the University of Illinois and George Mason University.
After graduation from college, Winkler served as a short-term missionary with the Pacific Conference of Churches in Suva, Fiji. At the Board of Church and Society he held the position of Seminar Designer, Director of Annual Conference Relations and Assistant General Secretary of Resourcing Congregational Life before his nomination to lead the board.
The former office of NCC President has been renamed Chair of the National Council of Churches Governing Board under a reorganization that has taken place over the past two years.