History

Excerpts from "A History of the Texas Council of Churches: 1953 - 1969," by Harold C. Kilpatrick, Presbyterian Layman

The Texas Council of Churches was one of the last to be organized. Many state interchurch bodies had made strong ecumenical witness for forty or fifty years when the Texas Council began. But the last became first! All ten dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church of Texas accepted the invitation to join Protestants and Orthodox to form the world's first inclusive territorial ecumenical agency, which was then renamed the Texas Conference of Churches, an unprecedented ecumenical organization that attracted the attention of the entire Christian world. How these stunning ecclesiastical developments could have happened in Texas is a climax in the history of the Texas Council of Churches.

1951 - 1953   Executive of the Southwestern Office of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. is Dr. Harry C. Munro, minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and professor at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University.

1951     Southwestern Church Convocation held in San Antonio at Travis Park Methodist Church under leadership of Dr. Munro with the assistance of Brite Divinity student Jan Stone.

1953     Eleven denominations send 162 representatives to East Dallas Christian Church to constitute a state council of churches.

1954     The Texas Council of Churches is established by nine denominations, a million strong. First headquarters is the three-story John Bremond home at Lavaca and West 7th Street in Austin. First Annual Assembly is convened by Bishop Joseph Gomez of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

1969     The Council is reconstituted as the Texas Conference of Churches (TCC).

1973     Texas Impact advocacy group is established by the TCC.

2005     Disaster Recovery Program is launched by the TCC.

2008     The Board of Directors updates the Mission of the Texas Council of Churches. Among the revisions: the number of members on the Board of Directors is streamlined without compromising adequate representation from the judicatories. The College of Judicatory Leaders is re-designated as the Judicatory Leaders Advisory Council. The Commissions become Task Forces. The title of Ecumenical Partners is suspended, although the TCC continues working with these organizations.

...more history to come!