The records of the Metropolitan Christian Council have been divided between two archival repositories. The first accession was given to the Walter Reuther Library, Wayne State University, in Detroit. A summary listing of these materials will be found in the Related Materials portion of this finding aid. In 2006, the Council, upon concurrence with archivists at the Reuther Library, donated additional records to the Bentley Historical Library. This second accession of records dates close to the founding of the organization and extends up to 2004. The series within the two accessions, however, do not seem to overlap and consist of different kinds of records.
The record group donated to the Bentley Library now comprises seven record series: Board of Directors, Council Packets, Programs, brochures, and other publications, Annual Reports, Topical Files, Television Programs, and General Assembly. In addition, the Council donated issues of its annual church directory and its newspaper -- The Newscaster-- which have been pulled from the records and cataloged separately.
Prior to the formal establishment of the Metropolitan Detroit Council of Churches in 1919, cooperation among the area churches was limited to a Cooperative Council which acted (in the words of Council historian G. Merrill Lenox) as a "Comity Committee." Only a few of Detroit's churches were represented in this Council. At a meeting of the Cooperative Council in November 1918, the Rev. H. C. Gleiss reported for a Committee on Federation of the need to form "a comprehensive and aggressive federation of churches." The Council voted a Committee on Federation be formed, and that once the Federation was formed, the Cooperative Council would turn over its work to that new organization. On May 1, 1919, representatives of nine communions met and voted to establish the Detroit Council of Churches of Christ. At a subsequent meeting, Dr. Joseph A. Vance was elected to serve as president.
Throughout its history, the Council has adhered to the philosophy of "serving as a channel through which the churches can carry out unitedly all those functions which can best be performed through cooperative action." On matters of evangelism and social service and publicity, the Council was an invaluable tool for Detroit's local churches in providing broadly-based services. With its assistance, local churches were able to publicize their programs and special activities, and through its directory of churches and ministers, the Council established the framework for a network of local churches working together on common causes. The Council also took seriously its role in outlining the position the churches on issues of local, as well as state and national concern. The Council gave common voice to its church members on matters such as gambling, prohibition, McCarthyism, civil rights and the needs of the inner city, and other issues of morality.
The first office space occupied by the Council was in the Downtown Y.M.C.A. Thereafter it was headquartered in the rented offices in the Charlevoix Building, and then two locations in the Park Avenue Buildings. Sometime later it moved into its own quarters at 65 Columbia East, and thereafter into smaller rented offices.
In 1962, the word Metropolitan was added to the name to indicate the Council's service to the tri-county region of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties. In 1976, to better define its nature and to indicate its local autonomy, the name of the Council was again changed to Christian Communication Council of Metropolitan Detroit Churches. At that time services were expanded to reach 2000 congregations in eight counties: Essex (Ontario), Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Saint Clair, Washtenaw, and Wayne. Several communions were added to the mailing list, including Church of God in Christ, Missouri Lutheran, 10 Orthodox Christian denominations, Roman Catholic, Southern Baptist, 10 Canadian denominations, and others. The name was changed to Metropolitan Christian Council (Detroit - Windsor) in 2000 to more clearly indicate its international dimension.
Additional information about the Metropolitan Christian Council will be found in the commemorative history (to 1969) written by G. Merrill Lenox (located in the Topical File series under "History") and on the website: http://users.aol.com/councilweb/
