Central Atlantic Conference Annual Meeting Newark Delaware 3. Boundary Training

On Sunday of the Meeting,  the workshop was Boundary Awareness Training for clergy and lay leaders. Here is information about Round 1.

The 2006 Annual Meeting of the Central Atlantic Conference affirmed a resolution from the Chesapeake Association which called upon the Conference and its Associations to undertake Boundary Training for its clergy and church leaders.

Following the adoption of this resolution by the Annual Meeting the Conference Ministry Team called together representatives of the five associations to design a Boundary Awareness Training Program for the Conference. It was agreed that each Association would adopt its own Boundary Training resolution using a similar template and that a common curriculum would be designed.

In order to maintain Ministerial Standing authorized ministers in the five Associations were asked to complete Round One of Boundary Training within two years at any one of the events held throughout the Conference. This two year cycle has been nearly completed.

At least 25 Boundary Awareness Training events have been held at locations throughout the Conference for nearly 400 clergy. A substantial portion of the curriculum for these events was based upon materials developed by the Faith Trust Institute with a particular focus on sexual misconduct.

I believe that all of our clergy has completed Round 1 of Boundary Training.

The workshop was to speak about Round 2 of Boundary Training which would include lay leaders of the church. For information about Round 2 see the link above.

Here is a distillation of the discussion about the workshop:
1. Sometimes people act inappropriately in our relationships to other people including the clergy.
2. We may treat our clergy in an inappropriate manner.
3. The UCC is in the process of developing a code for lay leaders in the church.
4. Lay leaders all have gifts which they want to share, but they need to know when to lead and when to follow.
5. Lay leaders need to understand that the church is not just the local church it is broader than that.
6. An orientation session should be set up for new lay leaders in the church so that everyone is on the same page.
7. Lay leaders
     - Some churches come to agreement by working on consensus in which every voice is heard.
8. The pastor is the head of the local church and should not be asked to have another (former) pastor celebrate a service such as weddings or funerals.  (There was a lot of discussion about this point.)  The reason for this, if the pastor is new, he/she needs to develop a relationship with their flock.
9. Any information that lay people receive in confidence, such as prayer concerns that the person does not want to be made public, that confidence should be respected.
10. The Disciples of Christ have a list of ethical guidelines for congregations that people could consult.
11. The young people (20's and 30's) of the church should be consulted but they have a difference attitude about relationships which should be respected since they are the church.

This is all that I could glean from this discussion which was very lively and interesting.

Jeannette Brown
UCC Representative