Central Atlantic Conference Annual Meeting Newark Delaware 4 Miscellaneous

The total number of people in attendance was 87 clergy, 111 lay delegates, and 58 visitors.
They showed videos as a part of the Sherrie Taylor's New Jersey Association report.  One was of the Camp Bernie Youth Retreat.  I recognized some of our youth who attended that meeting,  I will try to get a copy to show in church. 

The other was the newest church member of the association Grace United Church in Flemington NJ.  I was involved on the committee for that new church start and attended that church in the summertime when there was no choir at Christ Church.
The church in Paramus agreed to disband and sold the property.   The money has gone into the Paramus Congregation Trust Fund which is administered by the conference. Twenty three % of the money goes to local church ministries and the rest is used by the conference for new church starts etc.  This took a long time to resolve.

During worship they showed some videos about Open and Affirming Churches.  I send in some photos for this, but the only photo I recognized was an old choir photo, which I did not send in.  Oh well.

Associate Conference Minister Richard Vaught is retiring in November and Sherry Taylor will retire sometime next year.  Therefor the conference will be starting a search for an interim conference minister.  They will also form a committee to discuss whether the duties of a conference minister will change.  Currently there are four conference ministers for five conferences, there used to be five.  They want to know if each conference should have a minister or should the duties be broadly spread over all the conferences by three ministers.  The reduction is due to the lack of funds.

The banquet speaker for Saturday night was Dr. Robert Orr who is Director of planning for the UN.
He said that the UCC is responsible for the UN being in existence.  During World War I the United States did not join the League of Nations.  The Congregational Church (precursor to the UCC) worked hard during World War II to make sure that the US was involved in the UN.
The present goals of the UN are:
        Limitations to nuclear power
        Saving the environment
        The empowerment of women
         the empowerment of young people as it is their world.
He documented the reasons for those goals.

Jeannette Brown
UCC Representative