UCC 28th General Synod July 5th

On the last day of General Synod the delegates voted on the resolutions.  At every General Synod there are a number of resolutions that are proposed by various of segments of the UCC.  They can be proposed by the Covenanted ministries such as Justice and Witness to mention one, or be started by a local church.  If they are started by a local church they have to go to the Association for a vote.  If they pass the vote of the association it then goes to the Conference annual meeting for a vote.  If the resolution passes these hurtles it then goes to General Synod.  This year the Central Atlantic conference of which Christ Church is a member, had no  resolutions to approve, but there was one in 2010 which was sent to General Synod. 

The process when the resolutions come to synod is that a committee looks at all the resolution submitted, and puts them into categories and then assigns them to a group. Sometimes if the subject is similar, they are combined. The delegates are assigned to a committee to work on resolution.  The Conference Minister gets the list of resolutions and caucuses with the delegates about what position he/she thinks should be taken, but the delegates are free to vote their own mind!  This is the UCC where every voice can be heard!  The delegates go to their assigned committees and speak about the subject.  This  year something new was tried, in that there were experts who gave a talk about the background information for the resolutions.  That happened on Friday July 1, the first day of synod.  After the committees have met and come to a decision, there are hearings in which everyone, including visitors can speak about the topic.  Visitors can observe the committee meeting but not speak.  So this is a short version of the resolution process.  When a resolution is passed it becomes the voice of the whole church and in most cases it goes back to the local church to implement.  The UCC groups can provide resources for the implementation or not.  There is a chart of how business is conducted on the web.  

I will only mention the resolutions that were discussed at this meeting by title and whether they passed or failed and the possible action item for Christ Church.  For those who would like to read the full copy of the resolution I refer you to the web. www.ucc.org/synod

·       Proposed Changes to the Bylaws Pertaining to the Frequency of General Synod (pdf)  Voted NO

Note: Synod is  currently every two years and the resolution would be a bylaw change to make it every three or four years. 

·       A Call for a Reflection and Advocacy on Behalf of the Democratic Republic of Congo  Voted YES

          This resolution seeks to raise awareness of and engage settings of the church in advocacy 11 regarding the violent conflicts and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the 12 Congo, related especially to the exploitative mining of resources for export and industrial 13 applica
 The mineral needed for our cell phones is mined in the Congo..

o   Congo Week in October – A week that Christ Church will pray for the people in the Congo and members are requested not use their cell phones for a day in support of the Congo works.  Put that on your voice mail!

·       In Support of the Release of Puerto Rican Political Prisoners  Voted YES

·       A Covenant for Church Youth Ministries YES

o   There was a lot of discussion about this.  In some churches the youth ministry was done by volunteers and some by paid staff.

o   This resolution gave guidelines for the support of the youth minister.

o   It also called on churches to celebrate the achievements of the youth.  As one person said “”We don’t need to entertain them, we need to engage them” 

o   Christ Church  We already affirm our youth minister and her parent volunteers. We need to look at the guidelines to see what more we can do.

More later
Jeannette Brown