UCC General Synod Report
United Church of Christ General Synod 2013
June 28-July 2
Long Beach California
Report of the UCC Representative
Jeannette Brown
This was General Synod 49,
held every two years by the United Church of Christ. This year three other Christ Church members joined
me, Rev Caroline Dean a youth delegate, Frank Bolden, who was newly installed
on the new UCC Board of Directors, Christine Shesler retiring member of
the UCC Board and her husband Carl Shesler.
I was happy for the company because it meant that I did not have to be
everywhere to cover all the events. Other
eyes could see the events. I hope that
our team will have a debriefing meeting sometime to think about some of the
action items that came out of Synod.
Because we are in the
digital age, Synod was well documented by reporters so that I will put the
links to the web at the end of my comments.
In addition, I have many photos to document the trip.
Friday June 28
This was the first day of Synod, which began its first
session in the afternoon. The exhibit
hall was also open and it contained a bookstore and a gift shop along with displays
about all the organizations of the UCC.
Here is the link about that: http://www.ucc.org/news/general-synod-exhibithall-06282013.html
The opening plenary session started at 3:00 PM with the
introduction of the Moderator and her three assistants. The meeting consisted of administrative
information for the delegates and introduction of the use of the electronic
voting instrument (clickers). They took
some test votes and found out that part of the hall was dead, so they fixed
that for the next time the clickers would be used.
Next came the sponsored meals. I attended the dinner of the Open and
Affirmative Coalition since Christ Church is an O&A church. They gave
information about the number of O& A churches, which constitute only 25% of
all the churches. They want to work to
increase this number; therefore, they have started a fundraiser to raise money
to hire a person who would work with churches on the sexism and racism
programs. They asked for pledges but
since I was not authorized to pledge for Christ Church I will submit the
information to the Board of World Fellowship.
"The celebration also
recognized the leadership of the Rev. Otis Moss, senior pastor of Trinity UCC
in Chicago, for taking a public stand in support of same-sex marriage. Bishop
Yvette Flunder, founder and pastor of the City of Refuge in San Francisco,
presented the Courage Award to Moss. His remarks to the hundreds gathered at
the banquet came via a recorded video message, since Moss had to remain in
Chicago for a funeral of a longtime member of his congregation"
http://www.ucc.org/news/gs2013-lgbt-coalition-06282013.html
Finally came the evening
worship service. It was preceded by the
introduction of guests of the synod so that worship did not begin until about
8:30 when it was supposed to begin at 7:00 PM.
There was a great sermon by a young African American Minister, Rev.
Neichelle Guidry Jones from Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago. She was very active as she preached in the
African American manner, which was good because that late at night, I
personally was very tired. http://www.ucc.org/news/guidry-jones-calls-worshipers.html
Saturday June 29
The day started at 8:30 with a brief worship
service. It was a contemplative worship
service with no sermon.
Plenary started at 9:00 AM I gave a "Speak Out" about my
book. Speak Out is when anyone can sign
up to speak about anything not on the agenda.
I was trying to get people to purchase my book and mentioned the UCC
references in the book. My photo is
posted on the Christ Church Facebook Page.
At the plenary, they
celebrated the fact that 47 new and renewed churches in the last two
years. Some churches request to join the
UCC in fact the UCC is the most desired group for churches to join than any
other mainline church organizations.
W. Mark Clark, associate
general minister for the UCC, said that in order to make sure that everyone who
wants to be a member of a UCC church, but lives in an area where people are far
apart may become a member of a virtual church, which would be established. The UCC staff will be divided into teams to
make this happen.
In addition, in order to make
this happen there will be an office of philanthropy to receive donations from
individuals as well as churches and associations.
http://www.ucc.org/news/extravagance-ucc-launched-GS2013.html
The Wilmington Ten Story was introduced by Video. Rev Ben Chavis who was one of the Wilmington
Ten was there at Synod. Dr. Chavis said in every generation we must take the
risks in order to do justice. (Note: the
story was told better at the Central Atlantic Conference meeting.) http://www.ucc.org/news/forty-years-after-the-fact.html
Finally, during that morning
Maria Hinojosa an Emmy award-winning journalist gave an impassioned speech
about the immigrant "problem".
http://www.ucc.org/news/maria-hinojosa-urges-synod.html
Her talk lasted so long I missed going to the Service
Project that I had signed up for, but that was OK because they wanted me to
paint and I did not sign up to paint. I
visited the exhibits instead.
I met the archivist of the Congregational Archives in
Boston. They have a booklet about the
methods to be used for church archives.
They also have a person who will help churches or send interns to help
so I will pursue that.
Media and Technology workshop- Since I did not do a
Service Project I attended a workshop on Media and Technology in the
church. Since Christ Church is media savvy,
I did not need to pay much attention.
The leader said that 83% of the 18-25 year olds in the church want less technology
in the church, which was surprising. The
leader said technology should be used to enhance the worship experience and do
not overload the service with technology.
http://www.ucc.org/news/general-synod-workshops.html
The evening dinner was a Luau that was organized by the
Pacific Island churches. It was held
outside in the park and there were long lines for food. Since it was very hot, I sat down in a shady
spot and waited until the lines got shorter for my food. There was entertainment by the Samoan and Hawaiian
and other Pacific Island churches.
http://www.ucc.org/news/samoan-luau-GS2013.html
The evening entertainment was Bernice Johnson Reagon
and Toshi Reagon her daughter. It was a
good concert. Afterward they did a book
signing and cd signing. I gave Bernice
Johnson Reagon a copy of my book and she was well pleased. She told me of a place where I should display
and sell my books. She signed one of her
books for me.
Sunday June 30.
Sunday was a day of rest. I had signed up for the
United Black Christian luncheon but since I was singing in the choir, the choir
rehearsal was at the same time so I had to forgo that lunch. I sang in the Synod Choir (my picture is on
the Christ Church Facebook page). The
rehearsal lasted two hours; we sang a piece Fiat Lux by Jeffrey Haeger. He conducted his piece. We had been sent the music and the sound
track to study before rehearsal. I found
a You Tube performance so I learned the music that way. The rehearsal was fun. Worship Service was great and when we sang
the piece went so fast that I missed it.
Rehearsal was more fun.
Since I was tired, I did not do any evening events so I
missed meeting the ministers who write the Still Speaking Devotions.
Monday July 1
This was a workday for the delegates. Since I was staying at the hotel where the
Central Atlantic Conference group was staying I went to the 7 AM meeting. At this meeting, the Rev Geoffrey Black
attended along with his chief of staff and other UCC staff. He was up for reelection to his post as
General Minister. The meeting lasted one
hour followed by breakfast
The plenary started at 8:30 AM. They started to vote on
the resolutions. The resolutions are
listed on the UCC website, but by the time, they come up for a vote; a
committee of delegates has worked on them so they may not look like the
original resolution.
·
Resolution on Immigration Reform was passed and
there was a later march. We were asked
to meet with our congressional delegations to speak about our views of
immigration reform. http://www.ucc.org/news/GS2013-immigration-reform-march.html
·
The Doctrine of Discovery Resolution was passed.
Many people have been patiently waiting for their time, especially Native
Americans who have been displaced from their homelands because of the Doctrine
of Discovery," he said. The Doctrine of Discovery, a well-established idea
among Christian nations for many centuries that is still being used today,
claims that any land not belonging to Christians can be taken into possession
by the one who discovers it. http://www.ucc.org/news/GS2013-Doctrine-of-discovery-repudiated.html
·
The resolution about a relationship with the
United Church of Canada passed
·
The resolution about revision of conference
borders passed.
Lunch was a Sponsored meal for The Wider Church
Ministries. Some of the missionaries
were at this lunch and spoke about their work.
The afternoon plenary was more work for the delegates.
·
The Resolution about Divestment from Fossil Fuel
Companies passed after some discussion and revisions. The Pension Board and the other boards will
decided which companies would be on the list for divestment as some companies
are working towards working on green energy. They will bring their decision to
the next Synod. http://www.ucc.org/news/GS2013-fossil-fuel-divestment-vote.html
·
The National Officers and the new members of the
board were reelected.
http://www.ucc.org/news/GS2013ucc-national-officers-reelected.html
http://www.ucc.org/news/GS2013ucc-national-officers-reelected.html
·
The resolution about women passed with Rev Loey
Powel head of a new women's group. http://www.ucc.org/news/synod-votes-to-resist-actions.html
·
The resolution to make churches more carbon
neutral passed. http://uccfiles.com/pdf/gs29-2-CarbonFootprints.pdf
The Christ Church team met for dinner. (See photo on the
Christ Church Facebook Page.)
The evening Plenary
·
The resolution about funding for Seminary
Students evoked a big discussion so that it was to be continued the next day.
·
The 100th Anniversary of the Pension Board was
celebrated. http://www.ucc.org/news/GS2013-pension-boards-celebrates.html
A hip-hop minister led worship that
evening. http://www.ucc.org/news/worship-in-a-season-of-new.html
July 2 Tuesday
·
The resolution about funding for Seminary
Students passed but not over whelming so the minority voters were asked to
present the minority view which was added to the resolution. http://www.ucc.org/news/GS2013-seminary-aid-resolution.html
The next group of resolutions
passes almost without comment, probably because the delegates were tired.
·
Resolution on Outdoor Ministries passed.
·
The affirmed the relationship with the Samoan
Community (Caroline Dean was on that committee). http://www.ucc.org/news/ucc-recognizes-united-samoan.html
·
Resolution about affordable housing passed
without discussion http://www.ucc.org/news/affordable-housing-is-an-act.html
·
Resolution about mountaintop removal passed. http://www.ucc.org/news/synod-mountaintop-removal-mining-vote.html
Lunch Sponsored lunch was sponsored
by Our Church's Wider Mission, which our Board of World Fellowship
supports. Christ Church Summit and the
Congregational Church of Montclair donated the most money for their size in New
Jersey and they were highlighted in the booklet.
Other actions.
General Synod adopts statement on Supreme Court voting
rights ruling http://www.ucc.org/news/general-synod-adopts.html
United Church of Christ Board introduced to General Synod
Frank Bolden is a member of this Board. http://www.ucc.org/news/united-church-board.html
Theological reflections bring
further meaning to Synod actions and activities this was done by Rev. Rita
Nakashima Brock and the Rev. Quinn Caldwell as tag team. It reminded the delegates why they were
there. http://www.ucc.org/news/theological-reflections-bring.html
The scarf project wanted 3
thousand scarves and got 10 thousand.
They were giving them away to anyone who promised to fulfill the pledge
against bullying. I brought back 13 to be worn by the choir in the Let Justice
Role concert. (humm I will have to make
more!) http://www.ucc.org/news/gs2013-scarf-project-06282013.html
Synod ended with a worship
Service in the evening.
Comments
As a synod junkie, I have some
comments both pro and con about this synod.
·
I noticed that many young people were involved
in synod as delegates, volunteers and attendees. They had a whole synod program for young people,
which started a day before our meeting, and those kids did a lot. Caroline Dean was impressed and thought we
should bring our kids to the next Synod.
·
I also noticed a lack of interactive music. At other synods, a musician who made us stand
up and sing or sway to the hymns or folk music broke up the meetings. The plenary tended to go straight through
with the business without a break or only a short break.
·
The housing was not listed only to go to the
chamber of commerce list. As a result, I
booked the wrong hotel, as I did not know that there were two Residence Inn's
in Long Beach and I booked the wrong one.
I found that out at the last minute but lost my roommate and the Synod
hotel rate. (The national staff person in charge of this was new to the job.)
·
The shuttle buses were great which was the
reason I had to change hotels to be on the shuttle route.
·
They had great volunteers and a lot of
them. The Conference asked for
volunteers from every church in the conference!
· They
did not bring out the traditional cookies until Sunday Afternoon. By then most of them tasted stale. http://www.ucc.org/news/synod-cookies-06302013.html
Submitted by
Jeannette Brown
July 13, 2013
Labels: apostles, Christ Church, general minister; UCC, scarf project, synod, youth
posted by Jeannette Brown @ 6:51 PM
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