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Pastor's Report
from UCC General Synod 26
in Hartford , CT
With a sustained standing ovation, General Synod 26 enthusiastically received a pastoral letter calling for an end to the war in Iraq and to the “arrogant unilateralism of preemptive war.”
The letter came June 22 as the Synod opened and was signed by the four-person Collegium of Officers (the denomination's leading body) and by Conference Ministers and Seminary Presidents.
It included a confession that “too often the church has been little more than a silent witness” to the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis. A motion was moved and adopted to add General Synod to the list of signatures. Other names are being added on the UCC web site and include mine. This campaign has been called massive. Hundreds of people also took part in a hastily called anti-war protest in Hartford .
Attending the historic General Synod was a record number of people, more than 9,000 from across the nation and elsewhere, making it the largest conference ever hosted by Hartford . Besides me, Garden of Grace UCC was represented by Kevin Dove and lay delegate Jennifer Spears, who received a TAP Ministry scholarship to the Synod.
Kevin and I attended the Coalition for LGBT Concerns luncheon June 22 in which Garden of Grace was recognized as a new Open and Affirming church. Garden of Grace also was recognized before the entire Synod June 22 as one of 80 new UCCs since the 2005 Synod.
Connecticut Gov. M. Jody Rell, Hartford Mayor Eddie A. Perez, and Connecticut Conference Minister all brought greetings to the Synod. Connecticut UCCers prepared 14,000 dozen cookies as a gesture of extravagant hospitality for the guests.
The Rev. Da Vita McCallister, formerly of Atlanta and now youth minister of Trinity UCC in Chicago, the world's largest UCC, preached during opening worship, drawing a strong response from an estimated 1,000 youths. Also, leaders from the 1957 uniting of the UCC were recognized and celebrated during this Golden Anniversary.
Answering an altar call some two decades ago, Presidential Candidate Barack Obama spoke of his faith and his family's ministry at Chicago 's Trinity UCC. He called his faith an “active, palpable agent in my life.”
“Doing the Lord's work is a thread that's run through our politics since the beginning,” he said during a 9,000-plus gathering for his keynote speech June 23. “And it puts the lie to the notion that the separation of church and state in America means faith should have no role in public life. I dispute that.”
Obama's speech was a church event, not a campaign-related one. It drew applause 28 times during its 40 minutes. Obama credited his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, for delivering a sermon titled, “The Audacity of Hope” – also the title of Obama's latest book.
Newsman Bill Moyers spoke about power and justice June 23 in a 57-minute speech, interrupted by applause more than three dozen times and followed by a two-minute standing ovation. He lamented the gap between the rich and poor in America and called the UCC to act.
“I have come to say that America 's revolutionary heritage – and America 's revolutionary spirit – ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of justice, through government by, and for the people' – is under seige. And if churches of conscience don't take the lead in their rescue and revival, we can lose our democracy!”
(I have ordered DVDs of speeches by Obama, Moyers, and NBC newsman John Hockenberry. I also have ordered a DVD giving an overview of the Synod.)
Harvard theologian Peter Gomes, an openly gay man and author of many books, called on UCCs to be more joyful in their worship.
Actress Lynn Redgrave came a moving account of her battle with breast cancer and how it led her family to a Connecticut UCC. Kevin and I attended her one-woman production, “Nightingale,” in its east coast debut at Hartford Stage.
Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, in a speech June 25 called for America 's moral compass to be reset to save children from becoming nothing more than political fodder. She is the 68-year-old daughter of a South Carolina African-American Baptist minister.
The Reverend John H. Thomas, UCC president, preached that more work remained to be done by UCC churches. “Go back home from this cave...Go back, United Church of Christ, into your next 50 years,” he said. That sentiment was echoed in a sermon by Mary Mikhael, president of the UCC-supported Near East School of Theology in Beirut , Lebanon . “The job is not done,” she said.
In the June 26 business meeting, Synod delegates considered resolutions on immigration, farm workers' protection, marriage, physician-aid in dying, theology, and the rural church.
Basically:
-- those seeking to “roll back” 2005 Synod action calling for full marriage equality for same-gender couples entered resolutions that were received without any action being taken.
-- those resolutions seeking more humane treatment for immigrants and farm workers were approved.
-- the resolution on physician-assisted death was amended to urge more consideration of the topic.