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UCC 50th Anniversary
Live at St. John’s!
This year the
United Church of Christ turns 50 years old. We will be celebrating our
anniversary with other UCC churches in the Covenant Association that are
close to us geographically. Our celebration will take place in October at
the Flint, Woodside United Church of Christ, a beautiful church which is
large enough to give everyone a seat and centrally located so members won’t
have far to drive. The celebration will have inspiring music from our church
choirs, Scripture readings, a brief history presentation of the UCC, and of
course, food! Four UCC churches will be participating from Owosso, Grand
Blanc, Davison and Flint, but everyone everywhere is welcome to share in our
joy.
Our church
also will be celebrating at the 26th General Synod being held
this year in Hartford, Connecticut. Those of you whose email address I have
have been receiving emails from me telling of the many great speakers and
events that will be happening at Synod. Following is a copy of a recent
email I received telling how we who cannot go can still see what is
happening!
“UCC's
26th General Synod proceedings coming to a computer near you
Interested in the following the
action of the UCC's 26th General Synod, but unable to make the trip to
Hartford Conn.?
You can stay in touch by tuning in
on the web.
The church is planning extensive
web coverage of General Synod, June 22-26, when the denomination celebrates
its 50th anniversary with record attendance and high-profile speakers.
"We will once again provide
gavel-to-gavel webstreaming at ucc.org," says the Rev. Robert Chase, the
UCC's communication director. "The world is coming to Hartford, even if it
means online viewing from your personal computer."
All plenary sessions at the
Hartford Civic Center will be shown in real time and in their entirety, and
visitors to the UCC's homepage should be able to locate the streaming with
little or no difficulty. (Users with dial-up modems, however, may experience
slower response.)
Chase says once-emerging streaming
technology now has become commonplace, even expected.
"When General Synod met in
Providence (in 1999), we had only 300 people watch via the internet," Chase
recalls. "Four years later, that number jumped to 3,000 in Minneapolis (in
2003) and then reached 36,000 only two years later in Atlanta."
The number of this year's web
viewers is expected to climb, since Synod includes many high-profile
speakers. Among those slated to appear are Bill Moyers, Sen. Barack Obama
(D-Ill., and member of Trinity UCC in Chicago), Marian Wright Edelman, Lynn
Redgrave and others.
In addition to webstreaming,
United Church News and its team of volunteer professional reporters and
photographers from across the United States will provide continuously
updated news stories, features and photos during the five-day event. A daily
news digest, which will be distributed to Synod goers each morning, also
will be available online in .pdf form.”
I am meeting with our Media
Minister, Jack, to ensure we can view live on our big screens, the Synod in
the City. We will be providing the schedule online, in Sunday announcements,
and in print so you can plan on attending to hear and see the great speakers
and be witness to the meetings and celebration.
In the past 50 years the UCC has
boldly proclaimed God’s Good News for the world in Jesus the Christ. As is
always the case, when a leadership role is accepted leaders come under
criticism. However, we have continued to lead the way in widening the
fellowship of Christ’s church to include all God’s children
everywhere.
We have challenged leaders of the
world to make responsible change to social policies so all
God’s children everywhere can live in justice
and peace.
We have opened our churches to
all God’s children everywhere, accepting
and affirming people as God created them.
The UCC is an active body of
Christ honoring God in word and deed. We have had a wonderful 50 years of
unity between churches that trace their beginnings to the Reformation and
find their being in the person and Spirit of Christ. As we think of what the
next 50 years will bring I leave you with a quote from the Rev. James E.
Wagner, President of the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The quote is taken
from a speech he made in Omaha, Nebraska to the Congregational Christian
General Council in 1956.
“The real worth and validity
of this union in the sight of God will eventually be measured by how
profoundly and with what deepening devotion we set about getting God’s work
done in the world. If by the witness of our united churches the world’s
broken-hearted find hope and healing…if young men and women are wisely
guided in the choices they must make and strengthened when they have chosen
‘the hard right against the easy wrong;’…if the imperatives of God’s justice
and love are brought effectually to bear on the relationships of men in our
workaday world and of nations wrestling with the promise and peril of
power…then time and the event and the silent whispers of the Eternal God
will confirm our present faith that the establishment of the United Church
of Christ was the doing of His will.”
Your servant in Christ,
pastor john
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