UCC national gathering

For 56 years I have been a part of the Church which has called itself the Evangelical & Reformed Church and then the United Church of Christ. (a merger with the Congregational Christian Churches in 1957 is what led to the shift in the name). For 26 of those years I was a UCC parsonage rat. That means my father was a minister. Since then I have been a UCC minister. Over that time both before and after ordination my identity has been very wrapped up in the UCC. Particularly in planning and action to provide for a more just world. Through the UCC I visited East Germany and Hungary before the iron curtain fell to talk about human rights with our sister denominations. Through the UCC I visited Nicaragua in the midst of the contra war. Through the UCC I was a representative on CORA (Commission on Religion in Appalachia). I have worked on numerous issues before our national General Synod as well as ongoing ministries and programs.

YET, these days I find myself feeling sideways to the predominant themes within the nationally projected image of the UCC. Over the next five days the UCC General Synod will be meeting in Atlanta. There is a lot of fanfare about a resolution supporting gay and lesbian marriages...which I encourage. However, for me the most vital one is about Jesus being proclaimed as Lord. The UCC president, John Thomas, took issue with the assertion made by the supporters of this resolution that the Lordship of Jesus Christ is fuzzy across the denomination. I would agree with what John has written. But I would also agree with the commentary that it is fuzzy across the denomination. Both within my own congregation and in conversation with a variety of folks including clergy, the confession of Jesus is Lord, is not a slam dunk. I have been told time and time again that in the UCC "we can believe what we want" and that includes that Jesus is a nice fellow and a good model along with a variety of other good models in history, but "don't give me that salvation, sovereign Lord, resurrection, ruler of God's empire" gunk. I heard it here in being asked not to preach about Jesus, but some good social issues and at a number of funerals for the WW II generation "Mom/Dad was loyal to Fairlawn-West UCC, but please don't preach about the resurrection because she/he didn't believe that stuff." Both in our "liberal" and "conservative" strands of social/political idealogical warfare we have avoided the central truth that we are united in Christ. Even now in the national UCC God is Still Speaking campaign the emphasis is on unity in the UCC rather than that it is in the body of Christ that we are called, serve and offered life that never ends. We have supplanted in our practice what we claim with our mouths. No wonder the world around is confused about what is our purpose/mission. How we are different from any other social/political advocacy group?

I don't agree with the statements in the original resolution. I also get the feel that they are more interested in trying to control others than to enable a corporate confession across the UCC. Yet, I find myself leaning more towards what they are doing with this resolution than against it. And if it does not pass...we shall see. Right now the national campaign is saying our name as "the UNITED CHURCH...of Christ". The emphasis is more on our unity than the Christ who makes us one. It sounds to me like we are putting more trust in what we humans can accomplish, with God on our side, than that transformation that takes in all life in Jesus Christ. I like what the Confessing Christ group which is within the UCC is saying in regards to this resolution.