what I like about the United Church of Christ/UCC #3

One of the treasures of the United Church of Christ in present time is Gabe Fackre. I have mainly gotten to know Gabe online via various listserv conversations. I had heard of him for years before. First as prof at the UCC related Lancaster Theological Seminary and then at UCC related Andover Newton Theological Seminary from which he is now retired.

Here is a link for Gabe and his wife Dottie's web site. Gabe continues to lift up in such a gracious spirit in the continuing stream of what has been at the heart of the United Church of Christ tradition in the present and long before there was a body known as the UCC. There are some today who are trying to divorce the present day UCC from its gifts and history before the merger that led to the UCC in 1957 (and it would seem even put a major spin on the first 2 to 3 decades of the UCC history itself). Gabe continues to assert without rancor what has been the ecumenical and justice heart of Christ in that which became the United Church of Christ.

I consider Gabe to be a true progressive. Because progressives can only be such if they know and honor the past in its fullness. And they have to know the past to be able to argue with it. Gabe is one who does this.

My lament is that Gabe has been shuffled aside these days almost to a side show in the wider tent of the UCC. That is to our own demise! But, with a voice and heart of God such that he has, what he points to will continue to be lifted up...the reality of Jesus Christ as God's gift to the world that becomes the resurrection to life from the death of this world.