Enthusiasm
is building for a new church start in Provincetown, despite a recent
setback in acquiring funds for the project.
The
Massachusetts Conference was recently informed that all new church start
funding available through the national United Church of Christ is spoken
for through 2003.
The
Conference had applied for a grant for the Provincetown church, and
earlier in the year for a mission church in Turners Falls. Neither was
approved.
But
those who have been working on the Provincetown church start —
part of the Conference’s commitment to start 10 new churches in
10 years — say they will not be deterred.
“We
had been waiting for the grant from the national UCC to come through,
but when that didn’t happen we started going full steam ahead in
other directions,” said David Clarke, who is working to be the
founding pastor of the Provincetown church. “We're not going to
be deterred. We'll move on with renewed energy.”
Dale
Hempen, Associate Conference Minister for the Southeast Area, agreed.
“If
we have to create our own sources of funds, we will do that. It is important
enough,” Hempen said. “Right now there is no Christian denomination
in Provincetown that is really receptive and open to the population
that’s there.”
Provincetown
is known for its large gay population, and the new church would be Open
and Affirming, meaning it welcomes gays and lesbians into its life and
ministry.
Clarke
is the former pastor of the First Congregational Church in Pembroke.
A gay pastor, he resigned earlier this year, after an unsuccessful search
for a new church, in order to live in Provincetown with his partner
of 13 years.
Since
then, Clarke has paid the bills by working at a convenience store. On
his own time, he has gotten to know people in and around Provincetown
and talked to them about the possibility of a new church that would
be Open and Affirming.
“It's
been very low-key, but has been very well received,” Clarke said.
“Many people I have talked to have had great enthusiasm. Some important
seeds have been planted.”
Enthusiasm
for the new church start is growing outside of Provincetown as well.
The
Conference’s Open and Affirming Task Force, for example, is working
on plans to hold a fundraising dinner for the new church. And Conference
staff members plan to contact the Conference’s 36 Open and Affirming
(ONA) churches in an effort to gain their support.
“For
those churches, this could make ONA more alive. It will be a chance
for those churches to ask themselves ‘what do our commitments mean?’
It could be really exciting,” Hempen said.
Clarke,
Hempen and Paul Nickerson, Interim Associate Conference Minister for
Evangelism, Mission and Justice Ministries, have also been talking to
church leaders in the Barnstable Association about supporting the new
church start.
“The
only way this will work is if there are partnerships,” Nickerson
said. “That is the model that works — and in terms of funding,
that is the reality.”
Nickerson
is in the midst of forming a church development task team, which will
look at demographics across the state to identify areas with expanding
populations or emerging ethnic populations, and will work with local
churches and Associations to plant churches in those areas.
The
Conference’s Vision for Renewal and Growth calls on Conference
churches to recapture their heritage by starting 10 new churches in
10 years.
“This
is a ministry that has been historically part of congregational outreach
but which has been neglected in recent times,” Nickerson said.
“All 432 churches of the Conference were new church starts at some
point. Someone cared enough to found a congregation that we call our
own today.”
Clarke
said that by starting a church in Provincetown, the Conference will
be reconnecting with the past. Over the years, he said, there have been
four Congregational churches in Provincetown the most recent closing
in 1950.
“Our
Congregational forebears have a long history in the town,” he said.
“I really feel the church can be born again here and flourish,
although maybe in non-traditional ways. I like to say we're standing
between memory and hope.”
Many
churches have already expressed enthusiasm for the idea of starting
new churches. To date, 60 Conference churches and numerous individuals
have pledged $200 a year, for five years, toward new church starts through
the Conference's Church Development Stars program.
The
Conference’s The Gift and The Promise Campaign was the first to
articulate the need for new church starts. So far, $500,000 from the
capital campaign has been placed into a new church development endowment
fund. Income from that fund will be available for new church starts
within the next few years.