Massachusetts Conference Edition
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by Marlene Gasdia-Cochrane, Editor
August/September 2005
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Barbara Aiello, Interim Pastor of Central Church in Newburyport, looks over the kaleidoscope of stoles offered by the Rev. Katrina F. Clinton of the First Congregational Church, UCC in North Attleborough. |
By Tiffany Vail, Associate for Communication and Communication Technologies
The planners and organizers of the 206th Annual Meeting of the MACUCC let down their nets in South Hadley, Massachusetts, and caught over 773 attendees representing over 400 churches across Massachusetts (and one from New York) on behalf of the 90,000 members of the Conference.
This year’s theme, “Push Out Into the Deep Water: Lessons in Discipleship” was apparent throughout the keynote address, business sessions, workshops, worship services, and fellowship activities.
Moderator Harry Pape of Princeton kept a jovial mood during plenary, although serious work was also accomplished. Interim Conference Minister & President Stephen Sterner addressed delegates for the first time, and during Saturday's worship service was presented with several gifts symbolizing his covenant with the Conference. Jeremiah Wright, pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, Illinois, preached a rousing sermon at the Friday evening worship service and gave a keynote speech on discipleship at the Saturday plenary session. By large majorities, delegates approved resolutions affirming and encouraging stewardship, supporting ‘jubilee congregations,’ sending a call for environmental education and action to General Synod, promoting peace for all in Sudan and calling on the Conference to defend the cause of the poor in the federal budgetary process. Delegates also approved an ‘emergency resolution’ proposed by Old First Church in Springfield. The resolution encourages local church members to contact their state legislators in protest of the state Financial Control Board in Springfield, where in the past three years budget cuts have forced the elimination of more than 300 teaching positions and more than 200 other positions. And perhaps moved by the ‘Push Out Into The Deep Water’ theme of the Meeting, delegates voted to increase Fellowship Dues by a larger amount than had been requested by the Board of Directors in order to close a projected budget gap for 2006. Delegates set the Dues rate at $15.00 per member, $1.05 above the $13.95 rate that had been proposed. As one delegate said, ‘We need to push out into deep water. We need to fish or cut bait.’
Although his keynote address placed emphasis on tithing, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. (pictured right), of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ stressed lessons in discipleship in his sermon at Friday evening’s service. Drawing on the first eight verses of the book of Acts, he preached that discipleship involved three specific aspects: location, vocation, and preparation. Elucidating Jesus’ words “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” Wright explained: “It’s easy to be a disciple where no one knows you, but your witness is more authentic where people know you and your failures. To be witnesses, we need to be at locations where we are known, where we are not liked – and don’t like – and where we never dreamed we would go.”
Wright preached, “Our vocation is to bear witness to the ministry of Jesus Christ. Our calling is not to have church, but to be church.”
Many attendees commented that it was a most inspiring service.