June 22: This first session will be held in Hartford, Connecticut, on the morning of Friday, June 22. This session will include condensed business and a worship service. Instead of Massachusetts Conference-specific workshops and programs, delegates would have the opportunity to participate in the myriad of worship and program opportunities presented as part of the 50th Anniversary
Celebration.

“The wider UCC is inviting us to a huge festival in our own back yard in June 2007,” said Dawn Hammond, Associate Conference Minister for Policy & Finance. “The Board decided that, rather than staging our customary Annual Meeting in South Hadley just a few weeks earlier, the Conference should take full advantage of this opportunity. It will be an extraordinary chance for those of us in Massachusetts to meet UCC sisters and brothers from all over the country and get a glimpse of the richness and vitality of our denomination.” South Hadley is less than an hour away from Hartford.

September 29: This second session will feature United Church of Christ General Minister and President John Thomas as keynote speaker and a worship service including the installation of Conference Minister and President Jim Antal.  The major item of business will be to hear and act on recommendations emerging from the Listening Process for a new Conference structure to be tested during 2008.

The Board of Directors approved the plan on September 16th.