Metropolitan Boston Area

The Rev. Dr. Thomas L. Clough
Associate Conference Minister in the Metropolitan Boston Area
2005 Report

It is a great joy and a great challenge to serve in an Association where we have churches planning the celebration of their 375th anniversaries and a congregation moving into its fourth hope-filled year. Archbishop Romero of El Salvador once wrote, “It is true that tradition comes out of the past…but it has always a view to the future.” Here in the Boston area, where there are so many reminders of the impact of our tradition over the centuries, I am continually delighted by the energy and enthusiasm in our congregations as they look to the future.

The MBA Council, under the able leadership of Rev. Karen Fritz and Bradford Harding, has monitored the work of the MBA committees, and attended to concerns of the congregations. The Council recommended to the Association that the Hope Church in Jamaica Plain be granted standing in the United Church of Christ. This was enthusiastically approved by the Association at our Spring Meeting. Hope Church was started in Roslindale in the fall of 2002 by Rev. Elizabeth Myer and Rev. Matthew Boulton, and has been a church In Care of the MBA for the past two years.

In addition to welcoming the Hope Church, at our Spring Meeting of the Association we took some time to consider the Ministry Issues Pronouncement which was to be considered at the General Synod in Atlanta. Rev. Mary Luti and Rev. Beth Nordbeck provided a spirited debate on the merits of the Pronouncement. The MBA also accepted the requests of the Lakeview Congregational Church in Waltham and the First Church of Squantum that their membership in the MBA be terminated.

Thanks to the concerted efforts of our new Vice Moderator, Bradford Harding, we redesigned our Fall Meeting to focus on congregational discernment. Following time for a Mission Marketplace and the approval of the 2006 budget, Rev. Martin Copenhaver of the Wellesley Village Church was our keynote speaker. The delegates were given time for discussion groups in which they considered whether or not congregations were ready for a radical change in their approach to the decision making process. The event, hosted by the Needham Congregational Church, concluded with a catered meal.

Many new clergy
The MBA Committee on the Ministry (COM), led by Rev. Rob Asinger and Susan Prindall, welcomed a great number of new clergy into the ministry this past year. We celebrated the ordination of nine new clergypersons and granted Privilege of Call to one. The COM has renewed its commitment to the social justice component of the in-care process. It also continues to consider ways in which this discernment process might be better informed by those settings in which the candidates have served, such as field education, clinical pastoral education, and seminary.

The MBA Committee On Ministerial Standing (COMS), which has been chaired by Rev. Eileen Morris and Rev. Dominic Taranowski, has interviewed and celebrated the installation of four clergy now serving in MBA congregations. The COMS also was asked to provide a Situational Support Consultation for one of our congregations which was experiencing conflict. Thanks to the superb leadership of the Rev. Peggy Derick, the COMS and this congregation were able to come to the conclusion that further work with a conflict resolution consultant would be helpful. The congregation has already contracted and begun work with a consultant. The COMS also spent a good amount of time considering whether or not the Association should commission parish nurses. It was decided that this could be done more effectively at the congregational level.

Spanish flavor
For me, this also has been a year with a new Spanish accent. In February I served as one of five delegates from the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC to the Annual Meeting of the Pentecostal Church of Chile in Curico, Chile. We had the opportunity to experience the extraordinary mission work done on our behalf by our Global Missions Missionary, Elena Huegel. Her specialties of Christian Education and Environmental Studies have been merged in the development of the Shalom Center, an environmental education center in the Andes mountains. We visited the Shalom Center, area churches, and attended a number of the evening worship celebrations during the Annual Meeting. It was a great honor to be asked to preach to more than four thousand church members at their Saturday evening service. In November I accompanied a group from the First Church in Cambridge, Congregational on a ten day visit to El Salvador. This trip was led by the Chrispaz organization, and offered us a challenging view of the impact of US policy on rural life in El Salvador. I returned with a renewed commitment to assist Cesar and Lisa De Paz and the ministry of the Hispanic Community Church here in Boston. We have already begun to explore the possibility of expanding their ministry beyond Jamaica Plain. The MBA Council has expressed support of this possibility, as have a number of our congregations.

New administrative help
I know that I speak on behalf of all those who have needed administrative help this year when I say that Colin Loggins is a gift from God. Colin joined us in January 2005 and quickly mastered the many different responsibilities of our office. He then developed the MBA website, which provides a massive amount of information about the policies and procedures involved in the many authorization functions of the Association. His reliability and initiative are only surpassed by his sterling sense of humor. It is our hope that the new year will bring us the resurrection of the MBA newsletter.

It continues to be a great joy to serve as the Associate Conference Minister in the Metropolitan Boston Association of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ. It is an honor to work with such interesting and dedicated colleagues, clergy and lay, who care so deeply about the life of the church here in the Boston area.

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