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by Rev. Dr. Stephen Austin
June/July 2007
Listening Process UpdateAt our 2-day retreat on March 23-24, the Board was delighted to receive the final report of the Conference-wide data elicited from the Listening Process Steering Committee. The input was immensely helpful in the attempt to begin discerning the issues most vital to our restructuring – or “reforming,” as one member put it.
The Board is indebted to all those serving on the Steering Committee for not only a job well done through countless hours of intense work, but for their in-cisive interpretation of the major concerns and hopes of the Conference as expressed through those who participated in the Listening Sessions. Please visit the Conference website at www.macucc.org/xnews/listening.htm to see the final report.
As the Board began its discussion and discernment, we scoured
all the input taken from that report, and combined it with considerable input from Conference staff, in-formation gathered from other Confer-ences and middle judicatories that have gone through similar processes, and the expertise of Gil Rendle from the Alban Institute – as well as other authorities on restructure and reformative action within church visionary life and governance.
The Board actively attempted to take as broad a view as possible, in order to exercise leadership with both confidence and integrity, given the scope of impact and consequence on all the Conference. Most of that weekend in March was spent discussing what the core values and functions of the Conference are, and beginning to prayerfully discern how to most effectively address and be faithful to them.
Throughout the month of April, we continued to receive additional input from groups such as the Open and Affirming Task Force, the Commission on Evangelism, the Central Association report on Appreciative Inquiry, the MBA, as well as numerous individuals and stakeholders. All of this assisted us at our May 5th meeting in creating a first working draft of the final proposal. This draft will go through some language and formatting revision prior to being disseminated throughout the Conference in early June – after which we will then
welcome further feedback before presenting our official recommendation of restructure to the Conference at the Annual Meeting on June 22 in Hartford, CT.
It has been a long, arduous, but more than worthwhile process, in which we as a Board are proud to walk arm-in-arm with you as members of our Conference, in discerning together as we launch into a future with so many possibilities for faith, outreach and prophetic vision. Thank you so much for all you have shared and devoted in creating this process and walking this journey together.
It is with mixed emotions that we are bidding a congratulatory but sad good-bye to Mike Penn-Strah, with gratitude for five years of exemplary service to the Conference as Associate Conference Minister (see related story).
Several options are being considered for serving the churches and clergy in the Northeast part of the state, as well as the other functions he carried out on Association boards and committees – not the least of which is his work with Interim ministers and churches in transition – in order to respond to Mike’s absence.
Our response will be developed in the context of the Conference-wide transition in which we’re engaged, and will be informed by the listening process just completed.
Our prayers and bittersweet but enthusiastic support go with Mike.