The United Church of Christ

Of Even Greater Joy

2011-12-19T13:06:00.002-05:00

Dear sister and brother travelers and followers of the way;

With you I share the joy of anticipation of even greater joy:

It is the joy that comes in the assurance of God’s love for us and God’s eternal presence with us.

In the coming days we will celebrate God’s desire and initiative to be present with us in the person of Jesus, the child born to Mary and Joseph.

However we choose to celebrate this season, it will be a blessing, if this is the truth at its core:
God’s love for us is revealed to us in the birth of Jesus.

In him we receive the essence of God’s mercy, forgiveness, justice and peace.

Because Jesus showed the way, we have the promise of life eternal.

These are gifts, gifts of God. In Christ, we are blessed to receive them.

Yes, we know that these are also difficult times for people throughout this land and around the world.

So let us be mindful that the God of our blessing also calls us to be servants in the service of humankind.

An even greater joy is the joy that comes as we show compassion and generosity through acts of love and the quest for justice and care for all of God’s children and creation.

This we do in the name of Jesus, born of Mary and Joseph, who in the fullness of time grew to become our savior and liberator.

May peace, blessings and the joy of this sacred season be yours this Christmas and throughout the year to come.

Geoffrey A. Black
General Minster and President
United Church of Christ

Why Wait?

2011-12-14T11:57:00.007-05:00

It's early Advent and thoughts of waiting, watching, anticipation, longing and preparation are very present with me. In the meantime, I'm here in Logan Airport, Boston, listening to strains of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" that waft through the air. Keeping in touch with the spiritual richness of this season can be challenging to say the least. However, there are these moments when the themes of Advent surface with real clarity.

I had such a moment last week while visiting Cuba with a delegation of leaders from the National Council of Churches. We were the guests of the Cuban Council of Churches and we were there primarily to engage in conversation with our Cuban sisters and brothers around issues of mutual concern. The relationship between the two Councils and many of the churches that comprise each body has a long and lively history. Visits like this, and the visit of a small Cuban delegation to the NCC General Assembly last year, have helped to keep the relationships vital.

There was a moment in our conversations when it was pointed out that the U.S. embargo against Cuba has been in place for about 50 years. In so many ways this embargo/blockade has caused the Cuban people to suffer –– a fact that becomes apparent to anyone who visits. Yet, our government has seen fit to keep it in place in the hope that its negative impact will cause the Cuban people to overthrow their government. The fact that this has been going on for a long time –– almost 50 years –– gave me pause to wonder. It was a moment indeed, a revelatory moment.

Many U.S. citizens are aware of the embargo and share the view that this is an unnecessary and failed policy that serves as a barrier to economic development in Cuba, leading to impoverishment and other economic hardship. The embargo harms constructive people-to-people relationships between Cubans and North Americans, many of whom are Cuban Americans. So, we wait and we hope for the day that it ends.

On the other side, the Cubans seem quite resolved to wait for the day when the embargo is ended by the United States. Their waiting has been long. Many of them have never known a time when people and commerce moved freely between the two countries. So they can only imagine what it would be like. But those I spoke with on this recent trip could only imagine that lifting the embargo would certainly make their lives better. What we see in their waiting is hope yearning for a change that looks like it will never come.

In that revelatory moment, the 50-year wait for the blockade of Cuba to end, a wait shared by people the world over, deepened my awareness of the meaning of the Advent season. Waiting and watching, hoping and yearning are central to Advent, and are not limited to the experience of the people of ancient Israel, who waited for the coming of God’s anointed, the Messiah. Like them, we also wait.

No, we’re not waiting for the Messiah to come. Jesus has come and gone. We celebrate his advent here and yes, we await his return. In the meantime, we also wait to see changes in our world, even as changes like the lifting of the Cuban embargo seem improbable or unlikely. In that moment, I realized again that there are yet realities for which we wait, and Advent is a reminder that we cannot give up or give in simply because change has not yet come.

Like people of faith through the ages, we wait, because we trust the promises of God. Like them, we await the coming of a new day of peace and reconciliation among the nations and people of earth. We await the breaking down of barriers and blockades and all manner of suffering that we as humans cause.

However, our waiting is not passive or idle. It is active and filled with expectation. It presses forward with the assertion that change is coming, as it challenges the status quo. It embraces preparedness and making a way for change to come. Our waiting is full of hope and expectation, based on our knowing that long ago people waited for God’s anointed to appear. To their surprise, in a little out of the way town, a poor Jewish couple gave birth to a child and named him Jesus. In Him God’s promise was accomplished once. We wait now expecting that in the fullness of time, this will happen again.

Geoffrey Black presents an NCC gift to Dagoberto Rodriguez, Cuban Minister of External Affairs.

The NCC delegation at the Latin American Medical School, Havana, Cuba.

Three in One

2011-11-28T10:55:00.002-05:00

No, I'm not going to launch into a theological reflection on the Trinity. I'm sure that most who might tune into this blog are quite familiar with that kind of thing and don't need or want me to give my latest version here. So, I won't. However, I did come across something that has a Trinitarian ring on a recent visit to the UCC in the upper Mid-west, in Minnesota.

Sign outside of SpringHouse Ministry Center

What I saw was three Minneapolis churches that are about to move into one building and share life and ministry. They call the new building the SpringHouse Ministry Center. These churches are not merging—and that is an exciting element of their story. What they have decided to do is take the largest of their respective buildings and refit it. The building will now serve three congregations, thus reducing their aggregate carbon footprint. The new facility will provide each congregation with an accessible facility where they can live out their distinct identities while sharing in Christian formation, community and mission.

Lyndale United Church of Christ, Salem Lutheran (ELCA) and First Christian Church (DOC) are the churches that have come together to embark on a new life in the edifice that was once the sole home of Salem Lutheran. The building will now house three sanctuaries, classrooms, offices, community space and a full-service kitchen. One interesting feature of this arrangement is that the congregations will rotate their use of the sanctuaries, giving each the opportunity to experience the unique features of each worship space.

Minnesota Conference Minister, Karen Smith Sellers tours new site with Don Portwood and Michael Vanderford of Lyndale UCC.

This is a good news story, and it may give us a glimpse of what is possible and what the future might look like for many churches. In this instance, the churches coming together have ecumenical ties since the UCC congregation has a full communion relationship with both the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church. While the Lutherans and the Disciples do not have this kind of relationship, I'm sure that this living arrangement will enable these two congregations to discover a way toward oneness that might be a gift to their respective denominations. Of course, the presence of the UCC in the SpringHouse might just be the ingredient that makes it all work.

SpringHouse Ministry Center

As I toured the site, one of the first things that came to mind was the story of Broadway United Church of Christ in New York City. For more than a decade, Broadway has also shared a building with an ELCA congregation. I shared what I knew of the Broadway story with our hosts, Don Portwood, the pastor of Lyndale UCC and Michael Vanderford, the Moderator. I'm sure they chuckled to themselves as I went on about these churches coming together. Once I was finished, they informed me that they knew about Broadway and that as the Spirit would have it, Broadway church had heard about them and had already blessed them with an encouraging gift!

Okay, I can't resist. I'm going back on my word just to say something about one person of the Trinity. That dynamic Holy Spirit just seems to keep working among us in mysterious ways.

Worshipful Work and a Wake Up

2011-11-16T09:41:00.005-05:00

Here in the national setting of the United Church of Christ, we have just concluded a long weekend of meetings. The governing boards of the Covenanted Ministries, the Executive Council, the Board for Common Global Ministries and the Council for Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations were in town, while the Pension Boards and the Board for Ministerial Assistance were meeting in Florida.

In the midst of all of that work, the real highlights of the weekend were three worship settings. I might add, appropriately so. On Friday we were able to participate via the internet in a worship service that originated in Boston, Massachusetts at Old South Church. This was a service of blessing in recognition of the very successful culmination of Mission: 1. The meeting of the joint Boards on Saturday was also framed as worship. So as we went about the work of the Boards together, we were very mindful that we were about the business of the church – about God's call to us to be in service to the whole human family and in the name and Spirit of the Risen Christ.

On Sunday, there was yet another worship setting. This time we gathered at Cleveland's Pilgrim United Church of Christ. We were there for a service of installation for the new Collegium Officers of the United Church of Christ: Jim Moos, Ben Guess and Mark Clark. This was indeed a special moment for the United Church of Christ. It was a festive worship setting, rich with symbols of our history and signs of our future.

I always look forward to the music in worship and on this occasion I was surprised, delighted and inspired, especially by the anthem for the day. The selection was one that I had never heard used in worship, probably because it was a rhythm and blues hit from the 1970's and was never intended for use in church, at least not in 1975, when Whitehead, McFadden and Carstarphen wrote it. That notwithstanding, it was perfect for the occasion!

"Wake Up Everybody" was the title of the piece, and for me, it really worked as an anthem. Although written over 35 years ago, it remains relevant today. The words resonate with our frustrations and aspirations. I also think this song worked as an anthem because it was written in the spirit of the Civil Rights movement, a movement that pushed for and achieved real and meaningful change.

Hatred, war and poverty are the vexing problems identified in the song. Change in the world is also identified as a reality to be addressed. However, lines like "Wake up everybody, no more sleeping in bed, no more backward thinking, only thinking ahead," are reminders that we are in a moment when we cannot afford to look to the past as our destination.

There is a hopefulness in these lyrics when the chorus insists, "the world won't get no better if we just let it be, no…We've gotta change it, just you and me." Devoid of theological content, for sure, but when surrounded by the inspiring preaching of Kaji Spellman, the evocative poetry of a young poet from Bismarck, ND, Rachel Patrie, as well as our prayers and hymns like "It is Well With My Soul," "Wake Up Everybody" fit right in as a reminder of our responsibility to be actively engaged in the change that we want to see.

As I reflect on a weekend filled with worship in different settings and with varied foci, my awareness of God's transformative presence grows. God's gift of technology enabled us to see and hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ eloquently proclaimed across vast distances, reminding us of the many ways we can gather as church. When our work is framed in worship, we are sustained and emboldened in the knowledge that the mission we serve is God's mission and we are engaged in the holy and the sacred. Finally, when the song that is sung is there to challenge and inspire God's people in worship, we are awakened and able to listen with hopeful and faithful ears.

An Ecumenical Visit to Germany and the UEK (Union of Evangelical Churches)

2011-11-08T15:41:00.000-05:00

Peter Makari, Karen Thompson and I have been here in Germany for the last four days attending meetings of our German partner church the UEK /EKD (Union of Evangelical Churches/Evangelical Church in Germany). This is a relationship that has a long history. While here, I've learned that its beginnings go back much further than I had previously known. I realized this on Friday night when we gathered for an evening meal during which story-telling about the UEK/UCC relationship was interspersed between the courses of the meal.

Max Korany

Several people attending the gathering had been asked in advance to talk about their experiences with the United Church of Christ over the years. The evening program was facilitated by Max Korany, who also serves as the chairperson of the UEK/UCC Forum in Germany. Several of the people who spoke had served UCC local churches. Their reflections focused on how these experiences had been formative and inspirational for them. We heard from Elga Zachau, who served in the Central Atlantic Conference, and spoke about the UCC as a just peace church. Barbara Rudolph told us about her year serving in a small rural parish in the Wisconsin Conference, where issues of human sexuality and sexual orientation were openly discussed to the surprise of all, including her. Markus Saverwein spoke on the welcoming informality of the people he encountered when he arrived in New York as a parish ministry intern and of his supportive pastoral mentor, Brian Kraus.

Krista Grengel, Reinhard Groscurth, and Peter Makari

While these pastors spoke of time spent with the UCC in the United States, two of the stories came from people who had participated in the partnership for many years—in one case, long before the founding of the United Church of Christ in 1957 and before the full communion agreement of 1979. Reinhard Groscurth provided a chronological overview of the UCC's relationship with the German churches, pointing out that the earliest contact was in 1936 when E&R leaders reached out to the German church out of concern about issues of racism surrounding the Olympics, which were to take place in Germany that year. Reinhard went on to name several additional key dates leading to the establishment of full communion between the two churches.

Christa Grengel, who also participated in the talks leading to full communion, spoke to us about key UCC leaders with whom she worked during the process. She pointed out that people like the late Scott Libbey, who served as Conference Minister in South Dakota at the time, and Fred Trost, retired Wisconsin Conference Minister, were instrumental in helping the churches of the former GDR (German Democratic Republic/ East Germany) feel less isolated from the rest of the church. She told us that the relationship "brought us out from behind the wall."

By the end of the evening it was more than clear that this full communion relationship, known in German as Kirchengemeinschaft, is the result of deep commitment to peace, justice and the visible expression to God's gift of church unity that is valued by the UCC and its ecumenical partner in Germany, the UEK.

Mission: 1 - The Buzz

2011-11-02T11:28:00.000-04:00

These days there is a buzz throughout the United Church of Christ and it has to do with Mission: 1. There has been growing excitement about this new coordinated effort to address the needs of hungry people in the U.S. and abroad. As I travel about the church visiting congregations and associations, I meet many people who are taking the initiative in their churches and communities to advance Mission: 1. Yes indeed, there is a buzz throughout the UCC.

From 11.1.11-11.11.11 we will work together as one United Church of Christ to collect more than 1 million food items for local food banks, raise $111,111 in online donations for Neighbors in Need and $111,111 for East Africa famine relief, and write 11,111 letters to Congress. That's what the excitement is all about. These are tangible and challenging goals, but what I sense is a real can-do spirit in our midst. Might it be the Holy Spirit nudging us forward?

Mission: 1 is an opportunity for us to live an answer to Jesus' prayer "that they may all be one." All settings of the United Church of Christ—local churches, Associations, Conferences, ministries of the national setting as well as UCC-related colleges, seminaries and social service agencies have been invited to participate in what will be a unified endeavor, within a designated time frame.

This missional effort is grounded in one of our core values. That value is changing lives. We believe that our engagement in Mission: 1 will change the lives of those who are served with direct food aid, program grants and improvements in governmental policy regarding foreign aid. We also hold that we will be changed in the process, as our awareness of the issue of poverty- related hunger increases and our resolve to advocate for change in government policy grows ever stronger.

By setting measurable goals and establishing an accessible means for everyone to monitor those goals, we are challenging ourselves to do more and to do better. Local churches and other organizations participating in Mission: 1 can go to our website ucc.org, to report their food and letter contributions and make online gifts to Mission: 1. Each day during Mission: 1 we will be able to measure our progress toward achieving our goals.

Because we are well aware that hunger is a reality that far exceeds the giving capacity of all churches and not for profit relief agencies, Mission: 1 is also about public policy advocacy. Changes in government food policy are essential if we are to see meaningful and sustained change in basic nutrition, an essential aspect of human life.

Of course, historically, advocacy has been a component of our approach to this issue. Public policy advocacy is integral to addressing the needs of hungry people at home and abroad, who are children of God and our sisters and brothers. Our Justice and Witness Ministries and our Wider Church Ministries staff and volunteer advocates have set the stage for Mission: 1 over the years. Now, with Mission1, we expect to expand that understanding by getting more people and new people involved in writing letters to elected officials.

A special aspect of Mission: 1 is that we are not alone in this effort, especially as we engage in public policy advocacy. For years we have partnered with Bread for the World in this work, and again with the letter-writing component of Mission: 1, we join with Bread for the World and its 2011 Offering of Letters Campaign. We believe that our partnership with Bread for the World enhances what we are able to accomplish with Misssion:1. We are thankful for this partnership and we celebrate all that it will accomplish in serving the very real needs of the hungry.

Mission: 1 is now under way, and I believe that we will reach and even exceed our goals. Let's work hard, pray fervently, give generously and write passionately, all to the glory of God. Let's see what God will do with and through each and all of us as we seek to serve God in Jesus' name.

Occupy Wall Street – A Sign of the Times

2011-10-25T14:46:00.000-04:00

As I looked through the postings on my Facebook page recently, I came across an illustration titled, "The Original 'Occupy Wall Street' Protester." It got my attention since it made use of a painting depicting Jesus breaking up business as usual and running the money changers out of the Jerusalem Temple. Indignation, anger and perhaps frustration were certainly in order in response to those who brought their unethical business activities into the Temple courts. They were exploiting the religious devotion of poor people and all those who had made a pilgrimage to the Temple. Jesus was not out of line or out of place in his very visceral expression of his feelings. In fact, as always, he was right on time!

In that moment in the Temple, Jesus was expressing a spiritual yearning for economic justice and outrage at individuals and systems that exploit people. For him, business as usual had become totally unacceptable. That kind of yearning is not to be found in the halls of the U.S. Congress or in the reports and analysis of much of the mainstream media. However, the Occupy Wall Street movement is bringing the matter forward in a most visible and effective way. So it comes as no surprise that there are church folks and especially UCC church folks in the mix of Occupy Wall Street. After all, they are Jesus' disciples.

There is another point in the gospel narrative in which Jesus challenges his listeners, the Pharisees and Sadducees, to read the signs of the times (Matthew 16:3). If nothing else, Occupy Wall Street is a sign of these times in which a concern for the common good is emerging as it should. These are also times of outrage at the Wall Street investment firms, banks and related corporations due to their flagrant abuse of the economic system that has in so many ways harmed poor, working class and middle class people. Only the very wealthy have benefited from the unwarranted gains of the investment and banking organizations collectively known as Wall Street.

This is a movement that has been a long time coming, and now it is here. The simple truth is that so many of us are suffering that our collective voice of discontent, frustration and even anger is rising above what has been the dull murmur of despair and helplessness. Occupy Wall Street is indeed a sign of the times. It is unfortunate that there are many in government and the business community who refuse to see it for what it is and respond appropriately with policies and programs that support the common good and advance economic justice. Certainly disciples of Jesus living today are in a position to read the sign and amplify its message. Thanks be to God, many are doing just that!

"The Original 'Occupy Wall Street' Protester" illustration is helpful. It puts the Occupy Wall Street movement into perspective. It gives people of faith a frame with which to assess what is going on with this movement. It too is a sign, a sign that makes the relationship between Christian faith and the quest for economic justice clear for all to see.

Ten years later, shoulder to shoulder

2011-10-18T09:19:00.001-04:00

September 11, 2011, has come and gone, and I'm feeling that now, the heavy lifting begins again. The period of reflection and commemoration was as rich as it was long. There were ample opportunities to stop and reflect on the meaning of that tragic day 10 years ago.

For me the commemorative events got started early on Sept. 8 in Washington, D.C., at a press conference sponsored by an ecumenical/interfaith coalition called Shoulder to Shoulder.

This is how Shoulder to Shoulder describes itself:

"Shoulder to Shoulder is an interfaith coalition dedicated to ending anti-Muslim sentiment by strengthening the voice of freedom and peace. Founded in November 2010 by more than 26 national faith groups, denominations and interfaith organizations, Shoulder to Shoulder works not only on a national level, but offers strategies and support to local and regional efforts to address anti-Muslim sentiment and to spread the word abroad."

The press conference was designed to be an opportunity for this coalition to get its message out well ahead of the many events planned throughout the nation later in the week and over the weekend. The intent was to honor all who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, and to point out that Muslim people as a religious group should not be blamed for this tragedy; that this was the work of a small group of extremists who acted out of a distorted understanding of Islam. The fact that many Muslims lost their lives in the attacks was highlighted to illustrate that people of all faiths, as well as those of no faith, suffered death and injury that day.

I was on the program to speak as a leader from the Christian tradition. In my remarks I lifted up our UCC General Synod Resolution To Counter Actions of Hostility against Islam and the Muslim Community. This resolution calls on all settings of the United Church of Christ, including local churches, to speak out against religiously-motivated violence, particularly as it is directed against the Muslim community.

As coincidence - or, better yet, the Spirit - would have it, one of the local organizations cited for its work in enacting a strategy to challenge and prevent anti-Muslim violence and hate speech was a UCC church, First Congregational United Church of Christ in Corvallis, Ore. The pastor, the Rev. Elizabeth Oettinger, was there. She spoke with passion and conviction, telling us of a small group of interfaith colleagues she meets with regularly. They call themselves "The Usual Suspects."

Shoulder to Shoulder recognized First Congregational, Rev. Oettinger, and her colleagues for their initiative to organize citizens in Corvallis to stand with the Muslim community in the aftermath of a firebombing of the local mosque.

This was a true call and response moment. The General Synod, which is the United Church of Christ gathered in its national configuration, called on other settings of the church to enact the biblical mandate to love our neighbors, even in the face of bigotry and hatred. Here was a local UCC church and its pastor, along with other interfaith leaders, faithfully responding to that call. For me the synchronicity was simply inspiring!

I know that First Congregational in Corvallis is not the only UCC local church that is engaged in this kind of interfaith activity and witness. I know that many of our churches were about this work long before the Synod passed its resolution. I also know that there are many other faith communities and secular organizations who share our concern and commitment. However, the task of countering the tide of anti-Muslim bigotry, what I refer to as "heavy lifting," is likely to be with us a long time.

With Shoulder to Shoulder, we have made a good start. My hope and prayer is that the effort will only grow, getting stronger and stronger, creating a tidal wave of belief and action to overwhelm the voices of hatred and fear that often go unchallenged in this country.