I once again had the privilege to serve as an Interim Regional minister for the CT Conference of the United Church of Christ for the final ten months of the former Northern Region’s configuration, from June 1, 2004 to April 1, 2005, following the retirement of the Rev. Judy Hjorth after her more than eight years of faithful service.
It was an exciting and remarkably lively time in the life of the Conference, with a wide variety of churches engaged in the search and call process throughout the region, a number of new pastors arriving and settling into new pastoral positions, as well as the exciting Annual Meeting of the CT Conference in October of 2004, which passed a resolution in support of the civil right of marriage for same-sex couples. This was followed by a national presidential election in November that left a polarized American people with even more energy for lively debate about a wide variety of topics. The unexpectedly controversial God is Still Speaking, television ads in early December helped many of our churches begin and commit to ongoing conversations about their United Church of Christ identities and helped us open our front doors to receive folks hungry for an extravagantly welcoming church in which to worship! And then there was the high profile case of Michael Ross and the possibility of the death penalty being used here in CT for the first time in nearly a half century. There were plenty of things to talk about!
It really was a fascinating time to serve the CT Conference and to walk with the Committees on Ministry, the churches, and the pastors of the five associations of the Northern Region: Farmington Valley, Hartford, Hartford East, Tolland, and Windham. Following the completion of my interim time, the regions were reorganized and redistributed to better serve the churches and pastors of each region and new settled regional ministers came aboard.
There is no doubt in my mind after serving this Conference that we share a great covenant and commitment to the God who is still Speaking in our midst. Let us continue to be open to the God, the Christ and the Holy Spirit that moves among us to transform and change us every day of our lives!
