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HARTFORD (06/05/2007) -- In addition to the plenary sessions, breakout groups, and Synod in the City, these special events hold interest for visitors to General Synod 26:
The UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries and Task Force on the Environment and Energy are sponsoring this pre-General Synod conference. Keynote speaker Jerome Ringo is Chairman of the Board of the National Widlife Federation. He will be joined by the authors of the UCC’s landmark 1987 report, “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States,” Dr. Ben Chavis, Jr., and Charles Lee. Morning and afternoon workshops will address some of the crucial environmental concerns facing the planet, and a new report, “The UCC- -Toward a National Environmental Focus,” will be released. Other speakers and workshop leaders include Beverly Wright, founding director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice at Dillard University; and Robert D. Bullard, Ware Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University.
Location: Immanuel Congl. Church, 10 Woodland St., Hartford
Cost: $25.00.
Contact: Gordon Bates at gsbates34@yahoo.com
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The Freedom Schooner Amistad will embark on a one and a half year journey across the Atlantic to England, where it will be part of the celebration of 200 years since Great Britain ended slavery; and to Africa, the goal of the original Amistad captives. The schooner’s departure has been delayed so that visitors for the UCC’s 50th anniversary General Synod can be part of blessing the vessel as it embarks on this significant voyage. The day’s activities include an interfaith service in New Haven, an address from UCC General Minister and President John Thomas, a noontime Coast Guard Band concert, and 2 p.m. commissioning ceremony at the Amistad’s berth at the New Haven wharf (see story on page 8).
Location: New Haven
Contact: Rev. Kent Siladi at 203.453.0614; or kents@ctucc.org
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Come listen as the stories of children from around the world are given voice at the General Synod 26 Wider Church-Global Ministries International Dinner. The event includes presentation of the International Partners Mission Recognition Awards, given for outstanding ministry. Buy tickets when registering for General Synod, or use the email address below to obtain information about tickets if you will not attend Synod.
Location: Hartford Civic Center, 1 Civic Center Plaza, Hartford
Cost: $32.00 per person.
Contact: Wider Church Ministries, United Church of Christ, 700 Prospect Ave., Cleveland, OH 44115. 216.736.3218; wcmgsdinner@ucc.org
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If you’re curious about the rich regional history of the Puritans in America, consider joining a half-day “Great Awakening” bus tour of sites related to one of America’s greatest theologians, Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758).
The tour, sponsored by Hartford Seminary and Yale Divinity School in conjunction with the General Synod, will occur Monday, June 25.
Ken Minkema, director of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale Divinity School, is our guide. The tour begins at the Hartford Civic Center, site of General Synod 26. The first stop will be Edwards’ birthplace in East Windsor Hill, where participants will view his home church, the family cemetery dating back to the late seventeenth century, and the president’s house of the East Windsor Hill Seminary, founded in 1834.
From there, we travel the historic highway through Enfield, where in 1741, at the height of the Great Awakening, Edwards preached his most famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” Next we go to Northampton, Massachusetts, where Edwards ministered for nearly a quarter of a century. Here participants will see the First Churches of Northampton, the Edwards Church, and the Bridge Street Cemetery, where the famous missionary David Brainerd is buried.
The tour concludes with a stop at Hartford Seminary, the institutional descendant of the East Windsor Seminary, where we will have lunch.
Space is limited. To reserve a seat, please contact Kelton Cobb, Professor of Theology and Ethics at Hartford Seminary and one of the tour planners, at 860.509.9513 or kcobb@hartsem.edu.
A modest fee of $20 will be charged for lunch and to defray costs.
