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HARTFORD (06/20/2007) -- The vast majority of the thousands of people traveling to General Synod 26 in Hartford this week are coming to celebrate the United Church of Christ's fiftieth anniversary as a denomination, but those accredited as delegates by their home conferences will have a good deal more to do. They will be responsible for deciding priorities, officers, and budget for many of the national and international ministries of the UCC.
Two national Collegium officers, Executive Minister of Wider Church Ministries and Associate General Minister, will be elected by the delegates. The current officeholders, Cally Rogers Witte and Edith Guffey, have been nominated for re-election. The vote is scheduled for Monday evening.
Allocation of the Our Church's Wider Mission Basic Support contributions -- the national budget of the UCC -- will be decided Monday morning. OCWM funds originate with local congregations, each of which determines its contribution individually, and sends the money to its conference. UCC conference delegates then decide the proportion which will be forwarded to the national body, whose budget is set by the General Synod and overseen by the Executive Council and Collegium of Officers.
Delegates will also consider seventeen resolutions submitted by UCC bodies. The topics include immigration policy, marriage, environmental concerns, rural churches, death and dying, and justice concerns in the Middle East, the Philippines, and the United States. Click here for the list and texts of the submitted resolutions.
Much of resolutions work happens in committee deliberations, which will be held Sunday evening and Monday morning. The committee reports will then be presented to the full Synod on Monday and Tuesday, where the delegates will debate and decide the final texts of any resolution.
In the UCC's covenantal polity, decisions of any body of the church are considered advisory, and not binding, on other bodies of the denomination. Local congregations, conferences, and even some national structures are asked to seriously consider Synod actions, but cannot be directed to take any action themselves. The same is true of measures approved at local church and conference settings of the church.
Other Synod business includes consideration of reports, attention to the activities of national bodies since the last General Synod, inspiration from plenary speakers and musicians, and the worship of God. And this year: celebration of fifty years' ministry as a united and uniting part of the body of Christ.
