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| Erskine McIntosh |
Much of the past year was marked by a growing expectation as General Synod 26 approached. This was my first experience of a United Church of Christ General Synod, and I confess that I was wholly unprepared for the true sense of renewal and commitment to divine Purpose that Synod brought.
Our conference, its member churches, volunteers, clergy and laity thoroughly acquitted themselves in extending a personable and warm welcome to all of the Synod attendees. Their hard work will have an enduring, positive impact on the Connecticut Conference, our member churches and their relationship to the Wider Church.
In May, the Board of Directors was proud to be the first Board to use your Silver Lake Conference Center as the site for a Conference Annual Meeting. It was an idea entertained for some time, and we were pleased to expand Silver Lake’s use in order to share its intrinsic value with many members of our congregations, some of whom experienced its sacred beauty for the first time. It was a splendid day, one which spoke eloquently for securing the vitality and viability of the Conference Center’s mission and ministry as expressed in Now for the Future: The Campaign for Silver Lake.
I believe the overriding concern in the mind of each member of your Board was the Conference’s relationship with its member churches. The Board perceived that misunderstandings and uncertainties on the part of some churches about the focus and mission of the Conference could better be addressed by developing a closer relationship between the Board and our member churches. To help define and pursue that goal, the Board invested time in internal development, created a strategic plan and was regularly informed on the continuing efforts of the Comm,unity Team to conclude its work.
Finally, the Board took an initial step last fall to enhance its relationship with the Conference senior staff at a day-long, joint strategic planning meeting, facilitated by Gil Rendle of the Alban Institute. We expect this work will encourage and foster more direct contact and dialogue, informal and otherwise, between individual Board members and member churches. By undertaking this privilege of “listening,” we hope the Board, and thereby the Conference, will be in a better position itself to discern God’s will and live the covenant that exists among church members, their local church, and the Connecticut Conference, including each Board member. We seek something more than theory, something more than dogma; something corporeal and everlasting that ultimately shall redound to the benefit of our denomination by perpetuating our sense of renewal of and recommitment to divine Purpose.
