134th Annual Meeting:

Simple Gifts, Differing Gifts

by Hal Chorpenning

Delegates, visitors, and clergy from every corner of the state came together on three beautiful autumn days to do the work and worship of the Conference: the 258 churches that together comprise the UCC in Connecticut. Meeting at Killingly High School in Danielson, Conn., the 134th Annual Meeting of the Connecticut Conference heard from scholars of the Middle East and Islam, attended an array of 20 workshops, played UCC Jeopardy, approved a $5.7 million budget and a $2.7 goal for Our Church's Wider Mission for 2002, voted two resolutions in the wake of September 11, and worshipped God together.

Resolutions on Peace and Civil Liberties

Resolutions speak to our churches, rather than for our churches, so they require your congregation's consideration with care and intention. (Full text is available on this site and will be sent to each church.) Two resolutions were passed at this year's meeting.

The Church of Christ in Yale University (a UCC congregation) brought a resolution to Annual Meeting calling for the Conference Board of Directors to communicate with the President, Secretary of State, and our representatives in Congress, "urging them to follow the force of law not the law of force," and recommending the "criminal justice system to bring perpetrators of this crime rather than resorting to war." The resolution also urges congregations to hold special offerings for two separate appeals: the UCC's "Hope from the Rubble" appeal and the "Afghan Emergency Fund" and to educate our own congregations about Islam and nonviolence.

In an extraordinary suspension of the rules, delegates voted to allow a resolution to be brought from the floor, in light of special circumstances. A resolution "Safeguarding of Civil Liberties" was proposed by the Reverend Thomas MacMillan of Second Congregational Church in Coventry, who was an attorney prior to ordination. The resolution states that "legitimate security needs of our country can be achieved without eroding the liberties and freedoms" we enjoy. The resolution "encourages our churches, our legislators, and our public policy advocate to oppose any proposals that would (for example): permit indefinite detention of non-citizens without probably cause... permit the use of wire tapping and electronic surveillance without the normal safe guards that ensure privacy.... permit law enforcement officials to conduct secret searches."

How Will We Be Christ's People?

Davida Foy Crabtree

In her annual address, Conference Minister Davida Foy Crabtree, asked the question, "How will we be Christ's People?" She paid moving tribute to Connecticut's clergy, who have faced one of the heavies burdens in pastoral care giving not only for the bereaved, but for those who survived the events of September 11. And she announced programs for clergy that will help refresh and nourish them spiritually.

"It is absolutely critical," she asserted, "that our response be rooted in our Christian identity. She announced the creation of a new section on the Conference website which will provide different theological perspectives relative to Christian responses (pending) and also an interactive FIDO* email discussion about these perspectives (under development).

Offering her own personal perspective, Dr. Crabtree said, "In every cell of my body and every fiber of my being, I believe that meeting terrorist violence with more violence simply escalates the hatred and feeds the poison." (The full text of the address)

Keynotes Inform & Enlighten

In light of the events of September 11, the Conference staff and Annual Meeting Planning Committee opted to find keynote speakers who would address topical concerns of Islam and global perspective. Dr. Dale Bishop, executive minister for Wider Church Ministries in the UCC, gave Saturday's address. Dr. Bishop leads our denomination's mission efforts and is a scholar of the Middle East, especially Iran. He was formerly on the faculty of Columbia University and was one of a handful of individuals invited to be present at the signing of the Oslo Peace Accord. Dr. Jane Smith is codirector of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary and is a recognized authority on Islam in America; she is also a member of the First Church of Christ, Congregational, in Farmington.

Dale Bishop

Bishop invited those gathered to "explore questions we ought to be asking in light of our Christian faith," and he also contended that "some of the wrong questions are being asked." Bishop asserted that "nothing can justify this horror [of September 11]," while at asking us to look at situations around the world were people are desperate and have no mean of redressing political or economic oppression.

Quoting the Rev. William Sloane Coffin, Bishop said that "Just when we should be going religious, we go political; and just when we should be going political we go religious." Why did the U.S. use Islam as a lever in supporting the mujahedeen in Afghanistan? And why did Israel initially support Hamas, again using Islam as a lever?

Bishop said the primary question we, as Christians ought to be asking ourselves is the same question Jesus asked Peter: "Who do you say that I am?" Bishop claimed that at this point, "We need to go religious, rather than political," seeing the current events as a spiritual challenge to our own identity as Christians. He also identified the struggle between common sense and what Jesus told us, and he claimed that we should be "doing something apparently futile and manifestly faithful: taking up the cross."

Jane Smith

Jane Smith spoke about American Muslims in the face of extremism, and described their current situation as "crisis mode." While there are more than 6 million Muslims in American (more Muslims than Jews), they are a very heterogeneous group, with roughly one-third immigrants or their children, one-third African American, and one-third other converts.

Dr. Smith identified five ways American Muslims are reacting: disbelief and horror, fear, solidarity, outreach, and introspection. "All the Muslims I know have had the initial response of disbelief and horror," she said. The element of fear comes from worrying about local reprisals against them. Smith recounted a 10-year-old American Muslim girl who asked her mother, "Is this the end for us? Are we going to be killed?" Solidarity is expressed through women adopted Islamic dress to express their pride in being Muslim and closing ranks between Muslims of different ethnic backgrounds. Outreach is being accomplished by entering into dialogues with leaders of other faith traditions. Introspection is a further reaction, asking how Islam will be changed by the events of September 11, and going back to the Qu'ran to see what it says about war and violence... along with a deep desire to interpret that it does not support violence.

On an encouraging note, Dr. Smith said that for the most part, Connecticut Muslims were getting three to five positive phone calls or affirmations from Christians, Jews, and others for every call or gesture of derision.

To learn more about Islam, go to www.beliefnet.com and click on "Understanding Islam." Dr. Smith and her Hartford Seminary colleagues are among those contributing to the information on that website.

The Annual Meeting was not what anyone on September 10 thought it would be, but in recasting the gathering, the UCC churches of Connecticut came together to address the issues that we all have been grappling with since that sunny Tuesday morning in September when our lives were forever altered.