Annual Meeting 2002

After three days of activity, discussion, worship, debate, prayer, learning, laughter, and song, the delegates to the Connecticut Conference's one hundred thirty-fifth Annual Meeting returned home. They had heard and accomplished much in those three days, gathered in the remarkable and hospital structure of Hill Regional Career High School in New Haven.

Conference Minister Davida Foy Crabtree's address to the delegates on Friday night offered faithful and sensible guidance for living in times after disaster such as ours. She spoke powerfully of the witness for peace she had experienced among our partners in Colombia, and of the challenge they offer us to support that witness. She reflected upon the contradictory heritage in racial relations which has been given to us, challenging the delegates to renew and reinforce their resistance to racism. She joyfully announced that the General Synod of the United Church of Christ will meet in Connecticut in 2007, the celebration year of the denomination's fiftieth birthday.

Keynoter Bernice Powell Jackson, Executive Minister for Justice and Witness Ministries in the United Church of Christ, spoke Saturday of peace and Sunday of justice: and was clear both days that there is no peace without justice. Observant of the world around and of the events of the meeting itself, she presented great wisdom and challenge to the assembly.

Hugh and Kate McLean, Chairs of the prospective capital campaign committee, reported on their work to date. The proposed campaign's title will be Now for the Future, and its designated purposes will be:

1. Urban Youth Initiatives in Connecticut, around the nation, and across the world
2. Endowing the Future: funding seminary scholarships and supporting the UCC's 6 challenged conferences who do ministry over wide areas with very few resources.
3. Silver Lake: improving accessibility for the handicapped and providing a new year-round dining and lodging facility.

Further steps lie ahead: a feasibility study, the determination of a financial goal, and in June the Conference's decision whether to proceed.

The delegates also heard remarkable reports from Kent Siladi, part of a delegation which visited Colombia last summer; from the Korean Partnership, including words from the Moderator of the Kyung-Ki Presbytery; from the Seminary Support Committee; and from the youth who participated in Saturday's Misson Day. They recognized the addition of Mill Plain Union Church in Waterbury to the UCC, of Niantic Community Church to those which are Open and Affirming, and those congregations which have given a tithe of their current expenses to OCWM or stepped up appreciably in the past year. They worshiped in ways dramatic and simple, humble and profound. They attended workshops and viewed displays. And they made decisions.

The Conference voted two budgets. For the Missionary Society of Connecticut, which is the agency which manages the Conference's funds for general ministry, they authorized a budget of $5,780,388 for 2003. For the Trustees of the Fund for Ministers, which provides retirement support and emergency aid for clergy, they voted $999,490. They voted to raise the funds with a $2,730,000 OCWM Basic Support goal and a $2.00 per capita contribution from the churches, with 63% of OCWM Basic Support funds allocated to ministries of the national United Church of Christ.

The delegates also voted to revise the Conference by-laws. The new arrangement ends the Regional Councils of the late 90s structure, and seeks nominations from the Associations. It makes Ministry Team members voting members of the Conference, and adds an additional youth delegate to each church.

The assembly voted four resolutions:

• Advocating Peace And Reconciliation In The Korean Peninsula
• The Connecticut Conference, Ucc, Our Churches And Their Relationships With The Boy Scouts Of America
• Affirming Peaceful Alternatives To War On Iraq
• A Call For Prayer And Dialogue

Worship throughout the weekend was creative and powerful. Friday night's litany of the Creation was accompanied by a series of images which emphasized the power of the Scriptures and prayers being read. Saturday brought a moving chancel drama of the church's confrontation with suspect persons, who were found to be Jesus as "the least of these." Superb gospel singing from the Elm City Vocal Ensemble accompanied ministry testimonies from Waterbury and Branford. Sunday's closing Festival Worship held at United Church on the Green delivered the full glory of traditional music in organ, handbells, brass, tympani, and a grand full choir, as it filled the spirit with the preaching of the Word and the serving of the Sacrament.

The Conference knows, however, that these three days are but the beginning of another year's service and ministry: a renewal and a rededication to the work of the Gospel.

Day by Day Reports

• Day One: Delegates got organized, and heard the Conference Minister's Address of Davida Foy Crabtree. [Account of Day One]
• Day Two: Conference delegates heard reports, examined financial issues, and voted four resolutions in the Saturday sessions of the Annual Meeting. Bernice Powell Jackson brought the challenge of peace and peacemaking to the gathering, and the Conference's youth attendees did great work around the host city of New Haven. [Account of Day Two]
• Day Three: Delegates approved a budget, voted revisions to the Conference bylaws, and heard once more from Bernice Powell Jackson. [Account of Day Three]

Annual Meeting Information

Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
October 18, 19, and 20, 2002
at
Hill Regional Career High School
New Haven, CT

The Connecticut Conference Annual Meeting brings the clergy and delegates of our 260 churches together for three days of worship, learning, discernment, decision, and commitment. Those who attend make and renew friendships, set the priorities for the next year's ministries, and join in great songs of praise to God. Marked with both controversy and laughter, the Annual Meeting is a central part of the life of the Connecticut Conference.

Annual Meeting Information

There are three mailings to clergy and local church delegates. As far as possible, those mailings will be duplicated here.

Third Mailing: September 2002

Official Call to the Meeting

Second Mailing: August 2002

Cover Letter: Describes the further events of interest and schedule of additional information.

First Mailing: June 2002

Cover Letter: includes a brief description of the Annual Meeting schedule as it stands now.