Annual Meeting Concludes

Three resolutions and the 2004 budget decisions received the delegates' on the third day of the 136th Annual Meeting of the Connecticut Conference. Buses transported the body to the Congregational Church of New Canaan for the Festival Worship service of words from Conference Preacher Dwight Juliani and the sacrament of Holy Communion.

Davida Foy Crabtree
and Erskine McIntosh

The delegates approved three resolutions in the morning session with some discussion of each one. Click the links below to see their final (unofficial) text:

Board of Directors Chair Don Ketcham then led the body through the series of actions that set the budgets for the Missionary Society of Connecticut and the Trustees of the Fund for Ministers. The Annual Meeting decided:

To set a Basic Support Goal (contributions from the churches) of $2,617,560 for 2004,
To allocate funds received as follows:
- 37% of Basic Support funds to be used for Connecticut Conference ministries,
- 63% of Basic Support funds to be sent to the United Church of Christ for national and international ministries,
- Investment income to be used entirely for Conference work unless otherwise stipulated by the donor, and
- Special Support, capital and emergency appeal monies to be designated entirely to the purposes for which they were authorized.
To set a per capital request of the churches at $4.00 per member, with the funds received to support ministries of the Connecticut Conference,
To approve the budget of $5,392,652 for the Missionary Society of Connecticut in 2004, and to grant the Society the privilege of revising the budget during the year as funds are available and needs arise, [MSC budget: PDF] and
To approve the budget of $958,959 for the Trustees of the Fund for Ministers in 2004, and to grant the Trustees the privilege of revising the budget during the year as funds are available and needs arise. [TFM budget: PDF]

The financial decisions were taken nearly without debate, except for the issue of the per capita request. A number of delegates expressed a preference for a more gradual increase.

In closing the meeting, Conference Minister Davida Foy Crabtree honored the gentle, steady leadership of Moderator Erskine McIntosh throughout the weekend. In his closing remarks, Moderator McIntosh reflected on two critical components for building a strong and vital church: community and covenant. He told of the remarkable efforts of his home congregation in Washington, DC, to build a community in a neighborhood of changing racial and economic demographics, and of how the same house of worship had welcomed his mother and his daughter in very different yet powerful ways many years apart. From that community, he said, we can then enter into covenants for significant ministry.

Dr. Crabtree also announced the location of the 2004 Annual Meeting: Suffield High School, where it would be hosted by the Hartford Association. Association representatives Douglas Andrews and Karen Bailey-Francois extended their welcome and expressed their excitement for next year's event.

Mr. McIntosh then handed the gavel to newly elected 2004 Moderator the Rev. David Spollet, who sounded the bell to end the meeting following the close of Celebration Worship. Another Annual Meeting has drawn to an end, and its decisions will shape another year of ministry in the state of Connecticut and beyond.