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| Thanking generous churches at the Fall Meeting. |
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The Connecticut Conference, the members of its churches, and its neighbors around the state and around the nation were ready for changes as 2009 drew to a close. Some things, unfortunately, remained stubbornly the same. Though some major economic indicators looked promising — including a significant recovery in the value of the Conference’s and many Connecticut UCC churches’ endowment funds — others remained bleak. In particular, the state’s unemployment rate was 9.1% in October 2010, nearly half a point higher than it had been the year before. The state’s capital city had the mournful privilege of the highest unemployment rate in Connecticut, 15.2%, and rates in excess of 10% remained common in the state’s cities. Small towns suffered with cities: both Plymouth and Plainfield, for example, had unemployment over 10% in October.
Rigorous cost-cutting, including staff furloughs, and significant end-of-year generosity permitted the Connecticut Conference to end 2009 with a surprising budget surplus. As a result, the staff returned to a full year of ministry and the Regional Minister positions for Fairfield County and the Eastern Region were increased to three-quarter time.
The Board and the Conference received the report of the Special Commission on Conference Sustainability, which had been tasked with reviewing the financial support of the Conference. Presented in September, the Commission offered fourteen recommendations for the near and long term. They noted the presence of three underlying themes: the needs to improve communication, deepen connection, and reinforce the covenant between local churches and Conference. As the year closed, the Board was considering specific ways to implement some of the short-term recommendations, and had appointed a Staffing Configuration Task Force to consider Conference personnel job descriptions and costs.
The major change of the year came in May, with the retirement of Conference Minister the Rev. Dr. Davida Foy Crabtree. Hundreds turned out at the Old State House in Hartford to celebrate her fourteen years of ministry with the Conference, and her coast-to-coast service as pastor and leader in the United Church of Christ. Sadly, the Conference soon mourned the loss of her beloved husband, David Hindinger, who died peacefully in November after a courageous struggle with stomach cancer.
The Rev. Carole Carlson took the helm over the summer while the Board searched for an interim Conference Minister, and in August the Rev. Charles L. Wildman arrived, bringing a wealth of pastoral sensitivity and local church experience, along with years of conference and national setting board experience. “With the entire United Church of Christ, the Spirit is leading us on a new journey,” he told the Conference in September. “The world has changed dramatically from the one most of us knew in our youth. Every setting of the Church must change as well. We do not know the shape of our future, but we can trust that it is good — because it is God’s future! God is still speaking!”
Conference churches responded generously when new trouble quite literally rocked the Caribbean island nation of Haiti in January, sending just under $300,000 for the people’s relief. They gave generously again when another earthquake struck Chile, when floods devastated a great swath of Pakistan, and when Indonesia suffered both volcanic eruptions and a tsunami. In March, Connecticut residents — including UCC churches — learned first hand about disaster, when high winds swept the southwestern corner and high waters flooded the southeast. In June they lifted prayers when oil stained the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The Regional Ministry of the Connecticut Conference helped local church pastors and lay leaders understand that they were not alone in crisis and in celebration. Michael Ciba, Ineke Mitchell, Mike Penn-Strah, Susan Tarolli, and Sarah Verasco supported search committees and association church and ministry committees, worked with clergy and churches in crisis, led worship services, and offered referral suggestions when a question arose that they couldn’t answer. They also led programs and workshops both in local churches and at larger gatherings throughout the year.
The Threshold Initiative, a pilot project directed at helping healthy churches strengthen their ministries, had its formal launch in 2010. At year’s end five churches had signed on to participate, and each had identified a unique set of areas in which to focus their work. In the fall, the Conference announced the Crossroads Project, offering support for congregations struggling with significant decisions about their future. The first informational sessions are scheduled for January 8th.
The Conference closed the Now, for the Future Campaign for Silver Lake Conference Center in June with a successful anonymous $50,000 matching gift. Now, for the Future gifts have been put to work at the outdoor ministry facility in Sharon through infrastructure improvements and in the rebuilt amphitheater. Along with it, the new Circle Commons and new basketball court were dedicated in October with laughter, song, and prayer. Co-directors Anne and Tim Hughes reported that 1,064 conferees from 159 churches attended summer sessions, and another 3,497 retreat participants in 125 groups enjoyed Silver Lake’s hospitality in the winter, spring, and fall. Supporting it all: $38,500 in direct aid from churches for camperships, and 289 summer staff, and volunteer deans and counselors. Jenn McBurney joined the staff in the spring as the Silver Lake Registrar.
In Youth and Young Adult Ministries, “Thinking About Working for God for a Living” began its work supporting young people considering church vocations and ordained ministry. Three chapters of “Give2” (pronounced Give-Squared), a youth in service program bringing together young people from several churches, had been formed by year’s end, with two more “in the wings.” Two hundred participated in July’s Regional Youth Event in Boston, and the first YAYAM Signature Partner, the “In Our Shoes” anti-bullying project at King Street UCC in Danbury, was announced in December.
Presenters Steve Sterner and Cameron Trimble challenged the Spring Session of the 2010 Annual Meeting to a real commitment to found new UCC churches and reverse the trend of decline. In the fall, Conference delegates honored the 200th anniversary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the nation’s first overseas mission society, and heard a compelling address from United Nations official Dr. Robert Orr on the global challenges ahead.
Associate Conference Minister for Clergy Concerns Ron Brown accepted a call to the pulpit of First Congregational Church in Southington as the year drew to a close, and Barbara Libby assumed those responsibilities on the staff as the Interim ACMCC.
The UCC’s Stillspeaking Initiative introduced the “Stillspeaking Voices” project in 2010, summoning individual church members to pledge themselves to be spokespeople for their beloved Church. Supporting that effort, the UCC released the Language of God and Uniquely UCC video spots. The Connecticut Conference broadened its communication efforts, publishing four print issues of ConnTact, adding a new weekly web and email news service called CTUCC This Week, and launching a weekly audio podcast called CTUCC ConferenceCast, all of which may be found at ctucc.org.
As 2011 begins, there will be much to do. The Conference Minister Search Committee will begin its work, and Board, staff, and leadership will conscientiously consider what the Conference’s ministry will be in the years that lie ahead. In partnership with the local churches of this state, and in prayerful fellowship with UCC congregations across the nation, the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ will strive to faithfully serve God’s people, by equipping the saints to proclaim the Gospel, to teach the Good News of Jesus Christ, to do the work of reconciliation and justice, and to live faithfully in daily life.
