Julie Holm's Blog: UCC Trifecta

Post-Synod thoughts

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:01:39 GMT

I tried to mostly keep my blog observational during Synod, and thought I would share some of my own thoughts and feelings in retrospect. The thoughts and feelings are informed by the fact that I also took the UCC History, Theology and Polity class around the Synod.

Worship at Synod was glorious - throughout. The big highlights for me included the Thursday evening healing service (not officially part of Synod, but it might as well be), the preaching, and the dramatic service for evening prayer on Monday. There were some great ideas for dynamic worship in those. I am personally very excited by some of the movement that we saw - especially that which involved giving the congregation the chance to do the movement, rather than just watch it. Personally movement for me is something I want to do, not something I necessarily "get" if I watch. Fabulous use of graphics, of art, of setting, of drama throughout. The "they said"/"They said" nature of the discussion did dismay me.

More than that issue, though, were the encouraging fact of passing the various resolutions of witness. I was really impressed with the breadth and thought associated with these resolutions. While it may not make a real difference in what happens in the world, I think that it is important that the church says these things. I was particularly moved by the Accra confession - and hope to really bring those concepts back to my own church.

Ministry changes were important to our class, as most of the class was made up of ministers, and people who hope to become ministers. The other paths to ministry issue was a huge one for some of my classmates, including a woman who is a licensed minister in a church in Arizona, who is seeking ordination, but is a full time pastor now, and a young man in seminary who has a family, and who is deeply struggling. For me thinking about the alternatives made it clear both that seminary and the MDiv is the absolute best path for me, and that there is MUCH to learn that I cannot learn in seminary.

I hope that gives you some idea of the breadth of my reaction to this exprience. Now I need to determine whether to continue this blog, and if so, how to refocus it.

Unsettling - Synod Day 5

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:20:13 GMT

A day full of meetings, some unexpected disagreements, and Synod ends in a beautiful communion service.

We started the day, James Camp and I from our class, doing a Speakout!, a one minute presentation on any subject you liked. ours was about the diversity of the polity class, and, by the way, thanked the teachers and facilitator of the class as well. It was fun, and I think we did a good job.

Then, very early in the session, the body addressed the polity issues. The committee had deftly crafted a compromise version of the bill, which supported both bringing bylaw and constitutional changes to the next Synod, and doing some of the healing and listening work advocated by those in favor of the pause. Unfortunately, the resolution was early on the agenda, and the compromise not quite accepted by all, and after a couple long-winded failed attempts at amendment, the combined resolution passed by an overwhelming margin.

Hard Work - Synod Day 4

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:46:01 GMT

Today we all worked hard - worked on a service project, on homework, and our delegates worked hard on elections, budgets and resolutions, ending the day with a meditation on the Spirit of gentleness.

The day started, for me, with a service project. I was in the Habitat for Humanity group and started out the day building the landing for the stairs into the basement in a Habitat for Humanity house. I would shudder to think how my sons the construction workers would feel about their mom and three (count 'em, three) other people taking almost 2 hours to accomplish this. My guess is it took a LOT of time. We also hauled a lot of boards from one place to another. My hammer skills increased significantly during the day.

Difficult discussions - Synod Day 3

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 03:38:36 GMT

Synod Day 3 encompassed difficult but enriching sacred conversations on race, two hours of amazing worship, and long committee meetings.

We started with Sacred Conversations on Race. I picked Race and the UCC out of a dozen or so topics. As we arrived we were presented with a short worship, and a piece of paper. We went through the worship, then Yvonne Delk, who is a real giant of the denomination. Coming out of the Afro-Christian tradition (about which I have learned a lot this week) Yvonne was the first african american woman ordained in the UCC. She is 70, but appears a decade younger, which makes her old enough in her time in Virginia to remember Jim Crow very clearly. Since I, a white woman attending an historically black seminary, was with a black seminarian who wants to serve white congregations (and help them become more multicultural) as well as several others and Yvonne, it was a wonderful, open discussion of racial tensions. We talked almost entirely about the local church, and approaches to racism education in the local church, and about hearing each other's stories. Yvonne's story, which we were able to hear some of, is rich and beautiful. I think the next time I visit my inlaws, I will make a sunday morning field trip to Macedonia African Christian Church in Norfolk, VA. I already know I will be welcome there. At the end of the time we wrote a word on a piece of paper that would dissolve in water, then dropped it in a vase full of water. The word I wrote was "witness" since we talked extensively about the importance of the local church serving as a witness to the greater community in the area of racism.

After the conversation on race I went and got some lunch, dining with a delegate from Connecticut named Jackie. After a wide ranging discussion that covered the governance resolutions, the call to ministry (she has, like me, taken a single seminary class) and the open and affirming stance of the UCC, I returned to the Pilgrim Press area where I picked up another bag of around 40 books, most of them the same as I'd picked up the first time, from Pilgrim Press.

There are not words to describe the afternoon's worship. I was thrilled to get a seat in the third row - my photos will be somewhat better. The dance was beautiful, and some of it really touched me (and I don't think that way, so if dance touches me it is really, really good.) Some of the symbolic stuff done was inspired. The little pieces of paper, dissoved in water in beautiful glass containers were brought forward, all water now, and poured into the pool that is the central feature of the stage this week. There was an incredible dramatic presentation of the story of Jonah and the whale (note to LRUCC - I'm coming home with a heap of new ideas. On the top of the stack - more dramatic presentation of scripture - it does not have to alway be a plain reading, as we do it!) John Thomas preached brilliantly.

We renewed baptismal promises (I admit to some surprise - Catholics do that every year at the easter vigil, but I've never ever before heard of Protestants renewing baptismal promises, especially in the absence of an actual baptism). But of course baptism is key to the immerse yourself theme of the conference. I really left this worship service feeling deeply nourished.

I had dinner alone and called my husband, who had watched most of the service streaming online. That felt really good - that he'd been with me, more or less, at least virtually. I miss him.

After dinner, two hours of committee meetings ended the day. Having had my say already in a couple of other settings on the governance changes, and being quite attracted to the Accra Confession resolution, I chose to go to that committee meeting. They had two resolutions, the Accra one and the global food crisis one. I think that world economic justice may be a theme I suggest for World Communion Sunday this year. I was really thrilled with the hard work my conference minister was doing in this session (he happened to be assigned to this session). Way to go John Deckenback! He made some suggestions that, in my opinion, really strengthened the motions. I was disappointed, though, that the delegates had, for the most part, not really read the Accra confession (particularly disappointed since I, who am NOT a delegate, had.) It was interesting to hear them craft changes to this and the food crisis resolutions. I don't know what they will do, but I hope they decide to send both resolutions forward.

The committee meetings will continue tomorrow, but I will not be there, as I have signed up for a service project. I need to get to bed, so I am ready to be there first thing in the AM. Some pics from today:

Relationship - Synod Day 2

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 02:13:46 GMT

So today I met Barbara Brown Taylor, and made some great new friends, from my conference even, learned about anti-racist preaching from a Howard alum, and celebrated with the whole church John Thomas' ministry. What a day!

My spiritual director has led me to work using Ignatian discernment. So at the end of today I ask myself what in this day has most surely led me in a Godwise direction, and I have to point to the experience of making two new friends, fellow Central Atlantic Conference folk, one a minister newly installed in her first church, and one, like me, a minister in formation (though far beyond where I am.) It is exceedingly difficult to identify something that leads in the other direction, away from God, in a day so totally devoted to our relationship with God, but I'd have to say my continued anxiety about a lost journal.

WOW! Synod Day 1

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 03:33:53 GMT

The day started gently - a little time off - and ended with a huge bang, and some of the best preaching I've ever heard. In between I got to get a little acquainted with Geoffrey Black, the new General Minister and President of the UCC, and participated in discussion of the single governance resolutions. Plus I made new friends from Illinois, and picked up a huge load of books. What a day!

Synod Starts (Sort of)

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:07:49 GMT

I spent yesterday afternoon and evening in the Amway Grand Hotel here in Grand Rapids, on pre-synod stuff. I was supposed to attend a multicultural family event, but it was several miles away, and without my own car it ended up being an impossibility.

Getting Carried Away

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:15:46 GMT

I have not yet set foot in the convention center here in Grand Rapids, and I am already getting carried away. There are already things here that I know I must take back to my home congregation. The Spirit is already moving with ideas for education, for discussion, for worship. It is truly amazing, and I'm thankful.