Some Good News and a Plea for Peace

Some Good News!

So, I returned home about 10:30 one night a week or so ago after a meeting with a local church search committee. I looked over the mail for the day and was intrigued by one piece of mail from one of our pastors. Del Wemple wrote to notify me that the Board of Trustees at the Center Lisle Congregational Church would be offering a resolution to a specially called meeting of the congregation to vote to leave the UCC. They were upset about the stands taken by General Synod on same gender relationships. The pastor was greatly saddened at the prospect of their leaving. He felt that all his work and preaching seemed to be for naught.

After some phone conversations with the Del and the chair of the Trustees, we made arrangements for me to be present at the congregational meeting yesterday noon after worship. In the meantime David Heckman, pastor at Newark Valley and chairperson of the Susquehanna Association Life Committee, offered to attend with me.

We met. Both David and I spoke. The chairperson of the Trustees asked the congregation if they had any comments. One woman stood up and stated that she had read everything there was to read about the UCC on the website and that she saw no reason to leave. The UCC had stood up for the rights of women. "Where would we women be without the UCC!" she said.

More persons spoke out questioning the need to leave. Finally, someone moved to table the motion. The motion to "table" was unanimously passed.

I will admit that I went to this church meeting with a heavy heart. I will also confess that I left elated and lifted up. I know that it was important for representatives of the wider church to be present. But more, I know that the mood changed when that one woman testified to what we know and love about the United Church of Christ. We stand up for what we believe to be right. We know that we may disagree with each other, but we are committed to stay "at the table" to discuss our differences and rejoice in our agreements.

I will be meeting with the church leadership to discuss future steps for them and for our mutual covenant.

There is good news for many of our churches and authorized ministers.

The search committee at First, Binghamton is working well toward finding the one whom they feel God is calling to the pastorate of that congregation.

Our Interim pastorates at East Side, Binghamton, Corning, Groton Community and Ithaca in Susquehanna and at Plainville in Oneida have helped these congregations grow in self awareness and their commitment to grow in mission and ministry.

We rejoice that the Central Square Community Church has voted to begin the process of inquiry into joining the UCC.

It has been great to hear the early reports from Enid Zellwig and Barb Wright of their participation at the East Coast Seminarians' Conference held at the Church House in Cleveland this past weekend. Meeting national staff persons and networking with other seminarians was an enriching experience for them.

We've celebrated two ordinations recently in Susquehanna Association: David Kaden, associate pastor at Ithaca in September, and Michael Grinnals, pastor at Danby Federated, yesterday. Both of these pastors chose the UCC after completing their formal training for pastoral ministry. In Mike's case he is the first Susquehanna authorized minister to be ordained through our new understanding of alternate tracks. Both pastors are doing fine work in their churches. Praise God!

A Plea for Peace

Public Broadcasting aired the latest Ken Burns documentary, "War," about World War II. In this very interesting review of the war through the eyes of certain individuals, families and communities we were treated to some different perspectives on war. One man from Minnesota who served as a pilot spoke philosophically about his time in the service. He didn't glorify war nor his participation in it. He thought that war as a whole was horrible. However, he acknowledged that sometimes war is necessary. World War II, he thought, was necessary in ridding the world of Adolf Hitler and his policies of racial superiority and genocide.

This was a refreshing approach for me. I felt rather better about his use of the word "necessary" to describe some wars as opposed to the word "just". As a person who has opposed war generally and in principle (but who as an history major in college had studied little else in history) I found this other way of assessing conflicts as helpful.

In this regard I suppose that our war in Afghanistan might be necessary (although I was deeply saddened on the day that I heard of it). We were trying to get rid of the Taliban and find Osama bin Laden.

I cannot find any necessity to our war in Iraq. Most war is about power and greed gone mad. Our leaders have told us that this war is about freeing Iraqi's from an evil dictator and establishing a democracy in the middle east. It's hard, however, in this conflict to find anything other than power and greed in our motives or our intentions. Those in the armed services are brave beyond our knowing and sacrificing beyond our comprehending, without a doubt. But it's time to end this.

We will have many chances to express our beliefs and hopes about this war and its end. One immediate opportunity that we have is to sign on to the UCC petition that our General Minister and President John Thomas will deliver to the White House tomorrow. Word has been distributed about this petition through various UCC media. But, this is a "last call" to take part in this particular effort.

Here is the link to sign the petition: http:www.ucc.org/100kforpeace/.

Blessings,

Rick Cowles