Important This Week

• General Synod overview from the Conference Minister
• Some General Synod keynote addresses available online
• CPE opening at Phoebe Wyncote

From the Conference Minister:

The 34th UCC General Synod in Indianapolis came to a close last Tuesday, July 4th. If you’re not aware of the work of General Synod, this is our denomination’s biennial gathering where the business of the National Church, seminars and learning sessions are conducted, new and newly affiliated congregations are celebrated, worship and guest speakers inspire, all to renew and strengthen our covenantal relationships. Our Conference was blessed by the faithful commitment of thirty-one volunteer delegates who lent their voices to the movement of the Holy Spirit in challenging discussions, debates and decisions. Your prayers for them as they traveled to and through the very long days that Synod required were much appreciated.

Our General Synod Highlights Included:

• The recognition of Open Table UCC, Pottstown among the new church starts celebrated from around the denomination.
• The inclusion of PSEC/PNEC Ecumenical Partners from the Church of South India, Bishop Prasana Samuel and his wife Esther, who spoke briefly to the Synod about anti-Christian violence Manipur, India.
• The Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia Thompson was the first Black woman elected to the position of General Minister and President. She takes the place of outgoing Rev. Dr. John Dorhauer who was elected in 2017. Prayers for John as he returns to local church ministry in Illinois.
• The frequency of General Synod meetings was changed from two to three years due in part to the substantial cost of large national gatherings and the significant reduction in National Staff members over the last twenty years. That change will take effect following General Synod 35 in Kansas City, Missouri in 2025. General Synod 36 will gather in 2028 at location to be determined.
• Resolutions and pronouncements regarding a number of social justice concerns. Those and other actions taken by the Synod can be found on the General Synod News website page https://generalsynod.org/news.

The work of General Synod did not end in Indiana. There is much to do to implement the resolutions that were passed and to forge a relationship with our new General Minister and President whose leadership will shape the near and distant future of our denomination. Please pray for our “united and uniting” church as it continues to be the bold and faithful witness to the power of the resurrected Christ that our broken world so desperately needs.

With the best of God’s Blessings,

Pastor Bill

Rev. Bill Worley

Conference Minister

Friedens UCC, Oley assembles hygiene kits at VBS

The Friedens UCC Mission Team (in Oley) recently applied for and received a $250 matching grant from the UCC National Office, which was used to purchase items to assemble hygiene kits to be distributed by Church World Service. The Mission Team was able to purchase enough items to assemble 96 hygiene kits. 

During Game Time, the children who attended Vacation Bible School assembled 48 of the hygiene kits as a relay race. This activity not only was a fun competition, but served as their service project for the week. Each kit contained a hand towel, washcloth, comb, toothbrush, bar of soap, nail clipper, and a package of 10 Band-Aids. Toothpaste with a longer shelf life will be added by CWS upon receipt of the Hygiene Kits. The items were wrapped in the hand towel so that they looked like a package and were then placed in 1 gallon Ziploc bags. The remaining 48 kits were packaged by Mission Team members.

To find out more about the kits and grants, click here.

General Synod keynote address recordings available

Ibram X. Kendi spoke at the Join the Movement Fundraiser Dinner on June 30. For a limited time, get access to this important conversation between Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, Rev. Traci Blackmon and Rev. Dr. Starsky Wilson.

Please note: access to this recording is only available until July 31st, 2023.

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi is a National Book Award-winning author of fifteen books for adults and children, including nine New York Times bestsellers—five of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers. Dr. Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Boston University, and the director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research. He is a contributing writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News racial justice contributor.

Click here to purchase this conversation for $34.

Bryan Stevenson spoke at the Valerie Russell Luncheon on July 1.

In this moving and poignant speech, Bryan Stevenson talks about how to engage the work of justice with courage, compassion and a fierce hope for a better world. Drawing on his experience as an attorney defending vulnerable clients within a broken judicial system, he illustrates how our proximity to the pain of others creates the internal conviction to fight for justice and goodness in the world. He speaks of his grandmother and the promises he made to her that became a guide for his life (and good advice for ours). Stevenson is a prophet for our time with big expectations for the role of the Church in shaping a more just world for all.

Bryan Stevenson is the founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization in Montgomery, Alabama. Under his leadership, EJI has won major legal challenges eliminating excessive and unfair sentencing, exonerating innocent death row prisoners, confronting abuse of the incarcerated and the mentally ill, and aiding children prosecuted as adults.

Click here to purchase this conversation for $34.

From the Addiction & Recovery Taskforce: Grace & Addiction

“It is at the bottom where we find grace; for like water, grace seeks the lowest place and there it pools up.”

Richard Rohr

Gun violence memorial coming to St. Peter's Tohickon

Sponsored by ‘Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence’, a very special outdoor, visual memorial is coming to St. Peter’s Tohickon! A Memorial to the Lost® is a unique, visible education tool developed to honor victims of gun violence and their surviving families. T-shirts with names and dates of those murdered by gun violence during a previous year in a designated area are displayed where community members can experience in a tangible way the loss of life and disruption of lives that gun violence creates. Often, people will stop their car after driving by and return to see what’s being portrayed; they walk among the shirts, pause and pray, sometimes even finding the name of a loved one or neighbor. Come see this incredible display at St. Peter's Tohickon UCC, 1071 Old Bethlehem Rd., Perkasie – starting July 15.

UCC Webinar: Wildfires, climate, and a path forward

How can we address the wildfires that created a crisis in our climate changed world? Panelist John Vaillant released a book entitled "Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World”; panelist Kimiko Barrett from Headwaters Economics is a wildfire research and policy analyst. Even if you cannot make the webinar July 12 at 1:00p, sign-up, and we will send you a recording. Register now!

CPE opening at Phoebe Wyncote beginning in Sept.

Phoebe has ONE opening (clinical site – Wyncote campus) for the semi-intensive CPE unit beginning in September.

The unit will begin Tuesday, Sept. 5 and conclude on Jan. 30, 2024. This unit will require a total of 16 hours per week (four for class; twelve for clinical site).

Class will be conducted on Zoom most weeks, with once class per month held in-person on the Phoebe Allentown campus. Clinical hours can be negotiated with staff chaplain on campus.

If interested, please visit this site. Complete the application in full and submit to Rev. Dr. Scott Brooks-Cope (scope@phoebe.org) and Rev. Leah Knox (lknox@phoebe.org). Deadline to receive applications is Aug. 11. For more information, reach out to Leah directly. 

Upcoming Training events

Registration is open for:

Basic Boundary Training on Sept. 14 in Schuylkill Haven. Click here for more info.

Advanced Boundary Training (Managing Pastoral Transitions) on Sept. 27 on Zoom (or view the recording of the event on your own time and complete a one-page synopsis). Click here for more information.

Advanced Boundary Training (From Gutenberg to ChatGPT: Tools, ethics, technology and best practices in the life of Church) on Oct. 18 on Zoom. Click here for more information.

Diversity Training on Nov. 8 on Zoom (or view the recording of the event on your own time and complete a one-page synopsis). Click here for more information.

Glenn Rarick ordination

Click the invitation below to download a PDF to share.

Annual Meeting breakout room recordings available now

Did you have a hard time deciding which of the Annual Meeting workshops to select? Recordings are now available of all of those presentations. They are:

• Merged Ministry with Rev. Cean James
• Ministry Reimagined with Rev. Joshua Blakesley
• Renewed, Regenerated Ministry with Rev. Dr. Stephen Ohnsman
• Shared Ministry with Rev. Kevin Fruchtl
• United Ministry with Rev. Mary Etta Mest and Rev. Dr. Ben Motz

Shared pastor event for churches set for August

On Saturday, Aug. 12 a free workshop will be held on Zoom on "One Shepherd, Two Flocks: Advice and Guidance on Sharing a Pastor." Rev. Kevin McLemore and others will discuss why sharing a pastor with another congregation is a good option for many churches in this time of pastoral scarcity. They will share practical strategies on how to talk to your congregation about this possibility, how to find a pastor and congregation willing to do so, and how other churches are already doing it successfully. Pastors who currently pastor two congregations will join us to share both the blessings and challenges of this arrangement, and how to avoid some of the mistakes they’ve witnessed in their own settings. Click here for more info.

60th anniversary of the March on Washington event

Join together in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington! Friends from across the region will join together Sunday, Aug. 27, to celebrate and remember through a modest neighborhood march (as you are able), eyewitness testimony, and worship in the historic House of Faith (the former Harold O Davis). Click here for more information.