Conference Minister Corner

Read the whole message on nhcucc.org

Rev. Gordon Rankin | Conference Minister

Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. -Jeremiah 6:16

It seems like a good time to introduce you to a theme we will be talking a lot about over the next nine months. Our camping season at Horton Center began on Sunday. The theme for this year’s camp curriculum is “Another Way”. But it is not just the theme of our summer at Horton Center. We found that this theme spoke to us so profoundly that we have also chosen it as our theme for Annual Meeting and Prepared to Serve. ...Read More on nhcucc.org

Summer greetings NH Conference! Your Board of Directors met via Zoom on June 7, 2025. Here are some highlights from our meeting:

• The Board received training in Good Governance from the General Council of the United Church of Christ, Heather Kimmel. This workshop, long planned, was an important opportunity to learn more about the functions and fiduciary responsibilities of serving on a non-profit board. Heather gave us much to think about, and for newer board members, was a great primer in how boards work and what their responsibilities are.
• We welcomed Rev. Bill Briggs to the Board, filling an opening that existed upon the departure of Rev. Sam Lovett when he accepted a new call in Rhode Island.
• A new Conference Communications and Media Policy was adopted.
• Good news on the Conference database! A new vendor has been brought on board, and the fit seems excellent.
• Annual Meeting planning is underway. There are two possible resolutions to come before the meeting. Their status will be confirmed at the Board’s September gathering.
• Conference finances are on track and as expected for this time of the fiscal year.
• With two staff vacancies, and one of them likely to be a long term process, the Board reluctantly agrees with the Conference Minister that it would be best to postpone the remainder of his sabbatical until 2026.
• We expressed our appreciation for the work of Sam Juliano and wish him the best in his future endeavors. We also noted with gratitude the efforts of our former Associate Conference Minister, the Rev. Sara Marean. Sara positively impacted many aspects of the life of the Conference and she will be missed.

Finally, this is my last report to you as the President of the Conference. I retire from ministry and leave New England in early September so I am unable to complete my term (which ends at the Conference Annual Meeting in October). It has been a privilege to serve on the Board of Directors and as Conference President. Making the transition easier is the knowledge that the Conference President Elect, Charen Urban, will excel in my place. She has the intelligence, the temperament, and most importantly a well grounded faith that will serve the Conference well. We will turn over sometime in the next two months.

I hope you can get to Horton Center this summer and join your gathered Conference for a combined Granite State Association and NH Conference Annual Meeting on October 25, 2025 at Geneva Point Conference Center.

Peace,

Rev. Jim Thomas

Conference President

The New Hampshire Conference takes particular pleasure in honoring its authorized ministers on the occasions of their 25th and 50th anniversary of ordination or authorization. If you hold standing in the Granite State Association/New Hampshire Conference and are celebrating in 2025 either your 25th or 50th anniversary of ordination, please let Cameron Keller (ckeller@nhcucc.org) know. Thank you.

The New Hampshire Conference is accepting up to 10 Speak Out Videos to be played during the Annual Meeting. All videos must be sixty (60) seconds or less and adhere to these protocols. The deadline for Speak Out Video submissions is September 12, 2025. These Video Speak Outs will be the only speak out opportunity at this year's Annual Meeting.

Churches that are celebrating an anniversary (in increments of 25 years), are invited to submit anniversary videos. All videos must be 120 seconds or less and adhere to these protocols. The deadline for submission of Church Anniversary Videos is September 12, 2025.

Saturday, June 28, 2025 | Noon | Various Towns Across New Hampshire

The Manchester NAACP is hosting a public reading of Frederick Douglass's "To What to the Slave Is Your 4th of July" speech on June 28th as part of the NH Black Heritage Trail's annual reading event. We invite anyone from the community to read a portion of the speech. The signup for readers at the Manchester location can be found here: https://forms.gle/VUJuoyHSQsFVhLW. This event will take place on the Manchester Library's lawn next to the pollinator garden.

The same event will be happening all across the state. Click the link below to find a location near you!

(https://blackheritagetrailnh.org/frederick-douglass.../).

I want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for everything you have done in my life. When I was in jail, you visited me. I was not able to call my family. You put money in my commissary so I could call my family. You helped me get a lawyer. You supported me and prayed for me. …Now I am working and supporting myself. Most important, you gave me hope. You are amazing. …There are many people who need your help. Please continue.

–A message to the IRSG from an individual previously in ICE detention in Dover who has been struggling since 2020 to attain asylum

To help the IRSG continue this work, please donate online via https://bit.ly/Donate2IRSG or mail a check to NHCUCC, with “Immigrant Support” in the memo line, to 140 Sheep Davis Road, Pembroke, NH 03275

Any NH UCCer who follows the current news in any form certainly should be aware that life is very different these days for many asylum-seekers, refugees, temporary protected status holders, international student visa holders and other immigrants in our midst, especially for those who are black or brown. Fears about “what next” are very real and are growing. As part of a welcoming denomination grounded in love, our Conference’s Immigrant & Refugee Support Group (IRSG) is working to adjust our focus accordingly while our immigrant kin face unconscionable and often completely random governmental actions cruelly designed to foment confusion, anxiety and even outright terror among immigrants in the U.S. What remains the same is the financial need of our ministry as carried out through expenditures from the IRSG’s Immigrant Bond and Support Fund. Here are just two examples of the need:

Jail Commissary Support: As ICE agents face quotas for seizing immigrants no matter how flimsy or false the rationale, the ICE detention areas of the Strafford County Jail in Dover now seems consistently packed (over 130 immigrants per a recent report). These are real people with lives and families and hopes and dreams and potential for doing good things. Even as “strangers” to most of us, those in ICE detention are our neighbors – part of our human family. And now in the clutches of ICE, their despair is palpable; their needs are real. For years, the IRSG has provided intermittent $25 deposits on the jail commissary accounts of those detained by ICE in Dover so they can pay for phone calls (a human lifeline!) and other purchases such as personal care items, supplemental food to assuage hunger and sometimes articles of clothing. Especially because needs are heightened and phone calls are more essential than ever, we have increased our modest deposits to $35. Just during April and May, our payouts for Jail Commissary deposits totaled over $2,900 for 83 individuals. Again, jail commissary support touches individual children of God. It matters. And the IRSG can provide this support only with ongoing donations from the UCC family and allies. So please give as generously as your circumstances allow!

Legal Fees: For most (if not all) of our immigrant siblings ensnared by ICE, the only hope of attaining freedom or simply being heard in legal proceedings is through the intervention of an experienced immigration lawyer. Therefore, the IRSG is now placing a high priority on providing legal fee support as we are able. In May alone, the IRSG was pleased to be able to provide $5,500 in such essential assistance. Ongoing generous support from NH UCCers and allies makes this support possible! (https://bit.ly/Donate2IRSG)

To learn more or to schedule an IRSG presentation for your congregation, email irsg.nhcucc@gmail.com or contact IRSG Chair Ron Schneider at ron7249@gmail.com.

Reserve a Place Now!



Would you like to experience mutual support in your ministry? Do you wish that you had a safe community to talk about ministry’s challenges? Do you feel the need for spiritual grounding when you feel the earth move beneath you?

These are a few of the lived realities that participants experience in the Pastoral Leadership Development Groups (PLDG). For 17 years, the PLDG program has been providing space for clergy to process struggles, name strengths, gain insights and support others.

Groups are available for parish pastors, licensed ministers, retired clergy, newly called (to the parish and/or to the NH Conference), and members-in-discernment. Facilitators of the groups are Licensed Pastoral Psychotherapists, CPE supervisors and/or clergy with advanced studies in Bowen theory.

The PLDG program is a partnership between the NH Conference and Pastoral Counseling Services in Manchester. It is underwritten by the Grace Scott Fund of the Conference. The program year starts in September for the Parish-Based groups and the other groups have a rolling entry to join at any time.

Contact Rev. Dr. David B. Reynolds at dbr@pcs-nh.org or 603-518-7751 to sign up for a group or if you have questions. Watch for the fuller descriptions of the groups and facilitators in the July and August “Weekly News” of the NH Conference.

No Place Like Firearms-free Zones!

An Op. Ed. written the Rev. John Buttrick, a member of the Peace with Justice Advocates, was published in the Concord Monitor June 21/22, 2025 issue.

Close to fifty years ago, a six-year-old boy and his younger sister were playing in the attic of their home. The toy was an actual firearm held by the boy. The handgun unexpectedly discharged, killing the boy’s sister. The family were active members of the church where I was serving as pastor. I don’t remember hearing how the boy gained possession of the pistol. I don’t remember what I said at the funeral. But I do remember the family praying that it was all a bad dream from which they would awaken to find the young child alive. I remember the excruciating grief, the persistent pain, the raging anger, the unbearable guilt that consumed the parents and the young boy. In one instant, relationships changed, identities shifted, and anticipations for the future blurred. Recovery could not be imagined. Click here for the full article.

For more information, please check out our PwJA Gun Violence Prevention Resources here.

Clergy Convocation: Just Eucharist: Communion and the Church's Public Witness

On September 15 - 17, 2025 at the Pilgrim Pines Camp and Retreat Center in Swanzey, NH, Rev. Mary Luti will guide us as we consider "the many ways Communion can 'communize' us for just and courageous living in the world."

The Rev. J. Mary Luti, Ph. D. is a retired seminary professor and pastor, having taught for 20+ years in the fields of Christian History and Worship at the former Andover Newton Theological School (now Andover Newton Seminary at Yale), where she also served as Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Director of the Wilson Chapel. From 2000-2008 she served as Senior Minister of First Church in Cambridge, Congregational, United Church of Christ, in Harvard Square (MA). In retirement, she has served as the sabbatical or interim pastor in several churches in the greater Boston area. A member of the United Church of Christ Stillspeaking Writers Group, she is a regular contributor to the UCC Daily Devotional, and the author of books and articles on various aspects of Christian life, most recently editing a resource for the SSWG entitled, Do This: Communion for Just and Courageous Living. 

There are 46 spots available; please register here.

The Rev. Walt Hampton has announced his resignation from serving as pastor of First Church of Christ, Congregational, in North Conway. Rev. Hampton's last day will be August 31, 2025.

The Rev. Lynn Wickberg has announced her resignation as pastor of the Westmoreland United Church. Rev. Wickberg's last day will be December 31.

June 29, 2025

Gordon will be co-deaning the Senior High: Choose Your Own Adventure camp at Horton Center.

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