It’s hard to believe, but the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Wisconsin Conference is just four weeks away. Scheduled for June 6-7 at Green Lake Conference Center, this year’s gathering promises to be especially exciting, with a keynote by UCC General Minister and President Karen Georgia Thompson and our four associations expected to vote to dissolve and transfer their functions to the Conference. We’ll also receive Conference Minister Franz Rigert’s State of the Conference report and nourish our spirits in some rich worship services. Here are some other things to know about Annual Meeting. Register today to attend Annual Meeting.



Deadline to purchase meal tickets is May 23. No meal tickets will be sold after that date.To purchase yours, call 920-294-3323.

Volunteer opportunities are still available. Volunteers make Annual Meeting go – and volunteering is a great way to reconnect with old friends and make some new ones. We’re looking for folks to serve as greeters, register attendees as they arrive, serve as ushers during worship and workshops, and more. Learn more about volunteer opportunities.

Consider becoming an exhibitor. Annual Meeting provides an opportunity to get your company or organization in front of an audience of 350 or so clergy and lay leaders and to showcase your products and services. Past exhibitors have included publishers, artists, faith-based retirement communities, and Conference work groups. Register now to be an exhibitor.

Don’t forget about the pre-meeting workshop. “So, We Did This Thing” is the title of an interactive workshop that will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. June 5, at Ley Chapel at Daycholah Center. Designed for lay leaders and clergy, the workshop will explore innovative approaches to ministry. Participants will share real-world experiences — what has worked, what hasn’t, and what we’re learning together. Learn more and register.

When news broke of the death of Pope Francis, we asked Bob Ullman and John Helt, co-chairs of the Conference Creation Care Team, to reflect on Francis as a creation caregiver. Here is what they had to say:

We are beginning to write these words about the legacy of the late Pope Francis on Earth Day, two days into the season of Eastertide. An ancient Latin Mass included these words that mark this moment of remembering the world’s most prominent spiritual and environmental leader: “The joy of the Resurrection renews the whole Earth.”

There is much to reflect on and remember with joy about Francis and his commitment to Creation Care.

Ten years ago, his encyclical Laudato Si’: On the Care of Our Common Home, got us thinking more deeply about the Gospel in relation to the global climate crisis.  “The divine and human meet in the slightest detail in the seamless garment of God’s creation, in the last speck of dust of our planet,” he wrote on Page 9 of the document.

In his encyclical, Francis gently and yet forcefully reminds us that ecology has both natural and social dimensions. To care for the Earth is to care for its most vulnerable creatures: human, animal, atmospheric, all flora and fauna. We creatures – all of us —are part of one web of divine creation.



We must be neither exploiters nor worshipers of nature. His message echoes and further develops that of conservation pioneer Aldo Leopold, whose “land ethic” of 90 years ago was summed up in A Sand County Almanac: “We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to treat it with love and respect.” Francis teaches us to add “water, air and all life” to that “land” and to up that “may” to “must.”

It may be ironic or prophetic that Pope Francis passed from this life to the next on the bridge day between Easter and Earth Day. A great way to honor this great man would be for our congregations to take up a common read and conversation of his encyclical Laudato Si’: On the Care of Our Common Home. Here are some resources for guiding a discussion of the book prepared by First Congregational UCC, River Falls.

Want to learn more about the immigration crisis? Sign up to attend “Immigration Update: How Churches Can Be in Solidarity and Advocate for Immigrants,” a Zoom workshop scheduled by the Wisconsin Conference Immigration Working Group for 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Monday, May 9.

Aissa Olivarez, a lawyer with the Community Immigration Law Center in Madison, will provide an update on recent changes to U.S. immigration policy, discuss the best ways in which faith communities can stand with immigrants, and provide a refresher of immigrants' rights in the event of an interaction with federal agents.

Register today.

Download the event flyer.

The Palestine Justice Working Group wants to flag an additional resource for congregations studying the issue of a just peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. He is Peter Beinart, a professor of journalism and political science at the City University of New York, and his most recent book is the just-published Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning. 

A short introduction to his work is available in this 6-minute NPR interview. In this 30- minute interview, he talks about his book, growing up Jewish, his South African background, antisemitism, Zionism, and the current political climate. For something deeper, there is this hourlong Christian Forum on the Holy Land interview with Beinart.



Beinart also is editor-at-large for Jewish Currents, a CNN political commentator, and a fellow at the Foundation for Middle East Peace. 

The early-bird registration deadline for the national gathering of the UCC’s Open and Affirming Coalition has been extended to May 15. The gathering will take place July 9-10 in Kansas City, Missouri, immediately before the UCC General Synod. Cost of early-bird registration is $250. Theme of the event is “Sacred, Seen and Called: Living Our Truth, Embracing Our Light.”



Register today.

Congregational UCC of Neenah-Menasha will host “The Singular THEY,” an event to promote a better understanding of gender and gender identity, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on June 1.

The speaker will be Jeff Rabe, director of children and youth ministries at First Congregational UCC in Madison, who will talk about gender and gender identity in an open and affirming way. The event will be a safe space for people to explore the spectrum of sexuality and learn about biological sex, orientation, gender identity and much more.

Download the event flyer.

Palestine Justice Working Group

The Wisconsin Conference work group educates UCC members about the state of Israeli-Palestinian relations and advocates for justice for all Palestinians. The group meets by Zoom on the fourth Monday of each month. Meetings are open to all.

Time: 7 p.m.

Date: May 26

Register now

Supportive Ministries conversation

The Supportive Ministries Team offers two opportunities each month to join a discussion of topics raised in its monthly Becoming the Beloved Community newsletter. The next conversations will take place by Zoom at noon and 7 p.m. on Thursday, June 12. Subscribe to the newsletter.

Register here for the noon discussion

Register here for the evening discussion

Save the date

Aug. 8-10: Our Whole Lives Facilitator Training at Daycholah Center is coming up in August and registration will be opening soon.  Participants can choose to be trained in the Youth Level (grades 7-9 and grades 10-12) or the Adult Level (young adult, adult and older adult). Learn more.

The General Fund of the Wisconsin Conference helps us connect, support and resource pastors, leaders, and congregations. Your gift allows the Conference to provide relevant and timely help during the pandemic and beyond. Donate to the General Fund