Calvin Synod Herald, 2006 (107. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2006-05-01 / 5-6. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD we certainly plan to do so. Everyone just needs to make sure you are active in spreading the word about FWC in your area and in encouraging participation at your Association and Conference gatherings. Ask for display space to be given to FWC, and ask Charissa Loftin, our office worker, for brochures to take to your Conference or Association meeting. office@,faithfulandwelcomi ng.org. UCC Ad Campaign Our updated FAQ’s on the web page includes a brief piece about the current UCC media campaign. It might be helpful to you, along with other responses to common queries. I think every FWChurches person should write Ron Buford, bufordr@ucc. org and lovingly but firmly give him your perspective on the commercials and the Still Speaking campaign. Also, if you haven’t done so, type in the denomination’s web site, www.ucc. org, and look at the page where you go. Then, particularly if your church is not a “Still Speaking” church, look at how your church is treated for those who might be looking for a UCC church. Write Ron Buford and give him your perspective. New Churches We continue to urge you to list your church and have others list their churches as FWChurches. The more we list, the more impact we make. (Clergy, please also list your individual names on our FWClergy page.) We’re up to 48 FWChurches -1 hope we surpass the number of those whom we list as withdrawn - currently 104. The following are churches we have listed as new FWChurches in March: • Christ Evangelical & Reformed in Klingerstown, PA (Conference: Pennsylvania Central) • New Gilead Reformed UCC in Concord, NC (Conference: Southern) • West Side Flungarian Reformed Church in Cleveland, OH (Conference: Calvin Synod) • Hungarian Reformed Church in Fairport Harbor, OH (Conference: Calvin Synod) • John Calvin Magyar Reformed Church in Perth Amboy, NJ (Conference: Calvin Synod) • Immanuel Union Church, UCC in Staten Island, NY (Conference: New York) • Andover Congregational Church in East Andover, NH (Conference: New Hampshire) • St. Thomas UCC in Bemville, PA (Conference: Pennsylvania Southeast) • The Valleys UCC in Halifax, PA (Conference: Pennsylvania Central) • Faith United Church of Christ in Chicago, IL (Conference: Illinois) • Zion’s Stone Church ofWest Penn Township inNew Ringgold, PA (Conference: Pennsylvania Northeast) Bob Thompson, FWC President www.faithftilandwelcoming.org Pastor, Corinth Reformed Church, Hickory, NC www.corinthtodav.org Who is Bob Thompson? Robert M. (Bob) Thompson earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Columbia International University in Columbia, SC, and the Doctor of Ministry degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Charlotte, NC. He served First Congregational Christian Church (UCC) in Reidsville, NC from 1978-83 as Christian Education Director, and Emanuel UCC in Thomasville, NC as pastor from 1987-93. In March 1993, he accepted the call to come to Corinth Reformed UCC in Hickory, NC, which became Corinth Reformed Church in 2005 while maintaining its affiliation with the United Church of Christ. Thompson and his wife, Linda, have three children. Faithful & Welcoming Churches Meeting in Woodbridge On March 5, Rev. Dr. Robert M. Thompson, pastor of Corinth Reformed Church, a UCC congregation in Hickory, North Carolina, was guest speaker at the Hungarian Reformed Church in Woodbridge, New Jersey, to introduce and discuss the Faithful & Welcoming Churches (FWC) initiative, a UCC renewal group. This was one of several regional meetings being held around the country. It started off with the good news from the First Hungarian Reformed Church, New York City, reporting that their congregation had just voted to join with the Faithful and Welcoming Churches. The congregation has a new minister, with a wife and two youngsters, who arrived only months ago from Romania. There were over 25 people in attendance. They came from Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. All were from Calvin Synod, except for two from the Congregational Church in Woodbridge. The letters and emails to the New Jersey Association and New York Metro Association (NYC) were ignored, except for one angry email from Long Island. The churches represented were Fairfield, Connecticut - Rev. Bela Poznan, Pastor; New York, New York - Rev. Zsolt Papp, Pastor; Manville, New Jersey - Rev. Anikó A. Kocsis, Pastor; Perth Amboy, New Jersey and Woodbridge, New Jersey - Rev. Albert W. Kovács , Pastor of both - all churches are FWC members - and the Perth Amboy Hungarian Reformed Church (HRCA) - Rev. Dr. Atilla Kocsis, Pastor. The program of FWC was well presented by Rev. Thompson, and it was received appreciatively by the attendees. He addressed and refuted a charge in a recent letter from Massachusetts that FWC was a prelude to organizing a breakaway new denomination, noting that the FWC will dissolve by such an action, as it is set up to be a group only for UCC churches. A comment in that same letter also complained that FWC was urging the churches to withhold OCWM funds. Rev. Thompson made it quite clear that it was a view expressed by one of the members, and perhaps held by others, but that it was not one stated by FWC. He noted, so that a church might register its adamant protest, it might be used to
