Calvin Synod Herald, 2017 (118. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2017-09-01 / 9-10. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD with the United Church of Canada. This means that all ministers in each denomination are recognized by each other. The second set deals with ordained ministry and ecclesiastical oversight. Major changes were adopted on how to obtain and how ordained ministry is defined. (See the article written by Rev. Viktor Toth in the July/August issue of the Calvin Synod Herald for an in-depth description of this.) The third reshapes the leadership structure of the national church. Under the approved amendments, the leadership of the national setting will rest with a general minister and president, who is called by General Synod; associate general ministers would also be called by General Synod, and their scope of work will be determined by the general minister and president, with input from the UCC Board of Directors. The associate general ministers would not be specifically designated to one of the three covenanted ministries (Local Church Ministries, Wider Church Ministries, and Justice and Witness Ministries). The Collegium model had as many as five elected executives who acted as equals after the last national restructure in 2000, with about 300 employees working at the national setting. Today, there are 110 employees. This was proposed necessary because of the financial decline in giving to the national operations. Prudential Resolutions Several prudential resolutions were passed. One of note, the Pattern of Giving, which is an official policy, adopted in 1968 and later revised in 1984, specifying that congregations receive offerings, retain a majority to cover their costs, and then send along a percentage (known as Our Church’s Wider Mission-Basic Support) to their conference office. Conferences then collect money sent by churches, and forward a percentage to the national setting. The combined resolution still charges the national setting of the UCC to build the next phase of fundraising across the wider church in partnership with conferences and congregations. The goal is for all UCC settings to participate by 2020. With an overall decline in church giving, according to numbers published in the UCC Yearbook, the amount of money making its way from conferences to national offices has steadily dwindled by 55 percent from 1985 to 2015, from $12.9 million to $5.8 million. The resolution passed moves the denomination past the current "Pattern of Giving" will allow for more modem fundraising approaches, best practices. Others passed were to revise the Manual on Ministry, establish procedures for cultural diversity training for authorized ministers, and affirm and support the authorized ministries of under-represented clergy in local congregations. Resolutions of Witness Many of these passed with the required two-thirds majority vote: 1) The recognition of gun violence as a public health emergency deserving of federal funding for scientific research. 2) Become infonned about farm workers’ lives and working conditions of the Coalition of 129 Immokalee Workers and to honor and endorse their boycott of Wendy’s in all settings of the UCC. 3) A call for parents and guardians to reject corporal punishment and use other methods to train children. It also calls for state and local governments to prohibit corporal punishment in schools and child-caring facilities. 4) A call for an end to what is being described as "traumatic" practices by Israeli military against Palestinian children, calling on the state of Israel to guarantee Palestinian children younger than age 18 their basic due process rights and to prohibit any use of torture or ill-treatment of detained juveniles in the occupied territories. 5) Underscoring the love of neighbor, with several speakers proclaiming that no human is illegal, delegates overwhelmingly declared itself an Immigrant Welcoming Denomination and called on all settings to do the same. 6) Reaffirm actions from previous Synods supporting child welfare and extends those actions to include support and advocacy of programs assisting adult survivors of child abuse. 7) A call for churches and congregants to "commit itself to disability justice," including advocacy of agreements among nations to protect and promote opportunities for people with disabilities, and to advocate for the rights of migrant farm workers. 8) A resolution advocating for economic justice, including calling for churches to support legislation that raises the minimum wages to $15 per hour. 9) On the climate, a call on clergy and congregations across the denomination to act to protect the environment. Two of note that did not achieve the two-thirds vote and failed to pass: 1) calling churches to identify the difference in rights of adult adoptees as a human and civil rights issue. Proponents of the resolution argued that disparities in adult adoptees right to access their original birth certificates violated equal protection laws. 2) Support of legislation authorizing medical aid in dying, for those losing control over their lives to the ravages of terminal disease, and those who could lose control over their lives to the pressures and coercion of other people. Many speakers addressed the assembly with emotion quivering in their voices, telling deeply personal stories from their families and ministries. This was the committee I was assigned to this committee and the debate in the meetings were extremely emotional. On issue of life, one speaker said that the conservation Christian interpretation of overall scripture is that of the “life” in and of Christ, but that the progressive liberal interpretation is that of the “love” of Christ. One over-rides T
