Calvin Synod Herald, 2006 (107. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
2006-07-01 / 7-8. szám
4 CALVIN SYNOD HERALD Faithful and Welcoming Churches National Gathering August 4-6, AD 2006 Shepherd of the Hills Church Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania If you’re a part of the Faithful & Welcoming Churches movement of the UCC or want to know more about it; if you’re unhappy with the direction of the UCC and are concerned about its future direction; if you’re wondering why over 100 churches have left the UCC recently, and many others before - then you should make plans to attend the FWC National Gathering. The meeting will take place on August 4-6 at Shepherd of the Hills Church in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania. As of this writing, 110 churches have quit the UCC. How can we stop the losses? How can we overcome problems? This meeting is for all who wish to come, who want to really help the movement to go forward - bringing thinking caps and ready hands. Calvin Synod has sought allies like these for years - come and meet them! FWC can be found on the internet at faithfulandwelcoming. org where you can look for the names of the member churches, and thel 10 that have withdrawn. There’s a lot to check out there. Try it! Eleven Calvin Synod churches, most of the larger congregations, have joined the Faithful & Welcoming Churches movement in the UCC. Already Bishops Ludwig, Medgyesi and Király are on line in support. Bishop K. K. Ludwig is the Secretary of the Board of Directors, and the Rev. Albert W. Kovács is also on the Board and the Synod contact person. Shepherd of the Hills Church is in the beautiful rolling hills of Pennsylvania, just off Route 100, southwest of Allentown about halfway to Pottstown, and east of Reading - Bechtelsville is just north of Boyertown. For more information, call Rev. Kovács at 732-634-1751. Rev. Albert W. Kovács Hungarian Reformed Church Woodbridge, NJ Calvin Synod’s Faithful & Welcoming Churches To date, our Faithful & Welcoming Churches include First Hungarian Reformed Church - Walton Hills, Ohio; West Side Hungarian Reformed Church - Cleveland, Ohio; Old Troy Pike Community Church - Dayton, Ohio; Calvin United Church of Christ - Fairfield, Connecticut; Hungarian Reformed Church - Fairport Harbor, Ohio; First Hungarian Reformed Church of Los Angeles - Hawthorne, California; Magyar Reformed Church - Manville, New Jersey; First Hungarian Reformed Church - New York, New York; John Calvin Magyar Reformed Church - Perth Amboy, New Jersey; Hungarian Reformed Church - Whiting, Indiana; Hungarian Reformed Church - Woodbridge, New Jersey. What it Means to be a Faithful & Welcoming Church Identifying yourself as a Faithful & Welcoming Church is a positive thing for your congregation because it allows you to publicly declare the core values around which your congregation will unite. It also allows your congregation to make a public stance against the actions of the UCC General Synod. UCC Constitution - Article V - Local Churches 18. The autonomy of the Local Church is inherent and modifiable only by its own action. Nothing in this Constitution and the Bylaws of the United Church of Christ shall destroy or limit the right of each Local Church to continue to operate in the way customary to it; nor shall be construed as giving to the General Synod, or to any Conference or Association now, or at any future time, the power to abridge or impair the autonomy of any Local Church in the management of its own affairs, which affairs include, but are not limited to, the right to retain or adopt its own methods of organization, worship and education; to retain or secure its own charter and name; to adopt its own constitution and bylaws; to formulate its own covenants and confessions of faith; to admit members in its own way and to provide for their discipline or dismissal; to call or dismiss its pastor or pastors by such procedure as it shall determine; to acquire, own, manage and dispose of property and funds; to control its own benevolences; and to withdraw by its own decision from the United Church of Christ at any time without forfeiture of ownership or control of any real or personal property owned by it. What are the principles of a “Faithful & Welcoming Church”? A Faithful & Welcoming Church strives to be: 1. Faithful... to God our Father and Creator, to Jesus Christ our Lord and only Savior, and to the Holy Spirit. 2. Faithful... to the Bible as our ultimate authority for faith and practice. 3. Faithful... to the apostolic faith declared by the Church across the years and around the world and reaffirmed in our own historic traditions. 4. Faithful... to the preservation of the family and to the practice and proclamation of human sexuality as God’s gift for marriage between a man and a woman. 5. Welcoming ... to all who seek, through repentance and faith, to do the will of God. 6. Welcoming ... to fresh insight from the Scriptures that is consistent with our commitment to biblical authority. 7. Welcoming ... to new ideas of how our congregations may experience health and growth to transform our world through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
