UCC faces off
The United Church of Christ (UCC) is is in the news over this weekend A church's struggle over gay marriage | csmonitor.com they are holding their biannual general synod. A meta-church council meeting of sorts. Josh Marshall has posted on this on TPM,
as well. I suppose I should have said 'we' instead of 'they', but I'm
not sure I've done the homework neccesary. A UCC synod is generally not a time for the faint hearted.
One thing they touch on in the CS monitor article linked above,
is the de-centralized structure of the UCC, anything decided by the
General Synod is little more than suggested guidance to any individual
church. Some churches like the one I grew up in in Massachusetts are
quite conservative, others less so. Like First Church here in DC. Over
all this way of organizing seems to encourage the synod, when it meets,
to stake out crisp and profiled positions. One of the main things
attracting attention this time around are the proposals concerning
same-sex marriages: one for, one against, one to think about it some
more. I don't know any of the people who are at the synod or even what
type of people the assembly breaks down into. There is a UCC Blog (running on Mambo
open source software) covering this which does offer a glimpse into
this proceeding, the mind sets of some involved. And some of the other
issues being discussed.
There are proposals calling for a divestment campaign from companies
profiting from the occupation of Palestine and calling for the removal
of the not yet fully installed wall between Palestine and Israel. As a
native New Englander I generally accept the premise that good walls
make good neighbors. Of course A 'good wall' is a wall built along a
fair boundary, but a wall. Here spring is the mischief in the UCC,
problem is its not elves exactly.
The UCC I hope can work these issues out without proceedings
degenerating into the steel cage match that other denominations have
gone through
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addendum: today (Monday) I just heard on the ABC evening news that the meeting endorsed the same-sex marriage proposal United Church of Christ Backs Gay Marriage.
11:55:32 PM  ;;
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