The Rev. Yvette Flunder, senior pastor of City of Refuge UCC in San Francisco, has written a letter urging support for the proposed governance structure being discussed by the existing boards during their respective Oct. and Nov. meetings.

Flunder addressed her letter to, and is presiding bishop of, The Fellowship - a trans-denominational gathering of 60+ primarily African-American Christian clergy and laity representing churches and faith-based organizations from all parts of the country and as far as Africa.

"I have come to the meetings concretized in my positions," said Flunder of her original skepticism concerning the combined board proposal. She continued, "[I] have found myself moved to listen deeply to the passions and heartfelt concerns of others."

The full text of Flunder's letter is below.

United Church of Christ Restructure Proposal
October 6, 2008

Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ. I trust this writing finds you well and enjoying God's best. I am writing you to share my experience being a part of the Governance Facilitation Team (GFT), the group that worked to produce the restructuring proposal that will go before the covenanted ministry boards of the UCC this fall.

This proposal seeks to bring three of the Covenanted Ministries of the UCC (Justice and Witness, Wider Church Ministries, Local Church Ministries) together reducing the number of board members while maintaining diversity. This will maximize available resources, cause cross pollination of skills and gifts, eliminate duplication and make access to all of the church's resources available to the collective vision of our ministries.

The cost to facilitate our five 50 to 90 member boards is not cost productive given the costs of travel and the savings can create opportunities for many other ways for our best and brightest to be involved in the life of the church in ways other than governance.

I realize that many of the churches in our Fellowship are not UCC churches, however several are and others are in conversation. No matter what decision you have been led to make with regard to affiliation beyond The Fellowship, there are lessons to be learned from this experience.

As a UCC ordained clergyperson I feel it is important to say that I have a deep love for the UCC and I believe it to be an extraordinarily prophetic denomination that has historically taken the risks to speak truth to power around issues of race, slavery, gender, sexuality and gender identification, war and many other issues (http://www.ucc.org/god-is-still-speaking/firsts/ucc-firsts.html.)

I am proud to be a part of this church. While it is true that much of my spiritual formation came on my knees and on the pews of the Pentecostal Church, much of my justice formation came from my experience in the UCC.

So much has been said about this proposal both for it and against it. I encourage you to read it for yourself. The full text of the proposed governance structure can be found at http://www.ucc.org/assets/pdfs/governanceproposal.pdf.

I also encourage you to read the comments regarding the proposal pro and con in order to arrive at your own conclusions. The link to an opposition petition to the proposal is http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/OurUCC.

The journey with the GFT has impacted my life in ways no other experience in the UCC has to date. I have taught and preached for numerous conferences, seminaries and churches, held positions and worked on committees, councils and boards in many settings of the UCC, but this was unique.

Perhaps the experience was informed by the loss of Mama during my GFT journey. I am not the same person since I lost her. Perhaps it was the several epiphanies I received while watching this group, in all of it's manifestations, come to produce the most recent proposal.

Whatever the catalyst I want to share some of my reflections.

As you know I come from a church background where decisions were made very differently from the UCC and the Fellowship ... consensus was appreciated but not at all necessary.

In the GFT process I have been free to disagree, share my ideas and express my opinions ... often as a minority voice.  I have seen those opinions impact the process in many instances. I have been heard. That is very important for me as an African-American, same-gender loving, woman clergyperson. 

My opinions have also been impacted by the positions of others. I have come to the meetings concretized in my positions and have found myself moved to listen deeply to the passions and heartfelt concerns of others. Seeing through someone else's eyes is a transformative experience. It is so easy to be single focused, particularly for those of us who have had to fight for the right to be heard.

I appreciate the collegial way the GFT interacted with the Collegium of Officers. It was refreshing to operate from a place of shared power and purpose as versus a place of suspicion or intimidation.

We took the hard probing questions from each other.

We disagreed without being adversarial.

We sought unity even when unanimity was not possible.

Officers and staff produced the documents and reports that demonstrated a desire for transparency and honesty.

The team became vulnerable and transparent to me, which made it possible for me to be transparent to them.

The entire experience heightened my love for this church and it was a great learning experience in the art of congregational polity.

I was able to clearly articulate how those in our community who have made an effort to connect to the UCC have struggled with the 'hoops' of Associations and Conferences in some regions. I also advocated for opportunities to serve on the United Church Board for those of us who have not yet felt welcome in the existing groups that seek to represent us.

I do support the proposal even though I know there is more work needed. I believe that the new structure will allow for greater synergistic access to both the creation and implementation of the mission of the total church and more knowledge of and access to resources. This will be a board that leads as versus one that is given information. We will have time to make changes, as the proposal is not scheduled to be implemented until 2011.

As this process goes forward some of you will be recruited to serve on this board and I encourage you to accept, as you are able so that the fresh voices of people who bring new streams will join with those who hold the historic memory and flow together into the future of the UCC.

I need to hear from you. Please drop me a line at bishop@radicallyinclusive.com and let me know your thoughts.

Bishop Flunder
Presiding Bishop, The Fellowship
Senior Pastor, City of Refuge UCC