• Who We Are
    • Who We Are
    • Mission
    • History
    • General Synod
    • Leadership and Ministry
    • Staff
    • United Church of Christ Board
  • What We Believe
    • What We Believe
    • Worship Ways
    • Daily Devotional
  • What We Do
    • What We Do
    • Office of the General Minister & President
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
  • News
  • Church Finder
  • Donate Now
  • Search
UCC Logo United Church of Christ
  • Church Finder
  • Events
  • Contact
  • Store
  • Frontline Faith Portal
  • Donate Now
  • Search
  • Who We Are
    • Column
      • About
        • Mission
        • Constitution and Bylaws
        • History
          • UCC Archives
        • UCC Brand Guidelines
        • General Synod
          • Synod 33 Worship Videos
          • Past General Synods
        • Abuse Prevention
    • Column
      • Structure
        • Conferences
        • Affiliated Ministries
          • The Pension Boards
          • Cornerstone Fund
          • Insurance Board
          • The Council for Health and Human Services Ministries
          • Church Building & Loan Fund
          • Convergence
    • Column
      • Team
        • Elected Officers
        • Staff
        • United Church of Christ Board
          • Board Minutes
        • Office of General Counsel
        • UCCOSSN
    • Column
      • Career Opportunities
      • Annual Reports
  • What We Believe
    • Column
      • Worship
        • Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ – La Declaración de Fe de la Iglesia Unida de Cristo
        • Worship Ways
        • Daily Devotional
        • Sermon Seeds
  • How We Serve
    • Column
      • Office of the General Minister & President
        • Welcome to Human Resources
          • Employee Relations Resources
        • Center for Analytics, Research & Development and Data (CARDD)
          • General CARDD FAQs
          • About The Center for Analytics, Research & Development, and Data (CARDD)
          • Authorized Minister Opt Out
          • Access UCC
          • Archived Reports
          • Assessment Resources
          • Information Policies and Requests
          • Faith Communities Today (FACT) Survey
          • MissionInsite
          • Statistics and Reports
          • Vital Signs and Statistics Blog
          • Data Hub FAQs
          • Data Hub
          • Yearbook and Directory
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Justice
          • Faithful Action Ministries
            • Environmental Justice Ministries
            • Economic Justice
            • Racial Justice
          • Office of Public Policy & Advocacy in Washington D.C.
            • Justice and Peace Action Network
            • Our Faith Our Vote
            • Justice Training Resources
            • Action Center
          • Health and Wholeness Advocacy
            • Disabilities and Mental Health Justice
            • Encuentros Latinx
            • UCC HIV & AIDS Network-UCAN
            • LGBTQ Ministries
            • Our Whole Lives
            • Overdose and Drug Use Ministries
            • Scouting
            • Wellness Ministries
          • The Pilgrim Press & Stillspeaking Publications
    • Column
      • Justice & Local Church Ministries
        • Local Church
          • The Faith Education, Innovation and Formation (Faith INFO)Team
            • Weekly Seeds
            • Youth & Young Adults
          • Worship Resources
            • Worship Ways
            • Sermon Seeds
            • Synod 33 Worship Videos
            • Music and Liturgical Arts
          • Stewardship & Generosity Resources
          • Ministerial Excellence, Support & Authorization (MESA)
            • History, Polity, and Theology
            • Search and Call
            • Ministerial Profiles
            • Ministry Opportunities
            • Manual on Ministry
    • Column
      • Wider Church Ministries
        • Global Ministries
        • Global H.O.P.E.
          • Volunteer Ministries
          • Refugee and Migration Ministries
          • Disaster Ministries
          • Recovering Hope
        • Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations
  • Resources
  • News
    • Column
      • News
        • United Church of Christ News
    • Column
      • Columns
        • Witness for Justice
        • Into the Mystic
        • Getting to the Root of It
        • The Pollinator: UCC Environmental Justice Blog
        • UCC Roots
        • Encounters at the Well
        • Reflexiones
    • Column
      • Upcoming Events
        • Webinars
      • Subscriptions at the United Church of Christ
      • Changes & Deaths
  • Giving
    • Column
      • Donate Now
      • Ways to Give
        • Giving Tuesday
        • General Synod 2021 Thursday in Black Offering
        • General Synod 2021 Racial Justice Offering
        • Disaster Ministries: How to Give
        • Our Church’s Wider Mission
          • Our Church’s Wider Mission Basic Support
          • Strengthen the Church
          • One Great Hour of Sharing
          • Neighbors in Need
          • Christmas Fund
          • 5 for 5
    • Column
      • Ways We Give
        • Scholarships & Grants

  • Home
  • News
  • United Church of Christ News
  • Evening of Celebration honors ‘milestones’

Evening of Celebration honors ‘milestones’

by Tim Kershner | published on Jul 16, 2021

An array of organizations and individuals were honored Thursday night during “An Evening of Celebration,” part of the United Church of Christ “Special Edition” General Synod.

The July 16 virtual event celebrated not just standing the test of time, but keeping good work going in social justice, climate advocacy and health care.

“Tonight we are celebrating some of the milestones of our denomination,” said the Rev. John Dorhauer, UCC general minister and president.

‘A mission that matters’

Louis Blue Coat, a member of the Dakota Association and a leader of the Lakota people, hosted the presentation. The hour featured several video celebrations spanning centuries — from marking the 50th anniversary of the denomination’s Open and Affirming Coalition to lifting up the participants and volunteers in this unusual General Synod. 

Emcee Louis Blue Coat welcomes viewers to the online Evening of Celebration July 15.

“We are the United Church of Christ,” Blue Coat said. “We are called to love all, to welcome all, and to seek justice for all.” The evening, he noted, “would recognize ministries that continue to change lives. We will reflect on our shared identity and mission. We will give thanks to God and the risen Jesus for the churches and leaders that continue to engage the United Church of Christ in a mission that matters.”

The program honored the collective efforts of UCC congregations and agencies to rescue people from crippling medical debt. Since 2019, when the effort began in the wake of the UCC’s General Synod in Milwaukee, the campaign has raised more than $750,000 to abolish debt for 51,720 families. The Rev. Sekinah Hamlin, minister of economic justice, announced: “Together we have abolished medical debt in every geographical region of the United Church of Christ. Hallelujah!”

30, 50, 100 years

Among the anniversaries celebrated was the ONA Coalition, organized in 1972, which will soon launch a celebration of 50 years. It was spurred by the ordination that year of William R. Johnson, the first openly gay person ordained by a mainline Christian church. “Bill’s ordination,” Dorhauer said, “widened a circle that through the Open and Affirming Coalition has been ever expanding to this day.” 

Also honored at 50 years was the Association of United Church Educators. The organization of lay and ordained members creates and delivers education materials to local church and association educators, sharing faith formation and education ministries across the United States. AUCE’s history has traversed the worlds of publishing and mailing to today’s electronic age. In the past year, the group has “pivoted” to new ways of creating and distributing materials and found “we have moved outside of the church building and outside of the Sunday School box. We are transforming this ministry into what it needs to be for the 21st century.”

The program celebrated the UCC’s 30 years of environmental justice work, launched by the 1991 First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit. It also honored Charles Lee, the summit’s lead organizer and a member at that time of the staff of the UCC Commission for Racial Justice. Lee led the UCC’s environmental justice ministries for 15 years and authored CRJ’s landmark 1987 report, “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States.”

It noted the centennial of Back Bay Mission, Biloxi, Miss. And it honored the many member agencies of the UCC’s Council for Health and Human Service Ministries, as well as the denomination’s Health and Wholeness Advocacy Ministries.

Actions ‘louder than words’

Dorhauer offered a reflection about living into the mission of the UCC in the midst of the world’s turmoil. He said a theology that does not respond to “the cries of the poor the oppressed and marginalized lacks the integrity necessary to impel a church into a mission that matters.” 

In this excerpt, the Rev. John Dorhauer describes “God’s vision of Shalom.”

In the urgency of this moment, Dorhauer said, there is a role the church must play. “Let it be known the United Church of Christ commits to practice our faith at the intersection of love and justice,” he said, “And may our actions speak louder than our words.”

In a nod to the unique setting for this year’s national gathering, the church honored the many volunteers and church staff behind the scenes who planned and are working the event. The online setting called for new ways of meeting for business, for workshops, and for worship.

Contest winners announced

The Rev. Monica Dawkins-Smith, executive associate, Wider Church Ministries and Operations, announced the winner of the Congregational Challenge. A virtual Synod, she said, made it possible for more people to attend, “without the burden of travel expenses and time away from work.” In addition to the delegates representing each of the church’s 38 regional Conferences, Synod leadership challenged Conferences to see that each of their congregations was represented by at least one delegate or one registered visitor.

The Rev. Monica Dawkins-Smith of Wider Church Ministries announces Congregational Challenge winners.

The Central Pacific Conference, which includes churches in Oregon, southern Washington state and southern Idaho triumphed with almost 77 percent of its congregations represented. CPC edged out the South Central Conference (Texas, Louisiana and parts of Mississippi) at 69.4 percent, and the Southeast Conference (Alabama, northwestern Florida, Georgia, parts of Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee) with 54.6 percent.

“God is still speaking,” Dorhauer said. “And who are we because of God? We are agents of transformation who pursue new pathways to a church reborn in the image and likeness of a still-speaking oppression busting seed planting creation loving God.

“Our vision of a just world for all calls us to this work.”

Tim Kershner, a longtime General Synod Newsroom volunteer, lives in Campton, N.H., in the New Hampshire Conference.

Categories: United Church of Christ News

Get the UCC in your inbox!

Sign up for the weekly UCC News Digest

Privacy Policy
 
 

Related News

United Church of Christ News

Dorhauer’s ‘100 Days of Gratitude’ to celebrate his tenure as GMP

General Minister and President-elect John Dorhauer celebrates his new call with his wife Mimi...

Read More
United Church of Christ News

New ONA director, Global Ministries exec among recent hires

The new year has seen many new staff settling in and joining the United Church of Christ’s...

Read More
United Church of Christ News

Synod is asked to affirm commitment to transgender, nonbinary dignity amid legislative attacks

The 2023 General Synod of the United Church of Christ will consider 17 resolutions and several...

Read More
  • Column
    • Local Church and Conference Resource Directory
    • Mission
    • Justice & Local Church Ministries
    • Wider Church Ministries
    • General Synod Resolutions
  • Column
    • Contact
    • News
    • Store

Content on ucc.org is copyrighted by the National Setting of the United Church of Christ and may be only shared according to the guidelines outlined here.

1300 E. 9th Street, Suite 1100
Cleveland, Ohio 44114

  • Follow us on Facebook
  • Follow us on Twitter
  • Follow us on Instagram
  • Subscribe on YouTube

Donate Now


UCC Crest
© United Church of Christ 2023. Privacy Policy.
Crafted by Cornershop Creative