It was a phrase that Dr. Joy DeGruy came back to again and again while delivering the Valerie Russell Lecture to General Synod on July 17: “the truth, hidden in plain sight.” Dr. Joy DeGruy speaks as the the Valerie Russell lecturer at General Synod 33. DeGruy, a nationally and internationally renowned researcher and educator whose research focuses
A call for the United States to own up to its illegal occupation of Hawaii drew “yes” votes from most United Church of Christ delegates July 17 — but not enough for it to pass. A resolution calling for an end to “128 years of war” between the U.S. and the Hawaiian Kingdom failed on
The governing body of the United Church of Christ doesn’t usually change its mind about a vote it has taken. On July 18, it did. General Synod delegates voted to reconsider a resolution about Hawaii that they had narrowly defeated the day before. This time the resolution got 72.9 percent approval — comfortably more than
by aarmada | published on Jul 27, 2021 This summer, with a grant from the United Church of Christ’s Neighbors in Need offering, 24 high school students from an economically challenged Houston neighborhood learned about activism and carried out a local campaign for a $15 minimum-wage law. The idea came from the basic insight that
by aarmada | published on Jul 27, 2021 A United Church of Christ sanctuary church offering immigrants refuge in the Arizona borderlands will soon be offering a place of hospitality, support and hope on the Mexican side of the border for people who find themselves deported from the United States. The Shadow Rock UCC Sanctuary
Cleveland’s Major League Baseball team will take the field in 2022 with a new name: Guardians. United Church of Christ leaders welcomed the team’s July 23 announcement. For decades, the denomination has pressed for the name “Indians” to be replaced. The Guardians will start using this logo in 2022. It’s been 30 years, in fact,
And I thought I had seen it all… After you have attended a dozen or more General Synods, as I have, you get the feeling that the more things change, the more they stay the same. At least, that’s what… The post Irwin Smallwood: How I see General Synod appeared first on United Church of
“Who will speak for the trees?” asked Dr. Seuss in his 1971 book, “The Lorax.” “We will,” said the New Hampshire Conference, a regional body of the United Church of Christ. And now the UCC’s General Synod has spoken, too. By a vote of 518-18, with one abstention, Synod delegates adopted “‘Who Will Speak for
On July 18, 2021, the United Church of Christ (UCC) has become the first mainline Protestant Denomination to publicly affirm and proclaim that nature has rights. Through the deliberative body of the UCC’s General Synod which gathered virtually for the first time in the denomination’s 64-year history, delegates voted 518 to 18 in passing a
The General Synod of the United Church of Christ voted July 18 to name the Alliance of Associate Conference Ministers in the UCC Bylaws. By approving a resolution brought by four UCC Conferences, the Synod recognized AACM as a “Self-Created Group” in covenant with the UCC through the UCC Board. Throughout Synod committee hearings, participants expressed