From The Interim Pastor:
By The Numbers|
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From The Interim Pastor: By The Numbers |
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It's good to be home in Bellingham, fresh from the
long days spent in Yakima at the Pacific Northwest Conference Annual
Meeting of the United Church of Christ. The Annual Meeting is a time to
renew acquaintances from camp and committee work, to get a sense of the
overall direction of our conference, and to become re-inspired by the
work of our shared ministry and our denomination. This conference was
particularly focused on celebrating our denomination's 50 years of
history and looking ahead to our future. The Rev. John Thomas, our
denomination's general minister and president was on hand for the whole
weekend, delivering both the Keynote address and the Sunday morning
sermon. John Thomas has a prominent place in my personal pantheon of
heroes. His consistent courage in support of justice and welcome for
everyone everywhere makes me enormously proud to be UCC. Our church sent a number of delegates and friends to this Annual Meeting and several of them are planning to present a comprehensive report in the next few weeks. Before they get their photos, facts and figures together, I'd like to share a couple of highlights in terms of numbers. Number 1: the ranking of the Pacific Northwest Conference in terms of per capita giving to One Great Hour of Sharing which is our denominational support to mission projects, disaster relief and general good works all over the world. Our conference was presented with the Blue Globe award in recognition of this achievement. Number 2: the number of churches in our conference this year that declared themselves to be Open and Affirming. This declaration raises the overall percentage of our conference ONA churches to 47% and brings the number of parishioners worshipping in ONA churches to 72%. Number 3: the number of new churches that joined the United Church of Christ and our conference this year including New Heart Metropolitan Community Church in Tacoma and two Samoan churches, Victoria Cross Church and New Testament Church, both located in Anchorage, Alaska. I have one more number to report, however, that is more troubling: Number 0. That's the number of Bellingham church members participating on any conference committees. Our staff and members do participate in conference activities in other ways, Sharry Nyberg has been instrumental in creating and sustaining the conference women's retreat and Tom Hunter was heavily engaged in planning and presenting the Yakima conference event. But Bellingham is not represented on any standing committees serving the conference. Conference committees look after all the most significant business of the conference including camp and youth ministry, personnel and ministry, budget, mission and a host of other activities. The work is important and often interesting. With a new Conference Minister expected to come on board this Fall, this is an exciting time to be involved in the life of the conference. If the Spirit is nudging you to become more involved in the life of our denomination, I encourage you to contact the Rev. Bobbi Virta, now serving as pastor of the United Church of Ferndale and newly elected to the Nominating Committee. I hope you will prayerfully consider this invitation, and in the spirit of our denomination's motto for the year, I invite you to celebrate God's great love for you and continue to find more ways to "Let it Shine!" Rev. Jennifer Yocum |