“Maybe God is Still Speaking”

From Memphis to Atlanta

UCC Report of the 25 General Synod Atlanta GA July 1-5

 

Jeannette Brown

 

I decided to give this report three titles, you will see why later.  I have also decided that all of the important work of the Synod is posted on the web site at www.ucc.org so I will give you the highlights and my impression of the Synod.

 

I arrived at the General Synod on July 4 having traveled from Memphis TN to Atlanta via Birmingham AL on a Greyhound bus.  I went to Memphis because it was 34 miles north west of Holly Springs MS my destination.  I had always been invited to the family reunion of one of my mentees Dr. Richard Rayford.  Because neither Richard nor his wife Edith (also a physician) could pick me up in Memphis when I arrived by Amtrak at 6:30 AM, I got to tour Memphis.  I ended up at “The National Civil Rights Museum” otherwise known at the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot.  It is worth a visit if you happen to be in Memphis.  It is the African American Holocaust museum.

 

The family reunion in Holly Springs was great.  I was the first one that I had ever attended.  I was driven there by Edith Rayford, (Richard's wife) and her sister-in-law.  They decided to shop, as there was no reason to get there on time as it was hot and it was going to be held outdoors.  They were right, we arrived just in time for dinner having missed the prayer, and one of Richard's brothers is a minister.  The Rayford. family consists of 17 children not all are still alive.  Mom who is 89 was not there because she had been taken to the hospital emergency room that morning. 

 

Sunday July 3 I traveled to Atlanta from Memphis on a Greyhound bus.  Not my favorite mode of transportation.  I lucked out and had the seat to myself for the first leg of the trip to Birmingham AL which was the supper stop.  I passed the time by reading the Shawl Ministry book.  After all that reading about knitting shawls I decided to get my knitting out and knit the second half of the trip.  This knitting is supposed to be a quiet time of prayer for the person to receive the shawl or the people around you.  On the second half of the trip from Birmingham a gentleman sat in the seat next to me.   So I was trapped in my seat with my knitting, which became my prayer for the people on the bus.

 

Atlanta.

Since I did not have my credentials I could not go to the worship service the night I arrived.  I heard it was great.  The first three days of Synod is when the delegates are assigned to committees and work on the resolutions.  They hear the reasons for the resolution and decide whether to keep the resolutions as presented or revise or edit them or even write a substitute resolution.  All of this happened in those days.  The day for a delegate starts at 7:00 when they have breakfast and caucus in their associations.  The Synod starts at 8:30AM with Speak Outs and ends about 9:30 PM after the evening worship service.  Actually after programs go on till 11:00 PM if a delegate or visitor wishes to attend.

 

As a visitor I was free to attend anything I want.  I could participate in Speak Out, which is a one-minute discussion about anything you want.  I have done so in the past but chose not to this year as I did not know what had transpired before I arrived.

 

July 4^th the day I arrived was workshop day and Service project Day in the afternoon.  In the morning the delegates passed the Marriage Resolution and made headlines as the first mainline denomination to endorse Gay Marriage.  I arrived just in time for the lively floor debate, which was aptly handled the youngest (30) of the three moderators.  The other moderators were an African American woman and a Native American man, the first Native American to hold that post in the UCC Synod.

 

In the afternoon I had a conflict between the Service Project, which was making school kits for Church World Service, and Choir rehearsal.  I opted for choir rehearsal but it ended early so I had time to count out construction paper in packs of 12 associated colors for the service project.  They continued to work on this project on July 5 until they ran out of notebooks or school paper.  I had shipped a box of school paper and had more that I could have shipped had I known that was the rate-determining step.  The project managed to pack 3,000 kits to be shipped to Afghanistan? By Church World Service.  There was another! 1000 kits which would be used locally as they were incomplete and a lot of crayons and associated material which was left over.  Thank you, those of you who contributed to this project.

 

Maybe God is Still Speaking

I finally got to that which is the title of one of the anthems that the choir sang for Synod.  It is still ringing in my head!  It was written by James Ahrend who was there playing the organ and piano.  The conductor was the same choir director who conducted the choir at the Minneapolis Synod.  He was very good.  We also sang an arrangement of “Blessed Assurance”.  I have requested that our choir learn “Maybe God is Still Speaking” for the Sunday when the Rev John Thomas President and General Minister of the UCC preaches at Christ Church this fall.

 

Meeting the Rev Dr. Andrew Young completed my Civil Right Journey.  He was given an award at the General Synod on July 4 and I ran into him at breakfast in my hotel the next day.  I shook his hand and told him that I had also met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  On July 6 before I boarded my train I had time to see the Jimmie Carter Museum and Library and the MLK Center.  So you see in adverting I had gone on a civil rights journey from Memphis to Birmingham to Atlanta where I relived the times when I could not have comfortably done this.  Not stayed at a major hotel or taken a bus with white folks.  How the times have changed, or have they?

 

For those of you who would like more information about Synod I refer you to the website www.ucc.org.  I have sent for the Synod wrap-up DVD so that you can see the Synod in case you missed the web cast.  I also have a notebook, which contains a selection of handouts from Synod.

 

Jeannette Brown

UCC Representative