Chuck Currie Live-Blogging the UCC Convention
The biennial General Synod of the United Church of Christ starts this Friday in Atlanta. The historic liberal Protestant denomination has some big items on thier agenda -- including same sex marriage -- that we will likely see in the national news. Fortunately, blogger Chuck Currie, (a UCC seminarian) will be there, posting updates and commentary several times a day.
Currie's live-blogging of the Synod or convention, is a pioneering effort to bring the internal workings of the denomination to the general membership and to the general public. He is temporarily suspending his regular blog in order to post on the official blog of the UCC.
"Chuck Currie has been a pioneer in the blog movement," said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, editor of United Church News and the UCC's news director. 'We're fortunate that he is willing to be our guest blogger during Synod. We think his contributions will go a long way in helping us to jumpstart our new, emerging UCC blog.'"
In an email to fellow bloggers, Currie wrote, "The UCC will be considering some pretty important issues (a proposal to endorse gay marriage and leveraging church resources to put pressure on companies that profit from the occupation of Palestine are two of the big ones) and the religious right is already attacking the progressive stance of the UCC."
"'I want to interpret the issues at General Synod for the public at large," Currie told United Church News. 'There are going to be a lot of controversial issues that are going to be debated at Synod and so there is going to be a lot of interest by the general public on how we conduct our business and I hope to interpret that for folks... I want to be able to provide a forum for the voices of the delegates so that the general public can start hearing those voices as well,' Currie said. 'Because of the contentious nature of the issues, there will be both praise and criticism of the decisions that are made.'"
He is already blogging up a storm -- including a report on UCC President John Thomas' endorsement of the same sex marriage proposal.
The Synod runs from Friday through Tuesday.
Meanwhile, check out Pastordan's report on the Thomas endorsement of the same-sex marriage proposal at Talk to Action.
Currie's live-blogging of the Synod or convention, is a pioneering effort to bring the internal workings of the denomination to the general membership and to the general public. He is temporarily suspending his regular blog in order to post on the official blog of the UCC.
"Chuck Currie has been a pioneer in the blog movement," said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, editor of United Church News and the UCC's news director. 'We're fortunate that he is willing to be our guest blogger during Synod. We think his contributions will go a long way in helping us to jumpstart our new, emerging UCC blog.'"
In an email to fellow bloggers, Currie wrote, "The UCC will be considering some pretty important issues (a proposal to endorse gay marriage and leveraging church resources to put pressure on companies that profit from the occupation of Palestine are two of the big ones) and the religious right is already attacking the progressive stance of the UCC."
"'I want to interpret the issues at General Synod for the public at large," Currie told United Church News. 'There are going to be a lot of controversial issues that are going to be debated at Synod and so there is going to be a lot of interest by the general public on how we conduct our business and I hope to interpret that for folks... I want to be able to provide a forum for the voices of the delegates so that the general public can start hearing those voices as well,' Currie said. 'Because of the contentious nature of the issues, there will be both praise and criticism of the decisions that are made.'"
He is already blogging up a storm -- including a report on UCC President John Thomas' endorsement of the same sex marriage proposal.
The Synod runs from Friday through Tuesday.
Meanwhile, check out Pastordan's report on the Thomas endorsement of the same-sex marriage proposal at Talk to Action.
posted by Frederick Clarkson at 9:56 PM
3 Comments:
Hey Fred, I'm not religious but I was brought up in the UCC, or what was called the Congregational Church at the time. Unlike the "Christians" who are running the country today, the folks at the UCC have actually read the New Testament and try to follow the teachings of Jesus, rather than the angry, bloodthirsty, psychopathic God of Leviticus. (I'm a supporter of Richard Dawkins's idea for "Athesists for Jesus T-Shirts, as a matter of fact.)
There's something I've always been curious about, however. If I'm not mistaken (and I very well might be), the UCC is the descendant of the Puritan church of New England that brought us Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards, the Salem Witch Trials, and the persecution of Quakers, among other stuff that sounds a lot more like James Dobson than it does the UCC of today. Did the church just sort of evolve with nobody paying much attention, or was their some sort of self-conscious theological revolution, or is my history wrong?
Hi Cervantes,
Your history is correct. The UCC's roots are in the Congregationalists of early MA. I don't know how the UCC evolved theologically. I do know that like other denominations, there have been some mergers, but I don't think that was reason for the changes.
I'm a proud member of the United Church of Christ, and since joining about 20 years ago, I've gained a deep appreciation for the history of our church. One thing that I've become aware of is how little the general public understands about the Puritans/Pilgrims. Sure, they were strident in the insistence that people lead holy lives. But, what a lot of people don't understand is that they were the religious radicals of their age. They were the progressives, on the cutting edge of new theological and social developments.
They insisted, for instance, that all people in the community were equal before God and that each person's work/vocation was essential. Contrast that with the prevailing attitude in England and Europe that only the wealthy, aristocratic elements of society were worthwhile. They also believed that women and children should be educated because they, too, were worthy children of God. Of course, that flew in the face of the upper-crust, male-only educational arrangements from which they had escaped. They weren't anti-sex as many suppose. In one early Puritan trial in the American colony, a wife complained to the judge that her husband was refusing to have sex with her, and the judge ordered that the husband resume marital relations. This couldn't have happened in England and Europe where a woman had no rights or prerogatives. Sure, the Puritans had their witch trials, but they ended here in the colony many decades before they ended in Europe.
The Puritans and Pilgrims appear to be repressive only when we impose 21st century standards on them. When we apply 16th/17th century standards, they truly were the progressives of their age. That legacy continued when the Puritans and Pilgrims joined to form the Congregational Church. They ordained the first African-American to the ministry, went on record opposing slavery in the 1700's, set up academies and colleges for women, freed slaves, etc., ordained the first woman over 150 years ago, and so on and so on. And the United Church of Christ continues that legacy today. We are progressive because we're consistent with our history. Thanks be to God!!
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