wfn.org | Four take top Disciples/UCC preaching awards

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

Date: July 25, 2001
Disciples News Service
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Contact: Curt Miller
E-mail: Cmiller@oc.disciples.org
on the Web: http://www.disciples.org

01a-41

	INDIANAPOLIS (DNS) -- Four ministers of the Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ are the
winners of a sermon contest jointly sponsored by the Disciples
Council on Christian Unity and the United Church of Christ's
Council for Ecumenism.  More than 40 preachers submitted sermons
on the theme "Unity and Justice."

	"One of the best ways to combat our prejudices and our fears is
by naming them," preached the Rev. Tod N. Gobledale, a first
place winner of $500. "We can ask God to help us be aware of our
prejudices and to take them away." Gobledale, a former Global
Ministries missionary to Zimbabwe , preached the sermon Workin'
for the Dream on Jan. 14, 2001, in honor of Martin Luther King,
Jr., and civil rights activist Jonathan Daniels in Keene, N. H.
Daniels was born in Keene. This sermon was named the "Dr.
Lawrence Bash Outstanding Sermon on Christian Unity" in
recognition of Dr. Bash's lifetime interest in Christian unity
and his commitment to community-based ecumenism as the former
pastor of Country Club Christian Church, Kansas City, Mo.

	The Rev. Christine Hutchins, the other first place winner,
preached That Which Cannot be Contained at an ordination at Mira
Vista United Church of Christ, Albany, Calif.

	"We live by ins and outs. By containers," she preached,
"...humans are not only containers. We are creative becomings of
love.  We are verbs: human beings...never underestimate the
people of God -- we are verbs ... If human lives are not
primarily containers, but are verbs, so too, our churches and
Christianity itself ought to be."

	The two second-place winners of $250 each were the Rev. Scott
Rollins, pastor, First Christian Church, Cleveland, Tenn.; and
the Rev. Caroline Carr, Kapa'a First Hawaiian Church, a UCC
congregation.

	Speaking of Churches Uniting in Christ, Rollins preached, "One
of my hopes for this new relationship is that we can get
together and eat, and worship, and talk and remind ourselves
that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ."  Churches
Uniting in Christ, an ecumenical relationship among nine
denominations, including the Christian Church (Disciples of
Christ) and the United Church of Christ), is to be inaugurated
in January 2002.

	"In light of the Lord delivering us from the hands of our
enemies, what exactly does this deliverance look like? ...
Simply put, by practicing the art of forgiveness and by
acknowledging the power in apologizing, we too can dwell in that
house and be that house for others," said Carr in her sermon, To
Live in the House of the Lord.

	Judges who made the final selections were acclaimed Disciples
preacher the Rev. Fred Craddock, Blue Ridge, Ga.; the Rev. Robin
Hedgeman, Bethany Christian Church, Cleveland, Ohio; the Rev.
Dan Moseley, Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis, Ind.;
and the Rev. Robert Cueni, Country Club Christian Church, Kansas
City, Mo.

	The winners were announced July 13 at the Christian Unity
Dinner at the General Synod/General Assembly of the Christian
Church (Disciples of Christ) and the United Church of Christ.

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