Avery Post, Diane Kessler honored by UCC's Council on Ecumenism
Written by J. Martin Bailey June 23, 2007
In a tribute to the former UCC president, the Council on Ecumenism has established the Avery D. Post Ecumenical Achievement Award.
And, on the occasion of the church's 50th anniversary, the initial award was presented to the Rev. Diane C. Kessler, a prominent theologian who recently retired after ministering for more than three decades with the Massachusetts Council of Churches.
The award was presented during the ecumenism dinner at General Synod 26 by the UCC's minister for ecumenical affairs, the Rev. Lydia Veliko, who cited Kessler's service not only to the UCC but also to the National and World Councils of Churches.
Kessler, has represented the UCC in a variety of interchurch and interfaith activities.
In honoring Post, the award's namesake, both Kessler and Veliko described how the UCC's fourth president had been a trusted and appreciated mentor.
Featured speaker at the festive dinner was the Rev. Mark Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
In remarks that were both entertaining and theologically profound, Hanson described the growing partnership of his church with the UCC through a pact known as the Formula of Agreement.
Hanson credited the Rev. John H. Thomas, UCC general minister and president, as a premier ecumenist.
"In my public addresses," Hanson said, "I quote Scripture, Martin Luther, and John Thomas, in that order of frequency."
Invited to reflect on the UCC's 50th anniversary, the Lutheran bishop told how his own church has been aided by the UCC's role in the Christian community in the United States and around the world. To illustrate how this has happened, he quoted an article in which John Thomas described the "three P's of leadership: pontifical, prophetic and poetic."
Acknowledging that Protestant Christians seldom think of their leaders as being pontifical, Hanson said that the word actually means a bridge-builder. Describing how the UCC has helped since 9-11, "when America's preoccupation has increasingly been with borders," Hanson said the UCC does not destroy borders but crosses them. He cited the UCC's numerous efforts to establish full communion with other religious bodies, including Evangelical partners in Germany.
"The United Church has demonstrated what it means to be prophetic in an age of massive self-deception," Hanson said. "You have sought to discern the truth and then to tell the truth." He concluded by saying that the United Church of Christ is seeking to follow "an improvisational God" citing the church's "poetry of preaching" and the creative use of advertising to affirm that God is still speaking.
The Council on Ecumenism dinner is held during each General Synod. Among those who attended were international and ecumenical guests at UCC-related Hartford Synod.