wfn.org | UCC - Consensus 'emerging' for single UCC board of fewer than 100 members

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

Governance team: Consensus 'emerging' for single UCC board of fewer than 100 members

> Written by J. Bennett Guess
> August 5, 2008

A new Governance Follow-up Team, meeting July 30
? Aug. 1 in Cleveland, is reporting "emerging consensus" among its members that the UCC's national setting should be governed by a single board with a membership of fewer than 100 persons.

The 26-member committee was newly constituted after the spring meetings of the UCC's five autonomous boards ? Local Church Ministries, Wider Church Ministries, Justice and Witness Ministries, Office of General Ministries and the Executive Council ? when the bodies failed to come to common agreement on a plan to streamline the denomination's national governance.

At the time, each of the five entities seemed ready to agree upon a single governing board, however there not agreement on the proposed board's size and composition. A proposal to create a single board of almost 300 persons was approved by four of the five bodies, but the board of the Office of General Ministries rejected the plan, arguing that the proposed board's size would be unwieldy.

In its Aug. 5 report, the Governance Follow-Up Team said that, although no formal action was taken, there was growing agreement in support of a single board that would include fewer than 100 persons, as well as an executive committee of 15 to 20 members. The team urged that "good governance" be the church's "driving force" in the decision-making process. It also called for
"embracing the full diversity of the church."

"The most significant amount of the GFT's time together was spent carefully listening to and in dialogue about the UCC's commitment to be a multicultural, multiracial, open and affirming and accessible to all [church], and what that means both historically and in moving forward," the report stated.

The Governance Follow-Up Team includes representation from each of the existing five governance bodies, as well as the Council of Conference Ministers, Pension Boards, Collegium of Officers and the UCC's historically underrepresented groups (often referred to as HUGS).

The governance group is scheduled to meet again Sept. 5-7 in Cleveland, where it will work on completing "a proposal that will be submitted to the boards of the Covenanted Ministries and the Executive Council for consideration at their fall meetings."

The GFT's report revives the possibility that the five bodies will be asked to take up the governance question again at their respective meetings in October and November. Ultimately, any changes in the UCC's Constitution and Bylaws would require approval of General Synod delegates and ratification by the UCC's Conferences.

In mid-June in Minneapolis, representatives of HUGS -- Council on Racial and Ethnic Ministries; United Black Christians; Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice; Council for Hispanic Ministries; Pacific Islander Asian American Ministries; Council for Youth and Young Adult Ministries; Council for American Indian Ministries; UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns and UCC Disabilities Ministries -- expressed opposition to the proposed single-board governance plan.

"After three days of prayer and discernment, we have realized that the reconstituted GFT process is in effect a consolidation of power in the church," the group said, in a majority report. 
"The experience of many of the marginalized groups in the church has been that whenever streamlining takes place our voices, presence, history, and humanity are diminished."

> Contact Information
> J. Bennett Guess
> Minister and Team Leader
> Proclamation, Identity, And Communication
> Office Of General Ministries
> 700 Prospect Ave.
> Cleveland,Ohio 44115
> 216-736-2173