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General Synod Update from the UCC Web Site.

JERUSALEM SHOULD BE AN OPEN CITY, GENERAL SYNOD RESOLVES IN ITS FINAL
SESSION 

Also:
Ode to General Synod 
Officers installed 
Alternative to prison urged 

Contact: William Winslow 
UCC Office of Communication 
July 8, 1997 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Jerusalem should be an "open" city that respects the
human and political rights of both Palestinians and Israelis as well
as the rights of the three faith groups - Christian, Muslim and Jewish
- that hold the city sacred. It was a bold statement endorsed by
nearly every one of the 700-plus delegates at the 21st General Synod
of the United Church of Christ meeting July 3 to 8 in Columbus. 

"There will be no peace in the Middle East until the issues of
Jerusalem are resolved," says Sonia Baker, a delegate from Highland,
Calif. 

The status of Jerusalem as a holy city sacred to three faith groups is
complicated by issues of religious freedom, human rights and Middle
East politics. Israeli leaders hold the city should be their capital
under the sole sovereignty of the State of Israel, while Palestinian
leaders say that traditionally Arab eastern Jerusalem should be the
capital of a new state of Palestine. 

The Synod asked United Church of Christ members and those of the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to reach out to the three faith
groups when they tour in the Holy Land. 

"We forget that not all Arabs are Muslims, some are Christian," said
Betty Bailey, a United Church of Christ/Disciples of Christ volunteer
missionary living in Bethlehem. "We need to seek dialogue with these
'living stones,'" she said in reference to present day Palestinian
Christians whose ancestors were living in the area when Jesus was
alive.

In a related action, the Synod defended Palestinian rights to move
freely between Gaza, Jerusalem and the West Bank, condemned the
continued building of Jewish settlements in Palestinian communities
and deplored the construction of a network of roads that tend to
isolate Palestinian centers. 

The resolution on Jerusalem was one of the final actions of Synod,
which adjourns Tuesday night after a closing celebration of the
Service of Word and Sacrament, or Holy Eucharist. 

The 22nd General Synod of the United Church of Christ will meet in
July 1999 in Providence, R.I. 

Apologies to Julie Andrews 

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Delegates took a break from serious business Tuesday
afternoon when delegate Kathy Lawes stepped up to the microphone to
read her "Ode to General Synod," with apologies to Julie Andrews. 

     "Free pens and pencils and buttons and phone cards 
     Soundings and speakouts and raising your vote card 
     Friendly amendments and friendly hymn sings 
     These are a few of our favorite things. 

     "Quasi-committees and new resolutions 
     Racism training and finding solutions 
     Fidelity, chasteness - no worry of flings 
     These are a few of our favorite things. 

     "When the mind quits 
     When the mike stops 
     When we're feeling mired, 
     We simply remember our favorite Synod 
     And then we don't feel so tired. 

     "Disciples, Armenians and maybe the Lutherans 
     Samoans have joined us and even the Cubans 
     Confessing, professing - discernment it brings 
     These are a few of our favorite things. 

     "Buckeyes and cookies and soybeans and dinner 
     We need a resolution to help us get thinner 
     We're looking to what Rhode Island brings 
     These are a few of our favorite things. 

     "When the mind quits 
     When the mike stops 
     When we're feeling mired 
     We simply remember our favorite Synod 
     And then we don't feel so tired. 

QUOTES OF THE DAY:

"You are a gentle, gracious, tough, honest, courageous people and I
thank God for this blessed vessel, the United Church of Christ. I feel
God's transforming presence in our midst. I feel God's Holy spirit
energizing this church." 
-- The Rev. Dr. Paul H. Sherry, UCC president, in his closing
reflections on the 21st General Synod. 

"We as a church should be proud of the history of the AMA. We point
with pride to the six historically black colleges that are served by
the UCC. We need to continue to name and claim this great legacy."
-- Clifford John, New York City, and president, United Black
Christians, on the 150th anniversary of the American Missionary
Association, which the Synod celebrated Sunday. 

"There will be no peace in the Middle East until the issues of
Jerusalem are resolved. It is in the sharing of that city that
Jerusalem will become a holy city. If we fail to preserve the holiness
of Jerusalem then the whole world is at risk of becoming profane."
-- Sonia Baker, a delegate from Highland, Calif., introducing a
resolution titled, "Jerusalem: City of Life." 

"This is a spiritual issue. Our souls and bodies and the souls and
bodies of our brother and sisters in prison are affected." 
-- Heather Wickes, a delegate from Akron, Ohio, in support of a
resolution criticizing the "prison industrial complex." 

IN OTHER ACTIONS THE GENERAL SYNOD: 

Installed five officers. The Rev. Paul H. Sherry, Cleveland,
president, and the Rev. Doris R. Powell, Euclid, Ohio, director of
finance and treasurer, will each serve a third four-year term, though
those terms will be cut short if the restructure of national agencies
are ratified. Serving two-year terms and presiding over the 22nd
General Synod in Providence, R.I., will be Denise Page Hood, Detroit,
moderator; the Rev. Jana Norman-Richardson, Winter Park, Fla.,
assistant moderator; and Robert B. Frieberg, Beresford, S.D.,
assistant moderator. 

Called for "an increase in the use of alternatives to incarceration"
in response to growing problems of drug and alcohol abuse. The Synod's
resolution encourages all settings of the church "to support public
policies that expand education, prevention, and treatment, in our
prisons and in the wider community" and "to seek to reduce the
punitive and harmful effects of various societal responses to
substance abuse and abusers." 

Decried problems associated with the "operation of prisons by private
companies and Wall Street investment houses [who] compete to
underwrite private tax-exempt bonds" while rural communities supply
the labor to "replace lost farm-related and unskilled blue-collar
jobs." In a system that "focuses on punishment and degradation rather
than on 'correction' or rehabilitation," the resolution recommends
that local congregations and conferences "develop a theology of
transformation based on justice, rehabilitation, and empowerment." 

Adopted a national basic support budget of $12.5 million for 1998 and
$12.6 million for 1999. The approved budget includes $200,000 each
year to support the process of restructuring the national setting of
the church. 

Received thanks from members of the UCC's Council on American Indian
Ministries by means of a unique cultural tradition known as a
"giveaway." In American Indian communities, ones wealth is determined
not by what one accumulates but by what one gives to others, said the
Rev. Marlene Whiterabbit Helgemo, Minneapolis. Baskets and blankets
were among the gifts presented to representatives of each UCC
conference delegation. 

UCC ONE.
UCC One - the UCC Office of Communication newsroom at General Synod -
was a success because of the hard work of these people: 

Office of Communication Staff: Arthur Lawrence Cribbs Jr., Laurie
Bartels, Eric Caldwell, W. Evan Golder, Sandra Hirano, Hans Holznagel,
Judy Jaye, Andy Lang, Sylvia Penny, Monica Pombo, Barb Powell,
Charlene J. Smith, Randy Varcho, Jacqueline Wilkins and William C.
Winslow. 

Special thanks to all our UCC Office of Communication volunteers:
Carol Brown, Michelle Carter, George Conklin, Tim Kershner, Virginia
Michaels, Alice Scott, Bob Seater, Irwin Smallwood, Clifford L. Willis
and Rosa Wilson. 

Thanks also to all of our hardworking youth group leaders and youth
volunteers from the Central Atlantic Conference and the Council for
American Indian Ministries. Leaders: Lucy Brady, Beng Seng Chan,
Roberta Connelly, Allen Fluent, Nora Fluent, Janet Kelly, Rosemary
McCombs Maxey, Rebecca West and Rosa Wilson. Youth: Carlen Brings
Horse, Allison Bruton, Susan Chasing Hawk, Aladrian Crowder, Brandi
Eney, Derek Fiddler, Sarah Helmick, Isaac Jackson, Truman McCombs
Maxey, Jimmy Simmons, Sabrina Simmons, Terrell Smith, Heather Taken
Alive, James White Mountain, Kelly Whitmore and Tammy Wiles. Also,
Charles Young from Connecticut.

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