Synod's opening plenary touts UCC's amazing, ever-unfolding history Written by Micki Carter June 22, 2007
The UCC's 50th anniversary celebration, "Let it shine!", got off to a glittering start Friday afternoon in the Hartford Civic Center with an upbeat, multimedia presentation and a diverse group of special guests, including SpongeBob SquarePants, the governor of Connecticut, the mayor of Hartford, and a fictitious-theatrical reporter sent to "cover" the unfolding story of the UCC.
In a dramatic presentation, "And the World Took Notice," a crusty reporter appropriately named "Scoop" led the crowd of nearly 10,000 visitors and delegates through a comic-book retelling of the UCC's annual report. Dispatched on an assignment as exciting "as watching paint dry," he soon found himself chasing a red and black comma to Cleveland.
In his adventure, Scoop meets The Answer Man
(Hans Holznagel) who retells the highlights of the past 50 years of the UCC and the previous 300 years of the original Congregational and Evangelical and Reformed churches.
The Answer Man celebrated the oldest UCC congregation, West Parish UCC at Barnstable, Mass., founded two years before the Pilgrims arrived; the defensive of the Amistad slaves; the 1973 Synod which closed prematurely to fly to California's Coachella Valley to march with Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers; the Civil Rights and Vietnam protests; the ordinations of the first woman, Antoinette Brown, in 1853, and the first gay man, Bill Johnson, in 1972.
"God continues to speak to us in every age through many different people leading ordinary lives," the Answer Man explained.
"But what's God saying?" he asked. The Answer Man whispered in reply, "Let it shine!"
Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell added to the glow of the opening session when she announced that General Synod 26 is the largest convention ever in Hartford and "may be the biggest in the state."
Rell noted that the history of Connecticut and the UCC are intertwined, noting that the first African-American, Lemuel Haynes, was ordained by the UCC in the state in 1789, and the Amistad captives were both defended by local churches and then were welcomed into those churches after they were freed.
"The 247 local UCC churches across Connecticut have always stood for inclusiveness, multiculturalism, social justice and peace," Rell said. "Connecticut is honored to have you here."
Part of the UCC's social justice mission brought General Synod to the cavernous Hartford Civic Center instead of the flashier Connecticut Convention Center where a labor dispute erupted earlier this year over the right to organize. In solidarity with the employees, the location of General Synod was shifted.
"The story of the UCC," Scoop concluded, "is in fact the story I always wanted to write, the story of a church with a radical embrace? It just leaves us with one question: How will we respond?"