wfn.org | UCC Synod pays tribute to John Thomas

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

> Synod pays tribute to John Thomas

> Written by W. Evan Golder
> June 28, 2009
> John Thomas Tribute

With a spirit of thankfulness and appreciation tempered by
disappointment, on Saturday evening a humble John H. Thomas received
the tributes of a grateful General Synod for his ten years of service
as the UCC's sixth General Minister and President.

The celebration included music, singing, liturgical dancing and words
of praise from UCC and ecumenical colleagues. However, it was a series
of seven video clips from a conversation between Thomas and the Rev.
Dale Bishop, a former Collegium colleague, that best captured Thomas'
tensions and concerns as GMP.

For example, when Bishop asked Thomas about the tension between
courage and caution, Thomas replied, "We privilege courage over
caution. At critical moments we have been willing to be courageous
rather than retreat to caution."

In answering another question, Thomas spoke specifically about
"evangelical courage." "We need to be attentive to the whole mandate
of evangelism," he said. "If we are not able to claim that mandate,
we'll be a shrinking, declining church."

He specifically cited the decision to use the controversial "God is
still speaking" television commercials featuring the bouncers and the
ejector seat. "We knew that these would offend some UCC members," he
said. "But we were convinced that the audience we were trying to reach
required a different kind of commercial." As the video screens showed
these commercials, the audience burst into applause.

Many speakers spoke of Thomas' ecumenical sensitivity, both as the
UCC's first ecumenical officer and as GMP. The Rev. Michael Kinnamon,
General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the
USA, quoted Armenian Archbishop Vickey Aykasian, NCCC President, as
saying, "He is the best ecumenical leader in all the church."

To mark Thomas' transition to Assistant to the President at Chicago
Theological Seminary, the evening concluded with a Litany for an
Invitation to the Journey. In your ministry with us, the words said,
you have reminded us that we have a legacy of early truth telling,
that we must stand firm in our evangelical courage, that we must
continually offer an extravagant welcome, that we're on a journey from
safe centers to exciting edges, and that God is still speaking.

In his response, Thomas lamented that "we are not where I thought we
would be when I began ten years ago," citing specifically a smaller
church, our slowness in recognizing a new philanthropic environment,
fragile ecumenical organizations, and a reluctance to address our
vulnerable institutional life.