• As the new Moderator it will be hard to follow such an incredible, gifted person like Cathy Green. We acknowledged her leadership with a well-deserved standing ovation and heartfelt praise for the countless hours given to our conference.
• A sense of building a “Common Ground” is pervasive as our Heartland (read David Long-Higgins article) efforts continue to move forward in living into a new vision for ourselves.
• Jim Antal, former Massachusetts Conference Minister, activist and public theologian, drove our Friday agenda with an inspiring call to action (both public and private) on our faithful response to the multi-level challenge of climate change. Workshops were “how-to” times of learning. From how to obtain low cost energy audits, creative liturgy building, successes of churches in reducing their carbon footprint, and ways to organize both the local church personal effort in changing congregational behaviors on being green as well as taking the message to others. And when you sign up next year, be sure and bring your reusable beverage container. Besides doing good for earth you get in more steps on your Fitbit having to go back and forth to find where you last set it down enabling you to see even more people you hadn’t greeted yet 😊
• We learned from our First Church Oberlin folks who have reduced their energy consumption by half: Unplug the Braun coffee maker in between your events. Big $’s, seriously big $’s. And found out from the Faithful Footprints program, partnering with Ohio Interfaith Power and Light (Ohio IPL), about how your members can get a Home Energy Audit for $50 if they are Columbia Gas of Ohio customers. Not only that, $20 of each audit goes back directly to your congregation. Even if you are not a Columbia Gas customer there are other ways to evaluate and act on saving dollars on your home and your church energy usage. Who knew that going green could make you some green?!
• Richard Bruxvoort Colligan’s casual, gentle singing style implored us to go deep into prayer and thoughtful reflections allowing us to linger over words both well-known and previously unexplored in their dept, moving us closer to God and our pursuit of bringing ourselves more deeply into harmony with the One we work to meet in each moment of the living of our days.
• The narrative budget presented at the meeting is a must read. Did you know that 44% of our budget goes to Faith Formation ministry? Things like Outdoor Ministries and the Faith Formation initiative called “Learn It, Live It, Share It” are taking efforts to a new level of participation. 11% of our budget goes to Grants and Special Ministries, with seminarians receiving over $50,000 toward educational expenses as just one example.
• We said thank-you to two cherished folk: Jim Ditzler as he “retires” from his work with Disaster Relief Ministry and Joyce Oyler for her tenure as our Transitional Outdoor Ministry Coordinator these last two years. We also said hello to our next Executive Director for Outdoor Ministry, Jill Frey, who began her work Oct. 1, Tom Hathaway as our Vice-Moderator along with an experienced group of “re-uppers” for the Board of Directors: Elizabeth Leung, Pam Linderson, Adrian Sunday, and Terry Williams.
• Traci Blackmon, our United Church of Christ Associate General Minister for Justice and Local Church Ministry preached us home with a reminder that when we say the Lord’s prayer, the practicum within in it, “on earth, as in heaven” needs to be taken seriously when faced with the challenge of global warming and the issues of justice that surround it.
• Thank you to our annual meeting team of Beth Gedert, Cathy Green, Adam Sharp, Debbie Kellogg, Hank Stonerook, Jonathan Bradner, Kelly Fuhrman, Nikki Shaw, Sigrid Rother, Wendy Schindler-Chasney, and Dave Long-Higgins, for a well-paced time of learning, celebrating, worshiping and relationship building, as well as Westerville Community UCC for their gracious hosting of us. You can find all the materials from the meeting at http://www.ohioucc.org/all-event-list/annual-gathering-2019/. I look forward to being your Moderator these next two years and all the mission and ministry that is ahead of us.
-David Plant
Conference Moderator