Editorial - UC News - December 2001

One of my favorite phrases comes from the Book of Worship of the United Church of Christ. It is a portion of the prayer of thanksgiving following the Holy Communion: "Be a rainbow of hope in an uncertain world."

I like this phrase because it recalls the promise of God to Noah when God set a bow in the sky as a sign for God’s faithfulness in the future. I like this phrase also because a rainbow in the sky reminds me again and again that no matter how difficult things are in this uncertain world, no matter how much rubble has been created, God is always with us.

The rainbow has become a popular art attraction for many people but I think particularly for children. Maybe it is because of all the pretty colors; maybe it is the sweep of the rainbow that always seems to include every thing within its colorful grasp. Whatever the fascination with rainbows, they remain popular symbols of hope and joy.

This Christmas, there are many things that fill our lives with uncertainty. For too many families, the uncertainty is caused by a lost job or by the absence of a loved one from the family table this Christmas because of death, terrorism, a plane crash, being away from home because of the war, or relationships that were broken this past year.

There will be many families where uncertainty will prevail over the hope they might imagine for the future. That is why the best gift to give this year is Hope, with the knowledge and trust that God will be there with those who feel hopeless as well as with those of us who are hopeful.

The phrase in the Book of Worship also says, "that your (God’s) universal church may be a rainbow of hope in an uncertain world." The church—your church—is called to be that sign and place of hope in this difficult, stress-filled and confusing world. Congregations do spend a lot of time and energy sharing love and concern for each other. That is good! But that does not help those who have no church home or those with no faith in the future realm of God.

This Christmas, I encourage congregations and families to be signs of hope for others who feel hopeless. Maybe that will mean sharing a special gift of caring with someone in your neighborhood or with a co-worker. The gift may be monetary, but you may want to share yourself with someone in ways that show that God is with us and will keep us in God’s care no matter what happens.

Maybe your family or congregation will want to give out rainbows to your church family to remind them and others that God sent Jesus into our world to be a sign of God’s love for us, even when we seem flooded by the difficulties of our time. Placing a rainbow over the Christmas scene like an ancient star draws us to know that there is hope from the rubble of our lives this year and every year.

May you and your congregation be a rainbow of hope in an uncertain world this Christmas Season.

Thank you, Alan

Ralph Quellhorst, Ohio Conference Minister
Editorial, January/February 2002, United Church News, page 2

Alan McLarty has resigned as the Minister for Mission Development of the Ohio Conference effective December 31, 2001. He has been called to be the Conference Minister of the Penn West Conference of the United Church of Christ. Alan served as the Designated Association Minister of the Central Southeast Association of the Ohio Conference. He has also left that post as reported last month in the United Church News.

Alan played a major leadership role in the development and establishment of new congregations in the Ohio Conference over the past 15 years. He was responsible for helping persons who were starting new congregations. Alan helped them learn how to develop their congregational life and how to find the funding to assist the congregation to move forward and grow.

He spent many hours meeting with new church start committees, helping them to get through the hard times and celebrate the good times. Alan provided many hours of pastoral caring to pastors who were called to develop these new churches.

Alan also worked with existing congregations that wanted to examine their life together and set a course for a new vision for their church in the years ahead. His expertise in helping congregations to envision a way to transform their church life was widely sought by many churches of the Ohio Conference. He had many more invitations than time to meet them all.

Alan is one of the most well read and knowledgeable persons about church transformation that I know in the United Church of Christ. We shall miss his expertise and constant pushing of the leadership of our churches to establish new church starts in the Ohio Conference.

We wish Alan well in his new call as one of the 39 Conference Ministers in the United Church of Christ. I shall miss him as a colleague here in the Ohio Conference, but I will welcome him as a colleague in the Council of Conference Ministers.

Alan, you have done very well in your ministry here in the Ohio Conference. May God bless you in your new call within our beloved United Church of Christ. Our prayers go with you and Claudia and your two sons, David and Mark.

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There Is Still a Lot of Ministry for Us To Do
Ralph Quellhorst, Ohio Conference Minister Editorial, March 2002, United Church News
On the coffee table in my office is a picture that was published by the New York Times on December 31. It is a photograph, taken on the morning of September 11, with the Brooklyn Bridge in the foreground and the World Trade Center towers in the background. Smoke pours from the first tower, and the second tower is caught at the very moment when the second airplane struck it. It is an outstanding photo of a terrible event. I keep it in my office to remind me that this was the moment when the world most of us in the United States knew changed forever. I continue to read the stories published in the Times about the persons who were killed on 9.11. It was a tragedy that none of us will ever forget. Certainly the families of those killed will never be the same. But this picture also represents something more for many people. The World Trade Center towers were the symbols of the United States’ economic power. They stood in the very heart of the Wall Street financial district, which many believe is the center of economic power in the world. The Pentagon is the symbol of the military power of the United States to the world. It is obvious that, for many persons who feel disenfranchised from the wealth and power of the world, these symbols represent what they do not have and want to destroy. Wealth and military power become hated realities for poor, broken and starving people. We know that Bin Laden was not poor, nor did he lack power. Yet he seemed to be able to mobilize people who were poor and broken to destroy those two symbols of power in the United States. As a result of the attacks of 9.11, we Americans are now losing freedoms we once enjoyed. Much of the world’s population has never enjoyed the freedoms we had or even the freedoms we have today. My point is that when we use our wealth and our military power to keep others from achieving full and healthy lives, we are a nation resented even more. We live in a world of great diversity, but often we act as if we have a God-given right to be in charge of all the world. Think about these facts reported to me in recent email. If there were 100 people in the world, 57 would be Asians, 21 European, 14 from the western hemisphere (both north and south), and 8 would be Africans. 70 would be non-white and 30 would be white; 70 people would be non-Christian and 30 would be Christian. 89 would be heterosexual and 11 would be homosexual. 6 people would possess 59% of the world’s wealth, and all 6 would be from the United States. 80 would live in substandard housing, and 70 would be unable to read. 50 would suffer from malnutrition. 1 (only 1) would have a college education, and 1 would own a computer. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish some place, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthiest people. All of this says to me that the tragedy of 9.11 was certainly a terrible event, but there are people in the world that live with similar horrors every day of their lives The Gospel story is about helping people imagine a different world where all of God’s people will be safe, loved, have enough food to eat, shelter in which to sleep, and life that has meaning. The Twin Towers picture reminds us that as long as people do not have the capacity to receive the benefits of a safe, healthy and full life, there will always be those that seek to destroy those who have it. Would it not be better for us to serve those persons who are in need rather than seeking to have power over people so that we can have it all? I struggle with trying to make choices to live a life that would help me serve others more, rather than trying to keep it all. Do you? I don’t believe Bin Laden was leading a noble cause. He is no saint seeking to help his people. I think he was trying to get power for himself. But there are many people in our world, yearning for a better life, who are used by evil people. Would it not be better if we helped one another rather than trying to take from one another? I believe that is what Jesus was talking about in his ministry. That is the mission of the church. The tragedy of 9.11 is not primarily about finding Bin Laden, punishing the Taliban, and expecting things to go back to the way they were. It was a terrible act that reminds us that we have not done enough to help all people of the world to have full and blessed lives. There is still a lot of ministry for us to do.
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UCC safeguards against clergy misconduct and its results
Ralph Quellhorst, Ohio Conference Minister Editorial, April 2002, United Church News
The newspapers have been reporting recently the terrible abuses of children by priests in various Roman Catholic dioceses across the country. Many of these cases have gone unreported until now. In some cases, the priests have been moved from one parish to another with the full knowledge by his Bishop of a priest’s abusive behavior. The emotional and psychological trauma has been horrendous for the victims of these abuses. Let me be clear. The priests who did these terrible acts should have been removed from their parishes and dealt with by both the church and legal authorities. The integrity of all clergy is tainted by these acts of violence. Unfortunately, the Roman Catholic Church is not the only church that has been affected by clergy who have abused their holy orders and the office of pastor and teacher. Most churches, both liberal and conservative, have people who have been victims of clergy misconduct. The United Church of Christ has had clergy over the years who have been accused of misconduct, both sexual and ethical. Over 10 years ago the United Church of Christ began an aggressive program of dealing with clergy who mis-used their ordination and ethical vows. There are United Church of Christ national guidelines which all Association Church and Ministry Committees use to adjudicate charges made against ordained, commissioned and licensed ministers authorized in the UCC. The members of an Association Church and Ministry Committee are trained to use the national guidelines fairly and justly for the victims of abuse and the clergy persons being charged. At a recent ecumenical gathering of executives of not-for-profit church insurance companies, the United Church of Christ was noted as having the most complete and widely used procedures for preventing clergy misconduct among the various church bodies represented at the meeting. Some congregations in other denominations are finding it difficult to acquire insurance coverage for clergy and professional misconduct. UCC Associations are encouraged to require all authorized ministers to attend boundary workshops so that clergy persons are aware of ways to avoid situations where he or she may be tempted to break the rules of appropriate ministerial behavior. Does this mean that no UCC clergy person will break the rules of ethical behavior again? No, because ministers are human. However, it does assure that any allegations made against a minister in the UCC will be investigated. If you feel you are a victim of abuse by an authorized minister of the UCC, please contact your Association Minister or myself. Someone will be in touch with you to listen to your concerns. There are times when clergy are wrongly accused. In those cases, the minister is exonerated of allegations. If a minister is found to have acted unethically, the Church and Ministry Committee of the Association has a variety of disciplinary actions which may be used, including removal of the ministerial credentials to serve in the UCC. The responsibility of the church and ministry committees is to be fair and just to victims as well as pastors. Congregations must also be vigilant. Every congregation should have significant professional liability insurance to cover itself should an incident occur while a minister is serving the church. It is estimated that the costs to the Roman Catholic Church of dealing with misconduct by priests may amount to as much as one billion dollars. The United Church of Christ property and liability Insurance Board will NOT cover a congregation if they are served by a minister who is not authorized by the UCC. The UCC Insurance Board will not accept the liability of an unauthorized pastor because it cannot be assured that the unauthorized pastor has had adequate boundary training by the UCC. It is important that every congregation requires its pastor to receive boundary training. It may seem harsh to take such a stand, but in this litigious society the Insurance Board is not prepared to put other parts of the church at risk because of the lack of fiduciary responsibility of a congregation that is not vigilant in regard to this issue. It saddens me that we have come to a place where we must take such actions. But UCC congregations should feel positive that there is zero tolerance for misconduct by pastors in the UCC. Congregations should also be aware that safeguards must be put in place to protect children from possible misconduct by lay volunteers as well. Sunday church schools and youth groups are prime targets for predators of children and youth. The Insurance Board has a free booklet called Making Our Churches Safe for All (Abuse Prevention Resources for Local Churches) that contains ways to protect your church from potential problems. You can request a copy by calling the Insurance Board at 800-437-8830, Ext. 232, or by sending an email to bjohnson@insuranceboard.org. I have great confidence in our UCC ministers because they do live their ministry with integrity and honesty. The ministers who serve you do not want other ministers to misuse or abuse the office of pastor any more that any lay person does. Together, as lay persons and ministers, we shall seek to keep our mutual ministry what Jesus would have it be. Treat all persons with respect and caring.

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Embrace the Experience Community, Connections, Unity in Christ
Ralph Quellhorst, Ohio Conference Minister Editorial, May 2002, United Church News
We have a couple of family reunions every year in our family. My wife Sue’s family meets after church on the same Sunday every year. For many years they have met at the same location. It is a large family as Sue’s mother is one of eleven children. Add to that the uncles, aunts and cousins, in laws and friends that come, and it can get to be a large gathering. For the last few years, though, our numbers have dwindled as many of the oldest generation have died. The family that used to live mostly in Ohio is now spread all over the nation and other parts of the world, and it’s hard for many of them to make the trip. We miss those that cannot be there, and we are all diminished by the absence. The family carries out a ritual at the reunion each year. A family history is being written, and each year a record is made of who has been born, who has died, who has been married, and of other significant events that have happened in the families since the last time we were together. It is an important ritual, and it allows the history of the family to be passed from one generation to another. On my side of the family we recently started a new tradition. Sue and I, with our children and grandchildren, gather with my brother and sister and their children and grandchildren. We are still developing the traditions for this gathering. This year I am in trouble because I invited my family to come to our home on the same day as Sue’s family reunion. I thought if I shared my sin with all of you, you could help me out with my "problem." I have been struck by how much the Annual Gathering of the Ohio Conference is like a family reunion. The name of the Ohio Conference event was changed from "Annual Meeting" to "Annual Gathering" to encourage us to think of it as the UCC church family coming together to be with one another to share the stories of what has happened since the last time we saw one another. I have attended a lot of these annual events, dating back to the first one in 1962. There are many stories about past Ohio Conference Annual Meetings when we engaged in hot discussions about issues of the times. This year we are going to talk about the abolition of the death penalty in Ohio. I have memories of many interesting "happenings" from some years. There was the year when all the people were rushed to the men’s and women’s locker rooms in the basement of the gym at Heidelberg because of a tornado warning. There was the year that the Fisk Jubilee Singers came to entertain us, and we needed a $10,000 offering to cover their expenses—and we got it. There were tension-filled meetings when I had to hire a bodyguard for the Conference Minister because of threats made to him, and the difficult years when the Ohio Conference struggled with the issue of whether to become an Open and Affirming Conference. Through all of these years, there was the consistent presence of outstanding worship, wonderful and informed workshops, and creative and talented speakers like Andy Young and Ken Medema. Always there are the friends and acquaintances who gather just because they feel a part of the family of the Ohio Conference of the United Church of Christ, and they want to be together. I know delegates are invited to come as representatives from local churches, and they are necessary because we do some business, but not a lot. We want our members to come to hear the gifted speakers and to participate in the almost two dozen workshops that help us with our own ministries back home. We want you to come because we want you to see people you care about, have some fun with them, and to get to know new people. We are inviting all the folks who want to come this year to Embrace the Experience of the United Church of Christ. This year we have Walter and June Wink, outstanding Bible study leaders, to guide us in understanding the Scriptures in fresh new ways. I have been privileged to worship at the church where Rev. Ozzie Smith is pastor near Chicago, and it is an experience I shall never forget. He is a powerful preacher and plays the "sweetest saxophone" I have ever heard. Tex Sample has been said to communicate with lay persons the meaning of the gospel in ways that inspire them to new heights of hearing God’s call. Pastors love his ability to share the Good News with power and a lot of humor. I hope you will join us this year at the family reunion of the United Church of Christ. The cost for the gathering is the lowest it has been since the 1960’s because we want everyone to be able to attend. Embrace the Experience at Heidelberg College this June. We need your presence so that the whole family can gather at the table of the Lord. See you in June!

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With faith, we take the 'long view' of life
Ralph Quellhorst, Ohio Conference Minister Editorial, June 2002, United Church News
"If it hit, asteroid 1950 DA would wallop the earth like a gigantic bomb and then touch off a nuclear winter." These words from a recent newspaper article in the Columbus Dispatch describe what scientists predict would happen if an asteroid should hit the earth 838 years, or 35 generations, from now—on March 16, 2880. Their point is that scientific analysis indicates a strong possibility (a 1-in-300 chance) that the earth could face such massive destruction that much of the world would be wiped out. Asteroid 1950 DA was first sighted in 1950, and it was seen again in December 2000. One could get depressed knowing that scientists say there are more than 1,000 large asteroids circling through the solar system that might hit the Earth. This got me thinking about what we believe about the future and the earth on which we live. Environmental issues such as global warming, loss of water resources and pollution from chemicals of all kinds cause us to ponder whether we will survive the things we can do something about, let alone some flying bomb from outer space. I wonder how those persons in our world who live in difficult poverty situations think about these ideas. I believe they are worried about having enough food for tomorrow, not about some asteroid that may appear 35 generations from now. What about the Israeli person in the Holy Land who wonders if they will be blown up tomorrow by a Palestinian or the Palestinian who fears death from the Israeli helicopters bombing their village. The person who suffers from terminal cancer—how do they view the future in 828 years? The fact is that many of us live for today, and maybe tomorrow, and have a hard time thinking ten—not to mention 828—years in the future. Yet what we do today has a bearing on our children and our children’s children. What happened with Jesus a long time ago causes us to think and do things in certain ways because we believe it makes a difference in our lives and in the lives of others. Taking the "long view" for life is hard because we are always so consumed with the present realities. Yet I believe our faith perspective is the long view, the view that suggests that we bear responsibility for a lot of tomorrows, not only for individual selves but for the wellness of all of humanity. The teaching of our faith goes from one generation to another, and it doesn’t make any difference if an asteroid is coming this way or not. It has to do with caring for persons and their needs because that is what Jesus taught us to do. That is what we are called to do. It is more than one’s own personal salvation; it is the salvation of the world. It is about every person in the world having full access to the full resources of our world without regard to race, sex, political ideologies, country of origin, life circumstances, or whatever they believe in. It is about loving the whole of humanity even as we love those near and dear to us. What are the ways that we prepare those we love to love the wholeness of the God’s creation as well as those in our families? How do we in our churches invite conversations within the congregation about what will contribute to the welfare of God’s world in the long view of the future? These are things I am wondering about as I reflect on my own ministry. I’m not worried about the asteroid. I believe God created human beings with brains and that our scientific friends will solve that problem. What I am more worried about is the lack of caring about the little things that I can do something about, things that destroy life for other people. What shall we leave to the next generation?

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It has become a matter of trust between partners
Ralph Quellhorst, Ohio Conference Minister Editorial, July/August 2002, United Church News
It seems that every day we read about another company that has announced that their audit reports are flawed. Companies such as Enron, Arthur Andersen, WorldCom and even the seemingly trustworthy Martha Stewart all have been found to be less than truthful about their financial affairs. It seems that we cannot even trust the auditors—those whom we engage to watch our finances. Who can we trust? Last April, the Boards of Directors of three of the Covenanted Ministries of the United Church of Christ adopted a resolution that they felt responded to the issues of racism and the abuse of power by the police in the city of Cincinnati. Their resolution sought justice for the poor and the disenfranchised of the community. They stated that they supported the efforts of the United Black Front to encourage groups planning to hold meetings in Cincinnati to boycott Cincinnati until certain demands are met by the city. This action by the Covenanted Ministries Boards has created a very negative reaction by many of the UCC folks in the Cincinnati churches. There are many different reasons for this response. One is that the UCC Assembly in Cincinnati adopted a resolution to support a community-based "collaborative agreement on police-community relations" that sought to address the issues of police abuse in Cincinnati. Another reason the folks are upset is because many of the UCC people in Cincinnati were not consulted about their opinions on the issue before the national boards adopted their views. Neither were the opinions of the Southwest Ohio Northern Kentucky Association nor the Ohio Conference leadership sought prior to the adoption of the resolution. What really upset people in Cincinnati was the headline in a Cincinnati newspaper announcing that the UCC supported the boycott of Cincinnati. Of course, the article went on to say that it was an action of the national setting of the church. This angered a lot of UCC members in Cincinnati because some other part of the UCC appeared to speak for them without consulting them first. This situation has turned quickly into an issue of trust: "How can we trust another part of the church if they decide to speak to an issue within our community without at least asking for our opinion?" We know that in the UCC no one part of the church speaks *for* another part of the church but rather seeks to speak to the other parts of the church. This fine line of understanding the polity of the UCC is lost on news media no matter how much one repeats it. So it appeared to the public that all people of the UCC in Cincinnati supported the views of the resolution adopted at a meeting in St. Louis. The subsequent loss of trust in the wider church by many church members in Cincinnati has resulted in some of them starting a boycott of their own. They feel they should not support with their offerings another part of the church that does not consider or even ask for their opinion. The loss of trust means the loss of a relationship between the wider church and the local church. These feelings are similar to those some investors must have when their pension funds are lost because of the lack of oversight by auditors in major corporations. Trust is something we have to work at all the time. The church is not immune from that concern. To rebuild a trusting relationship requires a lot of hard work and listening. In the meantime, the concerns of racism and poverty remain unaddressed because we get caught up in rebuilding trust among the partners rather than doing the mission. A lot of this intramural church fighting could have been avoided if we had practiced better hospitality of working together. Even more important is that we also must practice hospitality with the persons caught in the vice of poverty and racism. My suggestion is that, as we work with hurting people who are poor and who live within the horrors of racism, we may find our way together to a way to live as a church practicing justice in our hearts. I pray that it may happen soon. The more we struggle with one another about how to work together, the more we avoid working on the tough issues facing disenfranchised people living in terrible conditions. A little hospitality and trust goes a long way. It is a fragile thing, this trusting business.

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