Resolutions of United Church of Christ General Synod XXV

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See also: Resolutions of the United Church of Christ

General Synod XXV of the United Church of Christ conviened July 1 - 5, 2005, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Contents 1 Overview of General Synod 1.1 Resolutions considered and passed 1.2 "Equal Marriage Rights For All" resolution controversy 1.2.1 Responses in support of the resolution 1.2.2 Responses in objection to the resolution 1.3 Middle East policy and economic leverage resolutions 1.3.1 Responses to the Middle East policy and economic leverage resolutions

[edit] Overview of General Synod

The denomination's churchwide deliberative body is the General Synod, which meets every two years. The General Synod is comprised of delegates elected from the Conferences (distributed proportionally by conference size) together with the boards of directors of each of the four covenanted ministries (see below, under National Offices).

While General Synod provides the most visible voice of the "stance of the denomination" on any particular issue, the covenantal polity of the denomination means that General Synod speaks to local churches, associations, and conferences, but not for them. Thus, the other settings of the church are allowed to hold differing views and practices on all non-constitutional matters.

David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research who has studied the United Church of Christ, said surveys show the national church's pronouncements are often more liberal than the views in the pews but that its governing structure is set up to allow such disagreements. [1]

[edit] Resolutions considered and passed

• A call for environmental education and action. (Referred directly to implementing body) Calls for implementation of programs that inspire education and action in the areas of environmental justice and protection.
• Called to wholeness in Christ: Becoming an accessible to all church. (Referred directly to implementing body) Calls on the UCC at all levels to embrace the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and to become a truly accessible church.
• Supporting congregations and providing guidance for stewardship of God's creation during the coming period of declining fossil fuels. (Referred directly to an implementing body)
• Another world is possible: A peace with justice movement in the UCC. (Passed) Supports building a denomination-wide "peace with justice movement" that embodies a multi-issue and multiracial, multicultural approach to justice and peacemaking.
• Calling on the UCC to declare itself to be a "fair trade" denomination. (Passed) Urges UCC settings to purchase products from companies that abide by fair trade practices.
• In support of making fast food fair food. (Passed) Calls upon church settings to support the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and its efforts to create a new model of corporate social responsibility throughout the fast food industry. Commends support for the Fair Food Alliance.
• For the Common Good. (Passed) Calls church to uphold the common good as a foundational ideal in the United States and reject the notion that government is inherently more unwieldy or inefficient than other democratic institutions. Reaffirms the obligations of citizens to share — through taxes — the financial responsibility for public services benefiting all citizens.
• For the International Criminal Court. (Passed) Calls for informed advocacy in support of the International Criminal Court, urges the President to restore the signature of the United States to treaty establishing the Court.
• In support of equal marriage rights for all. (Two proposals merged; passed as amended) Affirms equal marriage rights for couples regardless of gender and affirms equal access for all persons to the basic rights, institutional protections and quality of life conferred by the recognition of marriage. Also, calls on congregations to prayerfully consider adopting wedding policies that do not discriminate against gay or lesbian couples. Asks all settings of the church to urge legislative support for marriage equality. Asks local congregations to prayerfully discuss and study marriage equality. Recognizes that the UCC is not of one mind on this issue and understands that discussions will be difficult.
• In support of fair and just compensation for lay employees of the UCC. (Passed) Calls on UCC employers to commit to providing lay employees an annual contribution toward retirement of no less than three percent of compensation.
• In support of ministries to our campuses of higher education. (Passed as amended) Urges the UCC to provide more resources to ministries in higher education.
• Investigations into human rights violations in the Philippines. (Passed) Offers the UCC's voice in partnership with others calling for timely, full and impartial investigations into human rights violations in the Philippines.
• Call for truth-telling and standards of ethics in public life. (Passed) Expresses concern about the deliberate manipulation of information by persons in public life.
• Promoting peace for all in the Sudan. (Passed as amended) Calls on the Sudanese government to end violence against civilians. Also, calls on the U.S. government to intensify efforts with the United Nations to seek a comprehensive peace in Sudan. Asks UCC members to contribute generously to humanitarian relief.
• Religious freedom for Native Hawaiian prisoners. (Passed) Calls on Hawaiian law enforcement agencies and governmental representatives to grant native Hawaiian prisoners in Watonga, Okla., the right to practice their native religions.
• Saving Social Security from privatization. (Passed) Calls for legislative advocacy opposing privatization of Social Security.
• Concerning use of economic leverage in promoting peace in the Middle East. (Two proposals merged, substitute motion passed as amended) Calls on UCC individual and corporate investors to use economic leverage to advocate for peace with justice in Israel-Palestine.
• Tear down the wall. (Passed) Calls upon the Israeli government to cease construction and dismantle security barrier marking the separation of Israeli and Palestinian territories.
• Reaffirming Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and reaffirming our historic UCC cross, crown and orb with motto logo. (Two proposals merged, passed as amended) Reaffirms the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ who is Lord, Savior and Sovereign. Commends wide use of UCC logo throughout the church.
• Supreme Court Justice nomination. (Passed) Calls on the President and Senate to use a bi-partisan process of openness and consultation to nominate and confirm Supreme Court Justices.
• Resolution to advance the cause of the most disadvantaged in the budgetary and appropriations process. (Passed) Underscores Christ's call to serve the poor by calling attention to the 2006 U.S. Federal Budget which significantly increases the burdens placed upon the most disadvantaged. Calls on churches to speak in the public arena.
• General Synod Form and Function. (Passed as amended) Retains the resolutions process for future General Synods.

[edit] "Equal Marriage Rights For All" resolution controversy

On July 4, 2005, the United Church of Christ General Synod XXV, meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, endorsed an "Equal Marriage Rights For All" resolution, with an estimated 80% of the 884 delegates voting in favor of the resolution. With the resolution the UCC General Synod became the first major Christian deliberative body in the U.S. to make a statement of support for equal marriage rights for all people, regardless of gender, and is hitherto the largest Christian denominational entity in the U.S. supporting equal marriage rights (although other denominations have affirmed committed relationships for LGBT people in other forms). The resolution's primary focus is on calling for equal access to civil marriage regardless of gender; however, the resolution does call upon local congregations and other settings of the United Church of Christ to discussion and discernment around "marriage equality" and encourages congregations "to consider adopting Wedding Policies that do not discriminate against couples based on gender." As noted in the Polity section above, the General Synod cannot enforce positions on local congregations, speaking "to, but not for" them. text of the resolution here.

Although eighty percent (80%) of the delegates at the United Church of Christ General Synod XV endorsed an "Equal Marriage Rights For All" resolution, national response to the resolution remains mixed. In Massachusetts, the only state to authorize gay marriage, many local congregations have yet to recognize gay marriage. Boston's Old South Church, the oldest of the local churches in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, does perform same sex weddings.

[edit] Responses in support of the resolution

Some in the United Church of Christ have heralded the resolution as furthering the prophetic witness of the United Church of Christ to both church and society. The United Church of Christ Coalition for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Concerns, whose Open and Affirming Congregation program lists almost 600 UCC congregations, vigorously supported the resolution during the Synod and rejoiced at its passage.

Several prominent congregations outside the UCC have made movement toward joining the denomination following the adoption of this resolution, the most notable of which is the formerly Metropolitan Community Church-affiliated Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, Tex., which the North Texas Association (South Central Conference) admitted into membership at its annual meeting in October 2006. According to the June-July 2006 United Church News, "at least 26 churches have joined the UCC [in the 10 month period following General Synod], with an additional 40 churches expressing a 'firm interest' in affiliating." [2]

[edit] Responses in objection to the resolution

Others in the United Church of Christ viewed this decision unfavorably, though, because the General Synod's highly publicized endorsement may or may not reflect the actual theological opinions held by individual members or their local congregations. The language used that asserts no distinction between same sex marriage and different sex marriage ("Therefore, theologically and biblically, there is neither justification for denying any couple, regardless of gender, the blessings of the church nor for denying equal protection under the law in the granting of a civil marriage license, recognized and respected by all civil entities.") has been considered by some to be an overstepping the Synod's role in asserting theological positions.

In response, certain conservative "renewal movements" within the denomination made various responses to distance themselves from the resolution. The Biblical Witness Fellowship, founded originally in 1977 in reaction to that year's Synod addressing homosexuality seriously for the first time, issued press releases questioning the legitimacy of the UCC as a Christian denomination [3], and churches in the Southern Conference Renewal, founded by a group of conservative congregations in North Carolina, promulgated the "Lexington Confession" [4] (named after the North Carolina town where the document was drafted), listing several points of dissent, but calling on UCC congregations to remain in dialogue with the UCC.

No uniform data exists as to how many congregations have withdrawn from the denomination since the actions of General Synod 25, mainly because conferences submit data on local congregations only once per year, to supply information for the denomination's annual yearbook. According to the June-July 2006 issue of United Church News, "Ninety eight churches have voted to leave the UCC during the 10-month period that has followed General Synod 25, July 1-5, 2005, in Atlanta. Sixty-six of the churches specifically cited the General Synod-approved resolution supporting same-gender marriage equality as their reason for leaving." However, the dissent group Faithful and Welcoming Churches (FWC) has identified over 200 churches that have left the denomination as of July 2006. [5]. According to its listings, most of the departing churches are found in Indiana, Ohio, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania and Puerto Rico. It should be noted that on June 10, 2006, the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Puerto Rico, since 1931 a conference of the Congregational Christian Churches/UCC, voted by a 3-1 margin to withdraw its affiliation with the UCC as a body, over the issue [6]. This means most of the 62 previously affiliated congregations will withdraw from the UCC, although denominational officials expressed hope that several might continue affiliation, through other conferences or special arrangements.

[edit] Middle East policy and economic leverage resolutions

United Church of Christ General Synod XV also passed two resolutions concerning the conflict between Israel and Palestinians in the Middle East. One calls for the use of economic leverage to promote peace in the Middle East. "Economic leverage" can include measures such as government lobbying, selective investment, shareholder lobbying, and selective divestment from companies which profit from the continuing Israel-Palestine conflict. This resolution was a last minuted, unprocessed, replacement of one adopted at the committee level. The other resolution, named "Tear Down the Wall", calls upon Israel to remove the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank.

[edit] Responses to the Middle East policy and economic leverage resolutions

Opponents of the "Tear Down the Wall" resolution have noted that the wall's purpose is to prevent terrorist attacks, and that the resolution does not call for a stop to these attacks. The Simon Wiesenthal Center claimed that the July 2005 UCC resolutions on divestment from Israel were "functionally anti-Semitic" [7]. The Anti-Defamation League stated that those same resolutions were "disappointing and disturbing" and "deeply troubling" [8].

At a UCC-sponsored event in Minnesota, Jonathan Kutab, a prominent Palestinian human rights lawyer, advocated for the UCC resolutions on behalf of the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, an organization that supports economic divestment from Israel. [9].

In addition to the concerns raised about the merits of the resolution, additional concerns were raised about the process in which the General Synod approved the resolution. Michael Downs of the United Church of Christ Pension Boards [10] (who would be charged with implementing any divestment of the UCC's Pension Board investments) wrote a letter [11] to UCC President John Thomas expressing concern "with the precedent-setting implications of voted actions, integrity of process and trust."