Rebecca Voelkel, Former UCC LGBT Coordinator, Compares Welcoming Homosexuals to People with Disabilities September 24, 2008 - UCC clergywoman Rebecca Voelkel was promoted in 2005 from interim UCC lgbt coalition coordinator to the Director of the Institute for Welcoming Resources, the religious arm of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the oldest and one of the largest secular homosexual advocacy organizations in the U.S. has absorbed the IWR to coordinate and fund a variety of lgbt activist groups in all of the mainline protestant denominations. In a recent interview on the need for mainline churches to be “certified” in writing as lgbt welcoming such as through the Open & Affirming program in the UCC, Voelkel said that without certification a church’s “welcome” was empty, comparing it to “a claim of being open to people with disabilities – meaningless without ramps or elevators for wheelchairs.” Voelkel estimates there are 3100 mainline churches which have been “certified” as lgbt welcoming in the U.S.

UCC PRESIDENTIAL FIELD NARROWS August 15, 2008 - Under the assumption that the UCC would nominate its first woman for General Minister & President in 2009, a number of prominent UCC clergywomen have been mentioned as likely candidates. Now the field seems to be narrowing as Retired Chicago Seminary President Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite recently removed herself from consideration  and former Massachusetts President and Conference Minister Nancy Taylor has come under embarrassing criticism for her support of anti-Jewish Sabeel, and the renegade Catholic group "Womenpriests."   We have also received the sad news that Davida Foy Crabtree, Conference Minister of Connecticut, widely thought to be the most likely nominee, has been recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Your prayers on her behalf is much needed and appreciated..

UCC Renewal Leader Apologizes to Roman Catholic Diocese of Boston In an open letter to Boston area Catholics sent to Archbishop Sean Cardinal O'Malley, Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, Executive Director of the Confessing Movement in the United Church of Christ, apologized for the "division and confusion" caused by former Massachusetts UCC President Rev. Nancy Taylor and the UCC related Church of the Covenant who recently welcomed and hosted a schismatic "ordination" by the group "Womenpriests."  Rev. Runnion-Bareford, in a separate letter to Rev. Nancy Taylor, cautioned, "you must be aware from your position of leadership that your divisive statements and behavior appear to violate the Minister's Code of the United Church of Christ, which says, 'I will be a responsible representative of the Church Universal and participate in those activities that strengthen its unity, witness, and mission'." He went on to ask, "Can we infer from your actions of this last week that you would approve of groups who have justice issues with the United Church of Christ carrying out their own ordinations of individuals they believe valid regardless of our church's standards and protocols?" Archbishop O'Malley Letter Rev. Nancy Taylor Letter Apology Unofficially Accepted?

UCC, TRINITY CHURCH, FORCE OBAMA OUT

American congregations who have left our denomination because their prophetic voice was rebuffed and ill treated by denominational bodies and officials.

UCC EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE RESOLUTION PRONOUNCES BOLD NEW DIRECTION FOR UCC

Dorhauer to Get His Own Conference

WHO WILL BE THE NEXT PRESIDENT? OF THE UCC???

UCC ADMINISTRATION IN CRISIS

SYNOD OPENS DOOR TO ECOT PARTICIPATION

SYNOD BLOWS OPPORTUNITY TO SOLVE FINANCIAL AND TRUST CRISIS

Nineteen UCC Ministers in Maine Call for the "Unwanted" to be Killed

Pastor Referral Grows Up Moves Out

BWF Voices Concern to North Texas

BWF Exec. Asks UCC to Remove Hate Piece From Web Page

Faithful and Welcoming Churches Call ECOTs to Reclaim the Church

5-10-06 - Chuck Colson The United Church of Christ’s Blame-Shifting

Presbyterians to Reconsider Their "Mistake" in Acting Against Israel

4-10-06 - Mainline Denominations Continue to Drop Out of the  Christian Mainstream

4-8-06 - Legal Advice for Dissenting Churches

4/7/2006- New York Times Knows Thomas is Struggling

3/7/2006 - John Thomas Admits Covert Collusion With Democrats

BWF Call to Reconciliation Gets Zen Response

2-8-06 - BWF Urges UCC to Denounce Terrorist Hamas

11-25-05 - BWF Responds to Recent Accusations

10-27-05 - UCC President Lashes Out at IRD

10/21/05 - John Thomas Calls GLBT Folks Lost Prodigals

10-05 - Calvin Synod Calls Churches to Stop Funding UCC

7/15/2005 - BWF Calls for Unity

Summer 2005 - BWF Executive Director’s Pastoral Letter on Marriage

2005 - Synod News

6/10/2004 - UCC Renewal Leader Responds To Wethersfield Church Vote

New York Times AD is a Fib and Fairytale

Wednesday, the United Church of Christ plans to respond to the publicity generated by Barrack Obama and Pastor Jeremiah Wright with an advertisement in the New York Times. The content of this ad is available on the UCC website. http://www.ucc.org    David Runnion-Bareford, Executive Director of Biblical Witness Fellowship has released the following statement to the press, noting that as the oldest and largest renewal movement in the UCC, BWF speaks for a significant minority of evangelical/conservative/orthodox/traditional Christians in the United Church of Christ.  

April 1, 2008 -  If the United Church of Christ were indeed to be a church of “open ideas, extravagant welcome and evangelical courage” it would be a phenomena worthy of great joy.   (click here for full statement)

 

THE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, BARACK OBAMA, & JEREMIAH WRIGHT:

The Christian church found itself more centrally in the public square in the U.S.,  last week than ever.. The messages of UCC Minister Jeremiah Wright at first thought by some to be one man's personal issue, brought mainline "progressive" theology under unusual scrutiny. (more here)


JOHN THOMAS, UCC SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY NETWORK AFFIRM CREATION

In a pastoral letter timed to coincide with the "celebration" of "evolution Sunday" by a number of mainline churches on the first Sunday in Lent, UCC President John Thomas & his co-authors resoundingly affirm a universe and humanity created by God. Calling scientific discoveries, "new windows on creation,"  the letter identifies God as creator, human beings as creatures. "We believe in God, not in some cosmic force or impersonal designer. We trust in a loving Creator who is personal and relational, who seeks our companionship, and who comes as Christ incarnate," Thomas writes. Ironically, the National Center for Science Education hailed the letter for its support of evolution, but the very section they quote, "Evolution helps us see our faithful God in a new way. Our creator works patiently, calling forth life through complex processes," is hardly a ringing endorsement of materialistic neo-Darwinism as the NCSE would like it taught in public school. Thomas even endorses, albeit poetically, the Genesis account as creation revelation.  For a full text of the letter go to www.ucc.org

GOSPEL CREATES CRISIS FOR OBAMA
 
UCC member, Barack Obama, having boldly testified to his personal faith in Jesus Christ in his landmark speech before the United Church of Christ Synod in June 2007,(read more here)

Barack Obama’s Testimony (read more here)

"IS HATING HATER'S HATEFUL?

This is an insightful and helpful essay on the challenge of authentic engagement
with the issue of human sexuality, by Dr. Scott Lively, a pro-family advocate.
The author invites its distribution. (read more here)


UCC HAS LONG HISTORY OF PROMOTING SEXUAL LICENSE

When, thirty years ago, BWF was formed in reaction to the 1977 General Synod passage of the landmark Human Sexuality Study affirming abortion and homosexual, bisexual, and transgender behavior, the UCC's current emphasis on being open and affirming was already deeply embedded.  Check out our chronology that finds this activism of UCC clergy has roots in the beginnings of the denomination.  Witness article (page 7)    Timeline