In Cleveland
28/04/24 21:54
I have been a part of the United Church of Christ of my whole life. Well, that isn’t quite accurate since the United Church of Christ was formed by the union of two other denominations that occurred when I was three years old. All of the congregations that I have served as pastor as well as the congregation where I grew up and the congregation I attended in college where I got married, have been congregations that grew out of the Congregational church. The union that formed the United Church of Christ was of two denominations that themselves had been formed in Union. The Congregational and Christian Churches had come together in 1931. The Evangelical and Reformed Churches became a single denomination in 1934. The 1957 union brought together the churches of mostly German and Swiss immigrants with a church that was predominantly from English origins.
The Congregational Churches trace their roots back to the coming of Puritan and Pilgrim settlers to this continent. As such, the largest number of congregations in that denomination were in New England. The Evangelical and Reformed denomination had the largest number of congregations in the St. Louis, Missouri area.
When the United Church of Christ celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the union that formed the denomination in 2007, we were privileged to attend the General Synod or national gathering of the denomination which took place in Hartford, Connecticut. I remember a lot about that meeting, but one of the fun parts of the meeting was the greeting that was brought to the meeting by the Governor of Connecticut, in which it was mentioned that every community in Connecticut had a congregation of our denomination. That is very different from the place where I grew up and the congregations I served and the place I now live. In those places, the United Church of Christ is a small denomination. Our congregations are few and far apart in those places.
For years, our denomination had its national offices in New England. After the Merger that gave rise to the United Church of Christ, the national headquarters was located in New York City as had been the case with the Congregational Christian Churches, while the national offices of the Evangelical and Reformed Churches had been in St. Louis.
In 1989, at the General Synod of the denomination, which was held in Dalas/Ft. Worth Texas that year, the denomination approve the moved of the national setting of the church from New York City to Cleveland Ohio. The next year, 1990, the church purchased the former Ohio Bell office, a 9-story building in downtown Cleveland, and moved into that building.
While the old office building has since been sold, our national offices remain in Cleveland. It has proven to be a good location for those offices in part because the majority of the members of our denomination are located in the easter states. At one time over half of the members of the United Church of Christ lived within 500 miles of Cleveland Ohio.
Of course, I have never served a congregation in that part of the congregation. For our entire career, we served congregations in three different conferences in the West. Not only did we not live within 500 miles of the national setting of our church, we didn’t even live in the same time zone as our Conference office for the years of our active ministry.
I did, however, serve the church in its national setting by serving on Boards and Committees of the National Church. I also served as a part-time educational consultant for the denomination for 20 years. I have made a lot of trips to Cleveland as part of that service. But now I am retired. There have not been many reasons for me to go to Cleveland. And in our post-pandemic configuration, our church has far fewer meetings that bring people to gather in the same place. I attend regular gatherings over Zoom and other digital formats. I teach a class in a program of the Southern New England Conference that takes place entirely on line.
This week, however, I am back in Cleveland for a meeting that is taking advantage of an opportunity to be face to face to do some hard planning and design work. We will seek to make the best of being together before returning to our homes and working separately and connecting online over the next few years as we develop resources for the church.
I don’t remember how many years it has been since I came to Cleveland for meetings, but here I am in a place that is fairly familiar to me. I got in early enough yesterday to take a little walk around the neighborhood, which is a few blocks from the building our denomination once was located. Our new national home base is on the same street a few blocks closer to the lakeshore, not far from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a popular tourist destination in Cleveland. My home for this visit is on the 15th story of a hotel with a view of other tall buildings, most of which are taller than 15 stories. For a person who is used to living in a rural area and spending my time on our son’s farm, this place feels full and crowded. There are a lot of people here. We don’t have any need for 15 story hotels where I come from. The meeting is a kind of urban plunge for me, reminding me that most of the people of this world live in places where people are packed together in cities. The open spaces that I have always taken for granted are a luxury that most people simply cannot afford.
I’m not a city person. By Wednesday when I fly home, I’ll be glad to leave the city behind.and go back to the quiet of open fields and empty beaches. For now, I’m trying to soak up as much of the city as possible and learn from the experience. I’m riding in a lot of elevators, hearing a lot of traffic, dealing with a lot of strangers, and remembering a few city survival skills that I honed when we lived in Chicago during our graduate school years.
Moreover, it feels like we are at the beginning of a grand adventure, launching a new program and developing new resources and trying to envision the future of the church that will unfold after my time on this earth has ended. As has been true for all of my life, I serve in a church that was founded by the sacrifice, love, and dedication of those who came before me and which will be led by people who will be born after my life had come to its conclusion. I am a small part in a story that is far bigger than me and my time. So I will seek to be a wise steward of the time that I’ve been given and make a contribution, however small, to the future of this church.
As always, it will be an adventure!
The Congregational Churches trace their roots back to the coming of Puritan and Pilgrim settlers to this continent. As such, the largest number of congregations in that denomination were in New England. The Evangelical and Reformed denomination had the largest number of congregations in the St. Louis, Missouri area.
When the United Church of Christ celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the union that formed the denomination in 2007, we were privileged to attend the General Synod or national gathering of the denomination which took place in Hartford, Connecticut. I remember a lot about that meeting, but one of the fun parts of the meeting was the greeting that was brought to the meeting by the Governor of Connecticut, in which it was mentioned that every community in Connecticut had a congregation of our denomination. That is very different from the place where I grew up and the congregations I served and the place I now live. In those places, the United Church of Christ is a small denomination. Our congregations are few and far apart in those places.
For years, our denomination had its national offices in New England. After the Merger that gave rise to the United Church of Christ, the national headquarters was located in New York City as had been the case with the Congregational Christian Churches, while the national offices of the Evangelical and Reformed Churches had been in St. Louis.
In 1989, at the General Synod of the denomination, which was held in Dalas/Ft. Worth Texas that year, the denomination approve the moved of the national setting of the church from New York City to Cleveland Ohio. The next year, 1990, the church purchased the former Ohio Bell office, a 9-story building in downtown Cleveland, and moved into that building.
While the old office building has since been sold, our national offices remain in Cleveland. It has proven to be a good location for those offices in part because the majority of the members of our denomination are located in the easter states. At one time over half of the members of the United Church of Christ lived within 500 miles of Cleveland Ohio.
Of course, I have never served a congregation in that part of the congregation. For our entire career, we served congregations in three different conferences in the West. Not only did we not live within 500 miles of the national setting of our church, we didn’t even live in the same time zone as our Conference office for the years of our active ministry.
I did, however, serve the church in its national setting by serving on Boards and Committees of the National Church. I also served as a part-time educational consultant for the denomination for 20 years. I have made a lot of trips to Cleveland as part of that service. But now I am retired. There have not been many reasons for me to go to Cleveland. And in our post-pandemic configuration, our church has far fewer meetings that bring people to gather in the same place. I attend regular gatherings over Zoom and other digital formats. I teach a class in a program of the Southern New England Conference that takes place entirely on line.
This week, however, I am back in Cleveland for a meeting that is taking advantage of an opportunity to be face to face to do some hard planning and design work. We will seek to make the best of being together before returning to our homes and working separately and connecting online over the next few years as we develop resources for the church.
I don’t remember how many years it has been since I came to Cleveland for meetings, but here I am in a place that is fairly familiar to me. I got in early enough yesterday to take a little walk around the neighborhood, which is a few blocks from the building our denomination once was located. Our new national home base is on the same street a few blocks closer to the lakeshore, not far from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a popular tourist destination in Cleveland. My home for this visit is on the 15th story of a hotel with a view of other tall buildings, most of which are taller than 15 stories. For a person who is used to living in a rural area and spending my time on our son’s farm, this place feels full and crowded. There are a lot of people here. We don’t have any need for 15 story hotels where I come from. The meeting is a kind of urban plunge for me, reminding me that most of the people of this world live in places where people are packed together in cities. The open spaces that I have always taken for granted are a luxury that most people simply cannot afford.
I’m not a city person. By Wednesday when I fly home, I’ll be glad to leave the city behind.and go back to the quiet of open fields and empty beaches. For now, I’m trying to soak up as much of the city as possible and learn from the experience. I’m riding in a lot of elevators, hearing a lot of traffic, dealing with a lot of strangers, and remembering a few city survival skills that I honed when we lived in Chicago during our graduate school years.
Moreover, it feels like we are at the beginning of a grand adventure, launching a new program and developing new resources and trying to envision the future of the church that will unfold after my time on this earth has ended. As has been true for all of my life, I serve in a church that was founded by the sacrifice, love, and dedication of those who came before me and which will be led by people who will be born after my life had come to its conclusion. I am a small part in a story that is far bigger than me and my time. So I will seek to be a wise steward of the time that I’ve been given and make a contribution, however small, to the future of this church.
As always, it will be an adventure!
