Late in April, Plymouth Church delegates Demontrice Bigham, Anna Florey, David Guthrie, Mari Mitchell and Bing Tso represented our church at the UCC Pacific Northwest Conference (PNCUCC) annual meeting. The theme of the meeting was “Creating Sacred Space”, as depicted by the meeting logo, created by Conference Moderator Indigo Brown (above). Senior Minister Rev. Dr. Kelle Brown, Associate Minister Kevin Bechtold and Plymouth non-voting members Al and Judy Bentley were also in attendance. Plymouth Member and PNCUCC Moderator Indigo Brown also attended.
There are 75 churches in the PNCUCC, spanning Alaska, Washington and Northern Idaho. Roughly half of those churches sent delegates to the annual meeting. Rev. Phil Hodson serves as designated conference minister. PNCUCC Moderator Indigo Brown, called the meeting to order on Friday, April 25.
Exciting Additions
Conference delegates welcomed two new churches to the PNCUCC. Did you know that American Somoans now make up 11 churches in our conference? These congregations are located in Alaska and Washington. Delegates welcomed and celebrated the addition of two more American Somoan churches to our conference. These congregations played a powerful role in helping to lead Conference delegates in worship.
Time to Organize!
Organizing is leadership that enables people to turn the resources they have into the power they need to make the change they want.
Keynote Speaker and Guest Preacher Rev. Freeman Palmer, Conference Minister of the Central Atlantic Conference, UCC, kicked off the meeting with his keynote address. Rev. Palmer emphasized the need to organize collectively so that we might follow the example of Jesus as inspiration for creating justice in the communities our churches serve. He emphasized that UCC churches must do justice work within their congregations, as a necessary prerequisite for doing justice outside the walls of the church. Without doing such work, particularly around racial justice, efforts to create justice in our communities risk being performative rather than substantive.
Rev. Palmer went on to describe efforts within the Central Atlantic Conference to do anti-racist training for the staff and congregations of his conference. He closed by emphasizing the need to build coalitions between our churches, communities of other religious expressions and civil society organizations in an effort to build the Kin-dom of God.
This is Sacred Space
Moderator Indigo Brown, in her report to the conference, emphasized similar themes. As moderator for the last two years, she observed that PNCUCC efforts to build anti-racist congregations, while present in some churches, still have much work to do to become
substantive and effective in transforming us on the inside so that we can do work on the outside. She observed that PNCUCC efforts toward justice are often siloed within churches, thus weakening PNCUCC efforts to build unity between our churches. In her parting words as she ended her term as Moderator, she challenged us to seek unity and accountability within our conference in an effort to form us as followers of Jesus, so that we might become more powerful advocates for those furthest away from justice.
Meeting attendees thanked and honored Indigo for her 2 years of faithful service as conference Moderator. Thank you Indigo!
Heading the Prophet Micah
Rev. Bianca Davis preached the annual meeting final worship. She opened by describing herself as unapologetically Christian, black and a woman. She leveraged her past experience as a UCC pastor in a western Washington UCC congregation to illuminate the challenges before us. She believed she had accepted a call from a church that was ready and willing to do the self-reflection and work it takes to transform itself so that it might become more effective advocates for justice.
Instead, what she encountered was a congregation that welcomed her ministry, but only if she assimilated to whiteness, played to white comfort and muted her prophetic voice. She continued by expressing her faith that all things are possible with God, and through truth telling and the work of the holy spirit, we can be transformed to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.
Delegates also voted to approve the 2025 Budget for the PNCUCC. Want details on that and other things PNCUCC? Use this link.
-David Guthrie, Plymouth UCC Moderator