UCC - Consensus 'emerging' for single UCC board of fewer than 100 members

[Worldwide Faith News]

Governance team: Consensus 'emerging' for single 
UCC board of fewer than 100 members

Written by J. Bennett Guess
August 5, 2008

A new Governance Follow-up Team, meeting July 30 
– Aug. 1 in Cleveland, is reporting "emerging 
consensus" among its members that the UCC's 
national setting should be governed by a single 
board with a membership of fewer than 100 persons.

The 26-member committee was newly constituted 
after the spring meetings of the UCC's five 
autonomous boards – Local Church Ministries, 
Wider Church Ministries, Justice and Witness 
Ministries, Office of General Ministries and the 
Executive Council – when the bodies failed to 
come to common agreement on a plan to streamline 
the denomination's national governance.

At the time, each of the five entities seemed 
ready to agree upon a single governing board, 
however there not agreement on the proposed 
board's size and composition. A proposal to 
create a single board of almost 300 persons was 
approved by four of the five bodies, but the 
board of the Office of General Ministries 
rejected the plan, arguing that the proposed board's size would be unwieldy.

In its Aug. 5 report, the Governance Follow-Up 
Team said that, although no formal action was 
taken, there was growing agreement in support of 
a single board that would include fewer than 100 
persons, as well as an executive committee of 15 
to 20 members. The team urged that "good 
governance" be the church's "driving force" in 
the decision-making process. It also called for 
"embracing the full diversity of the church."

"The most significant amount of the GFT's time 
together was spent carefully listening to and in 
dialogue about the UCC's commitment to be a 
multicultural, multiracial, open and affirming 
and accessible to all [church], and what that 
means both historically and in moving forward," the report stated.

The Governance Follow-Up Team includes 
representation from each of the existing five 
governance bodies, as well as the Council of 
Conference Ministers, Pension Boards, Collegium 
of Officers and the UCC's historically 
underrepresented groups (often referred to as HUGS).

The governance group is scheduled to meet again 
Sept. 5-7 in Cleveland, where it will work on 
completing "a proposal that will be submitted to 
the boards of the Covenanted Ministries and the 
Executive Council for consideration at their fall meetings."

The GFT's report revives the possibility that the 
five bodies will be asked to take up the 
governance question again at their respective 
meetings in October and November. Ultimately, any 
changes in the UCC's Constitution and Bylaws 
would require approval of General Synod delegates 
and ratification by the UCC's Conferences.

In mid-June in Minneapolis, representatives of 
HUGS -- Council on Racial and Ethnic Ministries; 
United Black Christians; Ministers for Racial, 
Social and Economic Justice; Council for Hispanic 
Ministries; Pacific Islander Asian American 
Ministries; Council for Youth and Young Adult 
Ministries; Council for American Indian 
Ministries; UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns and 
UCC Disabilities Ministries -- expressed 
opposition to the proposed single-board governance plan.

"After three days of prayer and discernment, we 
have realized that the reconstituted GFT process 
is in effect a consolidation of power in the 
church," the group said, in a majority report. 
"The experience of many of the marginalized 
groups in the church has been that whenever 
streamlining takes place our voices, presence, 
history, and humanity are diminished."

Contact Information
J. Bennett Guess
Minister and Team Leader
Proclamation, Identity, And Communication
Office Of General Ministries
700 Prospect Ave.
Cleveland,Ohio 44115
216-736-2173