The one major convention that relocated out of the convention center and hotel - the 2007 national convention of the United Church of Christ - took advantage of a state-funded bailout to move its events to the nearby Civic Center and keep its event in Hartford.

Pete Pusztai, an engineer at the convention center, arrived at the city hall steps Friday just as the unions were wrapping up their press conference on the boycott.

"You're basically strangling our income," Pusztai told union organizers, adding that no one he knows has asked to unionize. "Why would we want to join a union that wants to choke us into submission to let you in? You're not the union I want."

Pusztai complained about the negative effect of the boycott on workers. Dugdale said that he should be happy that now is the time for "cooling off."

"The thing is," Pusztai said, "we were never hot."

We are witnesses to a Middle East weary for peace yet enflamed once again in violence. We mourn the death of all those killed in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza, and despair for the lives and land indelibly scarred by the violence. All sides must stop the killing and devastation. The United States and international community must work diplomatically and urgently to reach a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel, and Hamas and Israel, and to pursue negotiations toward a sustainable peace in the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All nations should resist exploiting the current conflict to further political or ideological aims in the region. Neither security, hegemony, nor democracy can be achieved by continuing and widening the violence.

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:

As I write this letter, dear friends, the military and humanitarian crisis intensifies around you. We watch with horror and outrage as Israel punishes an entire population for the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier in Gaza, and as belligerence escalates with Hizb Allah’s attack on military personnel near Lebanon. While we pray for the Israeli soldiers’ release and safe return to family, we also know that these incidents have become an occasion for the further oppression of the Palestinian community, for the massive destruction of economic infrastructure and for the tragic loss of much innocent life. Meanwhile, the separation barrier continues to restrict travel, even for the purpose of meeting desperate human need, and sanctions against the Palestinian Authority have caused a financial strangulation of vital political, educational and humanitarian institutions. The complicity of our own government in these sanctions is cause for particular grief.

Making this situation even more burdensome is the recognition that there are many in the United States, including many Christians, who see only Israel’s need for security, who focus only on a few terrorist acts which you yourselves condemn. In doing so, they largely ignore the systemic oppression of an entire people in what increasingly amounts to a virtual prison in which almost every aspect of Palestinian life is controlled by Israel. Many in our own churches are subject to intense lobbying by Jewish groups demonizing the Palestinian community in general, and many of you in particular. Even some of our denominational gatherings of ecumenical partners here in the United States sound what may seem to you to be an uncertain voice.

In the face of such suffering and the temptation for despair, I write to assure you of the prayers and solidarity of the United Church of Christ. I am grateful that this is being signified personally by Peter Makari’s presence in the region this summer, accompanied by several of my colleagues. Know that we continue to be guided by our commitment to peace with justice, to negotiations leading toward a future in which Israel and Palestine mutually co-exist within secure and internationally recognized borders, to a shared Jerusalem, and to full protection and access to holy sites. In addition, we remain steadfast in our denunciation of Israel’s separation barrier, articulated in last summer’s General Synod resolution, and in our readiness to use our church’s economic resources, including the possibility of divestment, to press for an end to the Occupation and to support peacemaking and the Palestinian community. Finally, we will not remain silent in the face of our own government’s policies which continue to reward Israel while failing to press in significant ways for the “road map” it has proposed.

Centuries ago, in the midst of equally urgent times, our Reformed forebears asked, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?” They answered, “that we belong, body and soul, in life and in death, not to ourselves but to our faithful savior Jesus Christ.” May this comfort sustain you, and may the knowledge that we belong together in bonds of mutual affection and shared commitment be encouraging in these desperately challenging days.

In Christ,

John H. Thomas
General Minister and President
United Church of Christ (USA)

Gov. M. Jodi Rell "made it clear that we did not want to lose the event," said Judd Everhart, a spokesman for Rell. "This was a huge convention that the governor wanted to make sure stayed in Hartford."

The subsidy will come from the state's quasi-public Capital City Economic Development Authority, or CCEDA, which owns the convention center, and from the Greater Hartford Convention & Visitors Bureau. The subsidy is "larger than usual," said Michael Cicchetti, CCEDA assistant director, but not entirely unheard of as cities vie to host conventions that have a large economic impact.

"This was a unique circumstance and you cannot look at it in a vacuum," he said. "There will be a huge benefit to Hartford as attendees stay in hotels, eat at restaurants and spend their money in the city."

Very often, he said, organizers pay for local transportation costs or the cost of an opening banquet to woo conventioneers.

In the UCC case, he said, it is necessary to look at the "totality of the circumstance" and a host of other factors that ensure Connecticut does not become a loser in the convention game.

"We cannot eat any cost and we have to keep in mind our business," said Laura Brubaker, a spokeswoman for Madison Square Garden, which runs the civic center, adding that no additional fee is being charged. In a statement, MSG said it was pleased it was able to accommodate the UCC meeting.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ Religion and the Israel-Palestinian conflict have become sharp issues in the primary campaign among Republicans who are seeking to challenge Democratic Rep. John Larson in November.

Miriam Masullo has linked rival Scott MacLean, a retired minister in the United Church of Christ, to church leaders who she said support terrorists and suicide bombings. She made her comments in a recent letter to Republican leaders in the 1st Congressional District.

Masullo said MacLean has not disavowed the church leadership, which she said has a political agenda that contrasts with Republican principles.

"I don't like it and I think the voters should know about it," she said. "If the church is asking Israel to take down barriers and not asking Palestinians to stop their attacks, then we have a problem here."

MacLean said Masullo's comments were preposterous and do not fairly represent the policy positions of church President John Thomas and other clergy who support Palestinian refugees and have spoken on other Mideast issues.

"Politically liberal, moderate and conservative members are all welcomed in our diverse collection of local churches and people are free to follow their faith without sacrificing their personal conscience," MacLean said.

The UCC has become the subject of political jabs in Connecticut, where Miriam Masullo, a Republican congressional primary candidate, issued a five-page letter on July 5 criticizing the UCC as “leftist and anti-Republican.” Her opponent for the Republican nomination is the Rev. Scott MacLean, an ordained UCC minister who has won the endorsement of the Republican Party establishment.

MacLean and Masullo are both seeking the Republican nod to challenge incumbent First District Congressman John B. Larson, a Democrat. The primary will be held on Aug. 8.

"The political arm of the UCC is actively waging a fight against Republican values and principles through a well-organized quest to undermine the support that Republican candidates get from what we think of as the Christian Right," wrote Masullo in an "open letter to the first district Republican leadership."

Masullo accused the UCC of attacking Ohio Republican Gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Blackwell, of promoting "economic sanctions against an ally of the United States in the war on terror," and of espousing "immoral justification of suicide bombings."

Masullo went on to criticize MacLean, a member of First Congregational UCC in Hartland, Conn., for using the church building for his political campaign meetings.

"[MacLean] has made no attempt to disavow himself from the political agenda of the UCC," Masullo wrote.

In response, MacLean said on July 11 that Masullo was "impugning the integrity of my church."

"UCC churches grace the centers of most New England towns because our Pilgrim and Puritan ancestors were the original English settlers in Connecticut and our First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and freedom of speech sprang from the noble efforts of these UCC forebears," MacLean said in a press release. "Politically liberal, moderate and conservative members, from all walks of life, are all welcome in our diverse collection of local churches and people are free to follow their faith without sacrificing their personal conscience."

"While I don’t agree with everything that comes out of the national setting of the UCC, I don’t agree with everything my wife says either and I have no intention of divorcing either one," MacLean continued.

"Like a good marriage, local UCC congregations work through the tough issues of our day with complete transparency and a dignity of process, respecting all points of view," he said. "With a 400-year tradition of local church autonomy enshrined as the working principle of our denomination, the national setting of the church does not speak 'for the church' but rather, 'to the church,' and each local congregation is free to do with that input as they wish."

This meeting was supposed to be held last fall but no meeting took place and there have not been any campaign meetings at the parish hall. However, it is perfectly legal to do so if I choose to hold them there. The Federal Election Commission rules state, "The term 'contribution' does NOT include... the use of real property, including a church or community room used on a regular basis by members of the community for non commercial purposes..."  (Federal Election Campaign Laws, compiled by the Federal Election Commission, September, 2004, page 2, Paragraph 8-B-ii) 

"We strongly feel that it is completely inappropriate for the U.S. Government, or any government, to determine who is and who is not a legitimate national council of churches, and to restrict or deny Christian fellowship and humanitarian assistance to any particular national church council, including the Cuban Council of Churches," said [World Council of Churches general secretary, Rev. Samuel] Kobia.

"We have had an ecumenical relationship with the Cuban Council of Churches for a long time, as have churches and councils of churches around the world," said Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, associate general secretary for international affairs and peace at the NCC.

"If these recommendations are accepted by President Bush it would indicate that this administration is trying to dictate who our church ecumenical partners can be and how our humanitarian agencies can deliver aid to people who need it. That is an incredible intrusion into free exercise of religion," said Kireopoulos.

While the Cuban constitution recognizes the right of citizens to freedom of religion, the government de facto restricts that freedom. Twenty-two denominations, including Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Methodists, are members of the Cuban Council of Churches (CCC). Most CCC members are officially recognized by the State, though several, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church, are not registered and are recognized only through their membership in the CCC. Another 31 officially recognized denominations, including Jehovah's Witnesses and the small Jewish community, do not belong to the CCC. The government does not favor any one particular religion or church; however, the government appears to be most tolerant of those churches that maintain close relations to the State through the CCC. Unregistered religious groups experience various degrees of official interference, harassment, and repression. The Ministry of Interior engages in active efforts to control and monitor the country's religious institutions, including through surveillance, infiltration and harassment of religious professionals and practitioners. The most independent religious organizations--including the Catholic Church, the largest independent institution in Cuba today--continue to operate under significant restrictions and pressure imposed on them by the Cuban regime. The Cuban Government continues to refuse to allow the church to have independent printing press capabilities; full access to the media; to train enough priests for its needs or allow adequate numbers of foreign priests to work in the country; or to establish socially useful institutions, including schools and universities, hospitals and clinics, and nursing homes. All registered denominations must report to the Ministry of Interior's Office of Religious Affairs.