Email from F. Russell Mitman:

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                          e-BULLETIN
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           Welcome to the occasional news bulletin from
              PENNSYLVANIA SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE
                     of the United Church of Christ
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   Responding to the General Synod Resolution on Marriage Rights
                      from F. Russell Mitman, D.Min.
                   Conference Minister and President
                            September 20, 2005
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Since July your Conference staff and I have been
listening to concerns raised by individuals and
churches regarding the action of the General
Synod on the resolution on marriage rights. One
of the over-riding questions that has been raised
to us is: “What can we do in response?” As I see
it, there are two responses that churches and individuals can make.

The first centers on the very process of General
Synod itself. Although it is too lengthy a
discussion for me to have with you via an email,
let it suffice for me to say that in the minds of
some of us–Conference Ministers and others–the
process of voting on resolutions has many flaws.
Firstly, no vote of a General Synod on most
issues outside the church is binding. A synod
speaks only for itself. Secondly the procedure by
which a resolution comes to a synod, is assigned
to a synod committee and ultimately is referred
to the delegates for votes, is based on
group-dynamics strategies that arose in the
1970's and, in my mind, on flawed assumptions of
how a group of people can be informed within a
few hours to make a decision that gets reported
by secular media. More and more voices in the
United Church of Christ have been saying that
there must be a better way of speaking a moral
voice than by way of the processes that have
continued to polarize the church for nearly a half-century.

So, one suggestion toward change in the General
Synod is for individuals and churches to write to
Associate General Minister Edith Guffey and to
the Executive Council of the UCC, expressing the
desire for the creation of a new way of doing
General Synod, consistent with the polity of the
UCC, that allows the moral voice of the church to
be raised and yet does so without forcing votes
that make winners and losers. The staff and I
stand ready to counsel you on how to facilitate
such communications. I believe this truly is the
desire of the Executive Council for the
forthcoming 50th anniversary General Synod in
2007, and that registering support in this
direction will have positive results.

Secondly, to allow for voices who felt that they
were not heard regarding the marriage rights
issue in Atlanta, we are proposing the following.
Each congregation will be sent a form on which
individual members who do not agree with the
resolution of the General Synod on marriage
rights may sign their names. These will be
collected by the Conference staff, posted on the
Conference website, and forwarded as one
composite document to the office of General
Minister and President in Cleveland. It is
important that each document be signed by
individual members; we do not want to foster
another vote that would polarize congregations
even more. Nevertheless, we believe this is one
way that individual voices of dissent can be
heard. The forms and instructions will be sent to
each congregation in the very near future.

Of course, our staff continues to stand ready and
eager to come to each congregation and to hear
the concerns. We already have visited with a
dozen or so congregations, and some Associations
and ministerial groups have scheduled
opportunities for dialogue. Another
Conference-wide Day of Dialogue will be held on
Sunday, October 30, beginning at 2:00 pm in
Trinity Reformed United Church of Christ in
Collegeville. Information on that event will be
sent in a separate mailing to all churches.

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