 Greetings, friends. Welcome to CTUCC Conference Cast for September 27th, 2012, the regular podcast of the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ. Whoever you are, and wherever you may be on life's journey at this very moment, you are welcome here. We begin this week's conference cast with this meditation from Patricia Bjorling, Associate Conference Minister for Generosity Ministries, read this week by your podcast host. When the disciples see others working miracles in Jesus' name, they try to stop them. But as Mark tells it in the ninth chapter of his gospel, Jesus welcomes it, and he cautions his friends. He warns them against driving others away, and urges them to be at peace with each other. This gospel text has leadership in mind. We have several teachings related to a perceived challenge to Jesus' authority, and things that get in the way of doing God's work in community. We can hear in these lines warnings about abuse of power in a variety of iterations, and imagine a havoc it can cause in families and groups. Possibly most dramatic are the sayings about causing little ones to stumble, which may have originally referred to young children. Heroes of the day would have been all too familiar, like us, with exploitation and violation of youngsters, not the least sexually. Yet the violent language of this passage, with its reference to removing a hand, a foot, or an eye that causes you to stumble, as Jesus puts it, is still troubling. It is clearly meant to be understood metaphorically, not literally, and to highlight God's hatred of injustice. Mark ends this passage with the image of salt, salt that has lost its saltiness. And how does that happen, unsalty salt? Well, it might cease tasting very salty if it becomes contaminated in high proportions over time with other unsalty substances, such as gravel, dirt, or sand. It would then be quite useless as salt. Mark links salt with peace. And in that context, salt becomes an image of integrity and wholeness. Being at peace with one another is about wholeness in community. When there is wholeness in a community of faith, church controversies are dealt with openly and honestly rather than being swept under the rug. There aren't any parking lot conversations, no gossiping about one another, no griping about the pastor or church leaders. Wholeness is also living in such a way that you don't have to lose a hand or a foot or an eye. Metaphorically, of course. Providing leadership in a community of faith can be challenging, because journeying together in a community of faith can be as unpredictable as it is wonderful. May we always remember that Christ is with us. And may we always be at peace with one another. Here is a prayer for this week. Christ, help us keep our saltiness. Christ, help us nurture communities of peace and wholeness. Christ, be with us. Amen. In the news this week, 70 ministers ordained educators and musicians came to Silver Lake this Monday in Tuesday for General Association. They came to seek the reviving wisdom and energy of Bishop Yvette Flunder, pastor of city of refuge UCC in San Francisco, California. And they found challenge, inspiration and renewal. She told her story of the spiritual nurture but social rigidity of the Church of Christ in which she was raised. Though persuaded of her call to pastoral leadership, there was no route to ordination for woman in that setting. And there was no way to shared committed relationship for a lesbian woman. Part of the struggle of her life has been to embrace the gifts of her early learning with its energy and depth of faith commitment, even as she shed its unnecessary burdens. She praised the United Church of Christ, the denomination she adopted for its willingness to take risks. From its public stand against local TV broadcast blackouts of African Americans during the civil rights movement, to the 2005 General Senate resolution affirming the right of all people to marry. This is the risk taking strips that I have ever studied in my life. And let me say as a sister outside who came to the United Church of Christ after a long period of time working in other denominations in other ways. I came to this church because it has a history of risk saving. That is what you see. And what kind of people would have that kind of boldness with my thinking to have put itself in harm's way? She urged her colleagues in the room to seize this historic courage and to go to the risky places. Reflecting on the story of the Good Samaritan, she observed that it is not enough to heal the man who has been injured. Something has to be done about the road which allowed him to fall into the hands of robbers. This is what Martin said. He said on the one hand we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside. But that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's path. Truth and passion is more than flinging a coin to a baker. It is not haphazard and it is not superficial. It comes to see that an antithesis which produces bagers needs restructure. Yes, amen. General Association is the oldest annual gathering of clergy in the United States. Last Saturday church leaders came to the North Haven Congregational Church from all over the state to learn more about extending an open and affirming welcome to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning persons. Some churches have asked why it is important to take the vote to become open and affirming or ONA. Panelist Missy Sturdiment, a Christian educator and a long time Silver Lake staff member told the group. We don't have to vote anymore with some who's not a Christian. Here's the word Christian. It doesn't think they don't like gay people. That's when it's time to stop voting. Participants learned about getting started with the work of ONA in a congregation, taking steps after a declaration, working with young people and the needs of transgender persons. During worship, Farmington layperson Marty Boyer and North Haven pastor Scott Morrow provoked laughter and deep thought with a but and dialogue concluding with these words. My religion works for me and yours works for you. My religion and your religion working together can bring heaven down to earth. What's the end of the month? And so conference archivist John Van Epps joins us here in the studio with this month's Touchstone with History. The theme of our General Association gathering for ministers this week was revivals. Now that may seem to be more appropriate for evangelicals or Pentecostals. However, revivals are part of our tradition. In our church histories are many references to revivals, outpourings of the Holy Spirit, the quickening and refreshings of the Spirit. One of the first leaders of revivals in our state was the itinerant preacher George Whitfield in the 1740s. Jonathan Edwards is prominent as a leader of the Great Awakening in the 1740s and especially his sermon centers in the hands of an angry God. Church leaders estimate that about a third of our clergy favored this revivalism for their churches. Between 1740 and 1760, 150 new churches were formed in New England. However, Yale and Harvard were against it. Eventually this revival spirit waned and even Edwards was dismissed from his church in Northampton. Then in the 1790s there was a revival of this spirit with the second Great Awakening. A leader in this movement was Jonathan Edwards Jr. Even Yale got the spirit with Timothy Dwight as its president. This saw a division among our churches between old lights and new lights. Old lights favored the more rational intellectual approach of many of our churches. The new lights advocated the evangelical approach of the revival spirit. This split churches and associations, many of whom traced their origins to this split. Another leader was the evangelist Ashahel Nettleton from Killingworth, who preached in Connecticut and New York. Another great evangelist was Charles Finney, called the father of modern revivalism. He began his ministry in the 1820s and preached throughout the northeast. Initially there was resistance from settled pastors. Lyman Beecher was known for his dramatic and emotional approach to preaching. Yet Beecher said he would meet Finney at the border of New England and fight him all the way to Boston. However the two men met in 1827 and by 1831 Lyman Beecher invited Finney to preach at his church in Boston. There's another intriguing aspect of this emphasis on evangelism and revivals. This emphasis did not lead to a withdrawal from the world or social concerns. Rather it was these new light preachers who were at the forefront of the movements for social reform. This is exemplified in Lyman Beecher and Litchfield and Jonathan Edwards Jr. at what is now the United Church in New Haven among many others. These new light preachers became active in movements for social reform, temperance, and eventually the abolition of slavery. Their successors like Washington Gladden became active in the social gospel of the late 1800s. So revivals and evangelism are part of our heritage. Other stories on ctucc.org this week include a profile of the Reverend Dr. Sarah Worcester, the new pastor of the First Congregational Church UCC in Coventry whose passion is to make God's love real in people's lives. Visit us as well for the stories in September Contact where you can see some of the ways people are living and working out the idea of Go Big. You'll find all the current headlines at ctucc.org slash news. Speaking of Go Big, that's the theme of this fall's annual meeting of the Connecticut Conference to be held at Middletown High School on Saturday, October 20th. Ministers and delegates will hear from the Reverend J. Bennett Guess, Executive Minister for Local Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ. The Board of Directors has proposed a significant change to the way church gifts will be allocated to state and national ministries for the delegates to consider. Three resolutions are on the agenda and so is lively, inspiring, soul-reviving worship. The official call has gone out and registration is open now. You can learn more at ctucc.org slash annual meeting. On Friday, October 19th the authorized ministers' luncheon features the Reverend Christopher L. Weber who will describe the birth of a vision conceived 170 years ago when he speaks on defining the dream, James Pennington and the beginning of the struggle for racial equality in America. Sign up for that event together with your annual meeting registration. C.T. Women of the U.C.C. hold their first fall retreat in Mystic on September 29th. The Fall Women's Spirit Retreat of Yoga and Sacred Chant will be at Silver Lake October 12th through 14th. Bishop Carlton Pearson will speak on Live by Faith, Due Justice in Hartford on October 13th. And don't forget the authorized ministers' luncheon on the 19th of October and the fall meeting of the conference the next day the 20th. Silver Lake's Fall Action Weekend when they get the facility ready for winter is October 26th through 28th. Mission Works, an event celebrating and educating about the global ministry of the U.C.C. will be held in Cleveland, Ohio October 25th through 28th. The second of the C.T. Women of the U.C.C. retreats will be on October 27th in Cheshire. Authorized ministers should mark their calendars for the full boundary training on November 1st in Southington. And on the edge of fire, a men's spirituality retreat will be the weekend of November 16th at Silver Lake. You can always learn about what's coming up in the Connecticut conference at ctucc.org slash events. And that brings this conference cast to a close. Thanks to Patsy Buerling for her reflection and to GarageBand for our music. Primary funding for conference cast comes from your congregation's gifts to our church's wider mission basic support changing lives through the United Church of Christ. This is Eric Anderson, the Minister of Communications and Technology for the Connecticut Conference of the United Church of Christ praying that your days this week may be filled with the presence, the guidance, and the grace of God.