Blogs

The ONA Task Team and the Commission for Mission & Justice are encouraging everyone to attend a special National Gathering of the United Church of Christ Coalition for LGBT Concerns to celebrate 40 years of LGBT ministry in our church

Two features from this morning’s news are deeply connected to the bold leadership which our Conference of churches - the Mass Conference UCC - has shown over the past 30 years.

Workdays for Adults and Youth in Service (WAYS) is organizing two trips to Haiti: this fall to help with construction of a chicken farm to help feed an orphanage; and next spring to provide medical services to children in five different schools/orphanages and churches in the Port au Prince area.

MACUCC Associate Conference Minister Peter Wells joined 50 others to demonstrate at Stop & Shop corporate headquarters in Quincy last week in support of fair wages for Florida farmworkers.  

Would you consider participating in a lay academy, which would explore ones faith as a lay leader in a congregation and create opportunities for resourcing and networking in a community setting?

MInister & President Jim Antal invites you to participate in events celebrating the earth, the Awakenings Conference in Holyoke, and our Annual Meeting.

The Coalition of Imokalee Workers "Campaign for Fair Food" is coming to the Stop & Shop corporate offices in Quincy, MA this week. A theater, speakers, delegation and action will begin at noon on Thursday, April 12, at 1385 Hancock Street in Quincy.

Here and there we as a society have been able to loosen the bonds of injustice. Here and there we have been able to undo the thongs of the yoke of racism. Here and there we have even broken the yoke. But what we haven’t done is remove the yoke of racism from amongst us. It is still an ever present reality.

Churches tend to be very good at talking about what they do. They aren't nearly as effective at explaining why. 

The Massachusetts Conference Board of Directors recently looked at how to assist in raising funds for the Pastoral Excellence Endowment Campaign, further discussed potential changes to the Conference's volunteer structure and developed it's financial recommendations to be brought to the 212th Annual Meeting in June.

A past participant in an MACUCC-sponsored trip to Chile talks about the profound impact this experience had on her life. 

Right now, there is a bill in the Massachusetts House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means that could impact thousands of youth. The Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless is the lead organization behind House Bill 3838, An Act Providing Housing and Support Services for Unaccompanied Homeless Youth. In support of this effort, the Coalition is launching its youth video project.

All of us who have journeyed with the Church for any part of the last half century are keenly aware of change. We have watched the devolution of the institution while watching the evolution of new trends. It would seem clear that we have a better sense of the landscape of wilderness than we do of any promised land. In this season of Lent that is a probably a good place to be, if we don’t try to hurry into fix it solutions and just listen and observe God’s movement. 

Twenty-eight years after the first ONA resolution was passed by the MA Conference, there are 1,000 ONA churches nation-wide.

The Board of Directors talks about how to develop the seed of a vision planted by A Still More Excellent Way into a fuller and more compelling picture of the future toward which the Conference setting is called. 

Perhaps, for seven weeks in Lent, we can try out living in a different relationship to our money, our budgets, our time, our lifestyles and each other.

Massachusetts is one of only two states that does not allow access to DNA evidence that could exonerate innocent people who have been falsely imprisoned. A bill to address this issue will be considered by the MA legislature over the next few weeks.

Hadwen Park Congregational Church of Worcester honored the national UCC Justice and Witness Ministries last month with a certificate of appreciation for its support of the LGBT Asylum Seeker Task Force. The task force, which supports LGBT individuals seeking political asylum from violence in their countries, is a ministry of Hadwen Park Church.

Help end unaccompanied youth homelessness with a call to your legislators on Feb. 14,  or by attending Legislative Action Day on Feb. 29.

The First Congregational Church in Amherst UCC has decided to move all its money and financial transactions from the Bank of America to a local bank. The vote represents a concern of the members of the church that Bank of America and other big banks do not operate in a way that is consistent with the church’s faith values.