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Mary's Story

I am often asked what giving to the Massachusetts Conference and the United Church of Christ accomplishes. To give an idea, let us look at a Sunday in the life of a local MACUCC (Massachusetts Conference United Church of Christ) congregation.

Mary, a mother, comes to church with her child, Amy. She settles Amy into the Sunday school, secure in her safety – the church has implemented safe church policies with the assistance of the Conference. In Sunday school the child learns of God’s love for everyone using a UCC curriculum. The teachers have attended “Learning to Teach” seminars led by Elsa Marshall, belong to a Christian Educator’s Community of Practice, and their director has gone through the Christian Educator’s Certification program. They call Elsa at the Conference when they are looking for resources.

Mary settles into a pew and opens the colorful Sunday bulletin, printed on the UCC Sunday bulletin series. There are a lot of announcements this morning. Two carloads of people are going to the next twice-annual “Super Saturday” event of the Conference, where over 30 workshops on every aspect of church life will be offered. There is a fundraiser for youth in the church who will be attending the next UCC National Youth Event. Several church members are going to help with disaster recovery on a mission trip organized through the United Church of Christ Wider Church Ministries. There will be confirmation in two weeks for the confirmands, who attended a confirmation retreat sponsored by the Conference. Mary has her own announcement, encouraging members to join her in signing up for the Lenten Carbon Fast. She points them to the MACUCC website for more information.

Mary loves the pastor, who was called just two years earlier after a search with help from Peter Wells, one of the Conference’s regional Associate Conference Ministers. The pastor was trained at Andover-Newton Theological School, a UCC seminary. He received financial aid from the Conference’s Bennie Whitten Seminary Debt Reduction Fund, which has allowed him to accept the salary offered by this small church. The pastor is a member of a Clergy Community of Practice, which helped support him through some difficult issues.

The congregation rises to sing a hymn out of the UCC New Century Hymnal. Several members of the choir attended the Adult Music Camp held at the Conference’s Craigville Conference Center on Cape Cod. Worship this morning incorporates ideas gained at a Pastoral Excellence workshop sponsored by the Conference. Mary follows along with the scripture reading in the pew Bible from United Church Press. A lay person does the call to offering, testifying to the love the congregation showed her when her husband died suddenly. Having a lay person testify as the call to offering was an idea picked up from the Stewardship Committee at a Conference stewardship event led by Andy Gustafson. Today a special offering – One Great Hour of Sharing - is also collected. Mary is delighted to be able to give to support this special UCC offering that provides disaster relief, refugee resettlement and development assistance to those in need around the world.

After the service, Mary goes to coffee hour, where she has a cup of delicious Equal Exchange Free Trade coffee that the church switched to as part of the UCC Coffee Project. Mary confirms her next Bible study meeting. They are currently using “Weekly Seeds,” a free weekly Bible study from the UCC.

Mary is so happy to be part of this loving, faithful congregation. She was invited to attend by a friend. Her friend learned how to invite others at an evangelism training event offered by the Conference. Mary also checked out the church website. It had been updated and improved after the webmaster attended a “WebFest” event led by Tiffany Vail at the Conference. Mary’s church also has a Facebook page, set up after attending a Super Saturday workshop on that topic.

A member of the church grumbled to Mary, “What do we get for all this money we give in Fellowship Dues and Our Church’s Wider Mission support anyways?” Mary hardly knew where to begin.

Download Mary's Story 2013 as a pdf here.

2013