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Massachusetts Conference Edition
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Welcome to “The Common”by Tiffany Vail, Associate for Communication and Communication Technologies February/March 2008
Welcome to The Common, the newly refocused Massachusetts Conference section of the United Church News. The Common is designed to be, as the masthead on the printed newspaper says, “a gathering place for inspiration and resources to aid in our journey toward excellence.” The name seems fitting, since so many of our churches sit on their city or town common, and since Massachusetts commons have for so long been a place where members can gather to share ideas. That is the concept of this newly revamped section of the United Church News – to provide a space for people from every setting of the Conference to share ideas and inspiration to help one another carry out our ministries in still more excellent ways. Each issue of this publication will revolve around a theme that is related to the Conference’s core functions, as outlined in the “A Still More Excellent Way” proposal affirmed by the Conference Annual Meeting in September (see www.macucc.org/news/stillexcellent.htm for the latest document). Those three core functions are: adult faith formation, leadership development and prophetic witness. This edition, for example, looks at resources, ideas and the experiences of local churches around the topic of “Sharing your faith story” – one aspect of adult faith formation. If you have been a long-time reader of this publication, you will notice that the Conference section no longer has a focus on “news” from the Conference setting, although that news will be conveyed through news briefs in each issue. The reason for this is two-fold. One is timeliness: this paper is published just six times a year – a schedule that does not lend itself to the dissemination of breaking news, particularly when that information is conveyed much more quickly through email and the Conference website at www.macucc.org. The second reason is a belief that this new focus will be of more interest – and greater usefulness – to a wider range of people in the pews of Conference congregations. Our newspaper is a tool for carrying out our Conference mission, and we hope to fill these pages with insights and ideas about how each of our clergy and members can nurture the vitality of our local churches and the covenant among them. Future issues will include columns written by local church clergy and lay members in addition to columns written by a rotation of Conference staff. They will also include information on new and exciting happenings in local churches as they relate to the topics of adult faith formation, leadership development and prophetic witness.
If you have any story ideas to share, or would be interested in writing a column on a specific core function topic, please submit them. (Note that there is limited space and not all submissions can be published.) In the meantime, I welcome your input on the changes to this publication.
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