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Arguments Against Full Membership in the United of Christ (UCC)

I was asked by our church’s UCC Exploratory Team (which supports full UCC membership) to put forward any counter arguments. With assistance of other church members opposed to full UCC membership I have prepared the following points:

1. No Compelling Reason to Join (or even conduct a vote)

Several arguments have been made in favor of UCC membership:

a. In the event our minister retires we may find it difficult as a Schedule 1 non-UCC church to attract a replacement1. Theoretically this is because the financial benefits the UCC offers pastors and staff (pension, health insurance) and that First Church ministers have in the recent past participated in could be denied us unless we are a UCC church. However, after 65 years as a Schedule 1 church dealing with the periodic turnover of ministers, it’s hard to believe we won’t be able to attract a suitable replacement. We have always been members of the Middlesex Association and regional conference, even predating formation of the UCC. According to the Exploratory Team’s recent mailing2 to church members:

“Our status [as a Schedule 1 church and as members in the UCC Middlesex Association and regional conference] has given us access to many of the UCC programs and benefits such as Health Insurance, Ministerial Pension plans, property and casualty insurance, ministerial support, congregational support through assistance in ministerial searches, ministerial counselling, etc. We have several people from our church participating on UCC ministries and councils and are members of the Middlesex Association (of The United Church of Christ). However; we are not full members of the Southern Conference of UCC.”3

Consequently, it’s not apparent what benefits and other support we would derive from full UCC membership that we don’t already have. At this time, it’s unclear if this is even an issue to be concerned about.

1 “Schedule 1” church means we never voted for or against UCC membership. Any candidate for Senior Minister that was not ordained in a UCC church is not eligible for the UCC Pension and Insurance benefits in which case the salary being offered is either increased to compensate for lack of insurance or, as was the case of Bill Lovins, the minister continues insurance coverage from his/her previous denomination. There is always a risk the UCC could refuse to assist First Church in its next search for a replacement minister unless we become a UCC church. However, we have no reason to believe UCC will change the level of support it’s given First Church in the past. It should be noted that if we vote no we will lose our Schedule 1 status which may (or may not) have unintended consequences regarding access to UCC benefits – at this time however there appears to be a majority in favor of membership as evidenced by the Non-binding Informational Survey conducted late last year: 69 for / 7 against UCC membership. 2 Title of recent mailing: “Why is there interest to formally join the UCC?” 3 This in effect is an argument for not taking a vote and thereby keeping our current Schedule 1 status.

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b. Some feel that because First Church has taken advantage of various insurance programs willingly offered through the UCC to non-member churches that somehow not being full members of the UCC is ethically wrong (we’re taking more than we give) and we should reciprocate by joining in full membership. This argument fails on two points: (1) both UCC and First Church have willingly reached an agreement that’s presumably of mutual benefit (we have access to certain UCC benefits and the UCC in turn receives dues from First Church plus help in maintaining an adequate base of insured subscribers). (2) Our voluntary annual contribution to the UCC regional conference and Middlesex association will not change if we become full members, hence the UCC will see no increase in income from First Church membership and therefore it has not been harmed under our current status. Thus, there is no ethical dilemma to remaining in our current status.

2. What’s the Rush?

Some question why we need to vote now on such an important decision: a significant change to who we are. For those church members who may lack the computer skills for accessing the recent live streamed video church services where benefits of UCC membership were explained or are reluctant to return to the church building while the virus is still active, more time may be needed to reach an informed opinion. Given the recent low level of in person church Sunday attendance it seems premature to expect all church members to be up to speed and ready to vote intelligently on this major change. See footnote 3 above for argument against even conducting a vote on UCC membership.

3. UCC Membership in Steep Decline

The UCC has been in steep decline (65% drop in membership) since it was formed back in 1957. This trend has accelerated over time with the last recorded decade (2010-2020) experiencing a 27% loss of members (Figure 1)4 . However, in fairness it should be noted that for the most recent period of comparable data (2010 – 2017) UCC decline was slightly less than for the other denominations5.

The UCC has in the recent past made forecasts projecting an equally dismal rate of decline for the future6. There is no available evidence the UCC has a plan (or even intention) to address this significant problem - but the UCC does offer a comprehensive program to help churches suffering from dwindling membership navigate through the church closing process.

4 What makes this decline even more dramatic is that at the same time UCC lost 65% of its members, the US population doubled. See page 6 at https://uccfiles.com/pdf/2020statisticalreport.vfw.pdf 5 Total 2010 – 2017 (last year for comparable data) shows a total decline for UCC of 20% as compared to 22% for all other Mainline Protestant Churches: United Methodist, Presbyterian (USA), Episcopal, Evangelical Lutheran Church, American Baptist, Disciples of Christ). Note that membership data for the NACCC (mentioned in para 4, below), is not available. 6 UCC Center for Analytics, Research and Data (CARD) June 2015 forecast showed membership dropping about 75% - from about 944,000 in 2014 to less that 200,000 by 2045; a 90% loss since inception! See http://uccfiles.com/pdf/Projections-Handout.pdf

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As a church concerned with shoring up its financial health and maintaining or growing its membership it would seem counterintuitive for us to join an organization in such steep and enduring decline.

Figure 1 Decline in UCC Membership (lower blue line) and Number of Churches (upper green line)

4. Other Choices Have Not Been Fully Explored or Explained to the Congregation

Other alternatives (besides remaining independent or entering into full membership in the UCC) exist such as affiliation with the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (NACCC) 7. The NACCC was formed at the same time as the UCC by Congregational churches that chose not to affiliate with the UCC. Although much smaller than the UCC there are about 20 member churches in . In stark contrast to the UCC, NACCC stays away from divisive

7 Another organization with about a dozen churches in Connecticut is the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference at https://www.ccccusa.com/

05/25/2021 4 of 4 political issues. If we perceive a benefit in joining a national organization such as UCC we ought to at least give equal consideration to other options such as NACCC.

5. UCC Political Focus

The UCC is widely recognized as one of the most politically engaged religious organizations in the US8. By reviewing its website, one cannot help but conclude that much of the energy and resources of UCC staff and leadership is devoted to political action, advocating for non-religious causes like boycotting Israel, climate justice, economic justice (redistribution), the Green New Deal, etc. The UCC president recently stated he would focus his attention on dismantling White Privilege and new ways of “being church” in a postmodern era9. The UCC’s stance on most major issues is consistently left-liberal - other viewpoints (moderate or conservative) are largely ignored, as if they were unchristian.

At a time of serious polarization on major issues and when we find politics invading (and inflaming) nearly every corner of daily life (work place, entertainment, sports, the classroom…) some argue for keeping the church separate from hyper-partisanship as we potentially risk alienating and sometimes driving away church members whose viewpoints differ from those embraced by the UCC.10 Moreover, some think the church should be a refuge from the noise and anger associated with partisan differences thereby leaving a calm space to focus on religious concerns such as understanding how to pray, how to have faith, what is redemption, the meaning of scripture, how to live a Christ centered life, etc.

6. A Tradition of Independence

One member argues that First Church is unique in its 375-year tradition of independence from either a national hierarchy or national church body that speaks (an acts) on behalf of member churches. Although we haves for quite some time belonged to the UCC Middlesex Association and Connecticut Conference (recently renamed Southern New England Conference) we’ve remained unencumbered by any national or international church body that speaks for us on the latest media focused hot-button issues.

Don’t dismiss the likelihood that over the past 65 years of our independence from the national UCC, serious consideration and wisdom was brought to bear on this decision by current and past generations of church members who, after weighing the pros and cons, decided UCC membership was not a good idea.

Respectfully, Herb Englund

8 The UCC even maintains an office in Washington DC for the purpose of influencing legislative action on a variety of issues. 9 https://religiondispatches.org/racial-justice-will-be-top-priority-for-new-prez-of-the-united-church-of-christ/ 10 According to a 2019 Pew Center poll, two thirds of Americans oppose church involvement in political matters.

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