Scarsdale Congregational Church

More than 160 people from 46 churches in the Metropolitan Association of the New York Conference, UCC, gathered on Saturday, November 23, 2002 for a energetic, hand-clapping day at the Community Church of the Pelhams. Both the host church, whose pastor is Rev. Susan Gibson, and the meeting planning committee, chaired by Geraldine Dudley, did a superb job in bringing excellent content and fine organization to this meeting whose theme was "Revitalizing Our Local Churches". Rev. Bonnie Miller, pastor of the Chatterton Hill church in White Plains organized seven case study workshops on the theme of Revitalization. Each participant could attend two.

Simply stated, "Revitalization" means bringing in new members and doing new things. As Rev. Patrick Duggan, pastor of the Congregational Church in South Hempstead, pointed out, doing these things is guaranteed to make some people unhappy and is guaranteed to have some projects fail. He and other case study leaders urged us to recognize this as the price one pays to bring God's word to new people.

As she introduced the case study workshops, Bonnie pointed out that her committee - the Committee on Church Standing and Development - had reviewed statistics provided from the national offices of the UCC showing that the Metro Association had 12,865 persons in member churches in 1990 and only 9,027 in 2001 - a decline of 30%. Seeking guidance on how to change this trend, the committee read a book called "Transforming Regional Bodies" and got counsel from the Evangelism Ministry Team from the UCC national offices. Then looking within the Association, they found there were several churches whose memberships were on the rise; persons from these churches led many of the November 23 workshops.

During the meeting, the Association covenanted with Pilgrim, UCC, (see picture above) on the Grand Concourse in the Bronx. This church has decided to reach out to the Spanish-speaking community in which it is located. Jose Lantigua and Melinda Townsend are the staff leaders of this effort. But the members have committed themselves to be in church each Sunday, to increase their stewardship, to allow the staff to spend 50% of its time with new people - "those who aren't here now". By covenanting with Pilgrim, UCC, the Association is committing to helping to find the money necessary for this outreach, to minister together with them and to pray for their work.

Louise Manigault, Executive Administrator of the Metro Association, introduced Henry Simmons and the Voices of Victory from St. Albans Congregational Church who led us in worship. Louise is a member of St. Albans, one of the growing churches in the Association. She noted Regional Conference Minister Michael Caine often refers to "Louise in the Office." Said Louise, "I'm Louise in the Office."

The offering taken after worship was split between aid to those getting graduate theological education and the youth ministry of the Association.