Scarsdale Congregational Church

New York Conference, UCC - 2002 Annual Meeting - I

About the SCC

Barbara Lundblad, who was in our own pulpit on July 8, 2001, was the keynote speaker for the 39th Annual Meeting of the New York Conference, UCC.

Interspersing her sermon by singing

Wade in the river.
Wade in the river, children.
Wade in the river.
God's gonna trouble the water.

Barbara took her audience to the river where three women conspire to save the baby Moses, to the river where Joshua laid the stones after the waters parted, to Ezekial's vision of the water flowing out of the temple, to the river where John was baptizing, to the river where Philip was preaching and finally to the river in the dessert as described in Revelation.

Nora Fitzpatrick, who will be back in our pulpit on July 21, 2002, was in charge of worship for the Annual Meeting which took place in Albany from Friday, June 14 through Sunday, June 16, 2002.

Those attending from our church included Marco Pereira, Lois Seulowitz, Phil Washburn, John Werner, Lucy Werner.

David "Bo" Bocock, our former student minister and now Associate Minister at Broadway UCC, was also present.

Conference Minister Geoffrey Black spoke briefly during several of the business meetings, conducted a workshop, and gave the sermon in Sunday worship.

Theme for the meeting was "I Am About to Do a New Thing? Do You Not Perceive It?" This is also the name of a new book by C. Kirk Hadaway, Minister for Research and Evaluation of the United Church of Christ in Cleveland, a book which challenges us to make spiritual transformation the central purpose of our church.

H. Carl McCall, New York State Comptroller, welcomed all to Albany. McCall, ordained in the United Church of Christ, explained that it was members of the St. Mark Congregational Church who got his school in Roxbury to take him out of the "manual arts track" and put him in the "college-bound track", then helped him on his way to Dartmouth and to Andover Newton Seminary.

Treasurer Winslow Skeele presented the 2003 Budget for the Conference. Later the budget was approved with provision for over $1 million of the $1,230,000 coming from our gifts to Our Church's Wider Mission (OCWM).

In conjunction with the budget presentation, Geoffrey noted that the Conference is currently behind 2001 in OCWM collections. He urged those in attendance to check their finance offices to be sure budgeted funds have been forward to our Conference Office.