Intrigue Expands

Last week, I wrote of the intrigue within the Ohio Conference of the United Church of Christ and its five component Associations. You may recall that the Ohio Conference Council decided to either ratify for implementation or ratify for study a proposal from a task group that had been named to study the systemic issues of Ohio's middle judicatory. Whether the proposal is ratified for study or implementation is a matter of debate, depending upon the source of information.

 

Last May, a group of those responsible for strategic planning within SONKA travelled to Columbus to meet with the Conference Minister and representatives from the other Ohio Associations. The theme was just such an investigation of the middle judicatory structure in Ohio. During that meeting, the SONKA contingent, of which I was a part, suggested that the Conference/Association dilemma in Ohio be resolved in favor of the Associations, and that the Conference be reformed as a collegium of the five Associations, thus reducing redundancy and unneeded overhead.

 

The Conference proposal recommended the centralization of staffing and OCWM collection and control  to the Conference level, thereby eliminating those actions from the Association level. This proposal was made without Association input or participation, outside of those representatives that sit on the Conference Council.

 

The intrigue expands. Last week, churches and leaders received a letter of resignation from Conference Minister, Bob Molsberry, who is moving to St. Louis, where he will serve a local church and be nearer to his children and grandchildren. We wish Rev. Molsberry all the best in his transition and future service in the Webster Groves community. But we wonder what the Conference Council will now do with the proposal that was made just weeks before. Will the Council adopt the proposal as implementable direction, or will it now construct as thorough study in and throughout the Conference? Will the conversation or implementation include Association leadership? How?

 

As the music rises in the background, SONKA's strategic planning team suspects a coming crescendo. If we are to avoid the coming cymbal crash, maybe it is time that Conference and Association leadership sit and work through some of the details, as the strategic planning team from SONKA attempted almost a year ago.

 

Ohio and northern Kentucky cannot yet claim with certainty the shape and structure of its future middle judicatory. What we have is not working, that is for sure. Just what we will shape as a result remains a matter of intrigue and contention.

 

See You Sunday!