EMPOWERMENT THROUGH SUPPORT

April 5-7, 2002 – UCC Church House, Cleveland, Ohio

When I think about the 15^th Annual Meeting of the United Church of Christ Office Support Staff Network (UCCOSSN), two impressions come quickly to memory……Warm and gracious hospitality on the part of the planning committee that said “Welcome Home” and a sense of the “Spirit among us” as we worshiped in the Amistad Chapel.  Of course these are the strongest impressions, but the weekend was filled with much more……..from educational workshops to enhance and strengthen our job skills to just “plain old fun together” as we tried line-dancing, crafts and UCC Bingo!

The sense of being fully “at home”  and welcomed into the UCC Church House was “given flesh” early as we were greeted and made welcome by Mr. Hans Holznagel, the Assistant to the Collegiums for Community Life, by Steven Camp, Associate Executive Minister for Local Church Ministries, by Ms. Susan Sanders, Minister and Team Leader for Global Sharing of Resources within Wider Church Ministries and by Rev. Ben Guess, of Justice and Witness Ministries.  

The message at Opening Worship called “ Finding God in the Details” was presented  by the Rev. Ben Guess, Minister for Communication and Mission Education with the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries.  Ben knows our job involves “details” and with humor and insight he helped us see that the “detail tending aspect of our job is ministry totally blessed by God”.  The Rev Judith A. Vasile, pastor of the Euclid Avenue Congregational Church in Cleveland,  brought the message Saturday morning as she talked about “The Power of Unity.   We closed the worship by gathering about the altar in Amistad Chapel to name our gifts and to bless our foreheads, eyes, ears, lips, hands, feet and hearts after which we joined hands in silence just to feel and savor the support of each other.  At our Closing Worship on Sunday we were inspired by the preaching of the Rev. Paul Sadler, Pastor of Mt. Zion Congregational UCC in Cleveland, who challenged us to examine “What Does God Want?”

The Keynote Address was brought to us on Friday evening by Ms. Bernice Powell Jackson, Executive Minister of the Justice and Witness Ministries. She introduced us to Ms Annie Johnson, grandmother of Maya Angelou and I doubt that anyone present will forget this women. “She was a simple, uneducated woman from the country, a woman whom the world said was inferior and not quite fully human, but a woman who rekindled the gift of God within her, a woman who chose to use the spirit of power and of love, and yes, of self-discipline in her to change her life and the life of her family.  She chose to claim God’s gifts over victimhood.  She chose to rekindle God’s gifts rather than accept society’s role for her.  She chose to rekindle God’s gifts rather than just wring her hands , crying woe is me. Mrs. Annie Johnson understood that God had given her a spirit of power….”  Thank you, Ms Powell, for “rekindling our spirit” with your story about Ms Annie!

Of course every Annual Meeting includes workshops that enhance our skills, renew our energy and give us new ideas to take back to the workplace.  This year’s offerings included:

Your Other Bible, Effective Yearbook Usage;

The UCCOSSN Connection, Online Networking;

Forgiveness is a Wonderfully, Selfish Act;

The Healing Power of Laughter;

To Pitch or Not to Pitch…Archives;

I Hate to Take Minutes;

UCC 101/Tour of the Church House;

Pension Boards…Looking Toward the Future;

The Ministry of Administration.

The program agenda on Saturday included a comprehensive Bible Study led by Gloria Otis who is an administrative staff employee with the Worship and Education Ministry Team which is part of Local Church Ministries.

It is said “pictures are worth a thousand words”.  I think I’ve shared about a thousand words so let’s let pictures tell the “rest of the story”, as Paul Harvey would say.