UCC Hears
Moyers, Obama
By Bob Eddy

Two buses rolled through Vermont in predawn hours picking up visitors to the United Church of Christ’s national Synod (conference) in Hartford, Conn., Saturday. The gathering, with 12,000 delegates, visitors and volunteers, is reported to be the largest convention in the history of the city.

The day was to feature celebrations and speech-making including keynote addresses by two prominent UCC members, Bill Moyers and Barack Obama.

The United Church of Christ celebrates its 50^th year of union this week, uniting four streams of American Protestantism—congregational, Christian, reform, and evangelical—which hearken back to the beginning of the Christian reformation in 16^th century Europe and, later, to settlement in the New World.

Vermont is home to 149 churches affiliated with the UCC, including many congregations in most communities of The Herald readership area: Randolph Center, Randolph, Roxbury, Bethel, Rochester, Pittsfield, Sharon, Chelsea, North Pomfret, Royalton, South Royalton, Strafford, Hartford, Brookfield, East Brookfield, East Bethel, East Braintree, West Brookfield, Hancock and Granville.

Among those from central Vermont in Hartford, Saturday, were Lynn Thomas of Bethel, Betty Edson of Randolph, Sherry Baer of Chelsea, Hugh and Kate McLean of Braintree, Rich Osborn of Randolph Center, Mary Lucky Thompson of Strafford, Bob and Kathy Eddy of Braintree, and Vermont Conference UCC interim minister, Susan Henderson, of Randolph.

Bill Moyers Speaks

Although an ordained Baptist minister, Bill Moyers has been a member of the Garden City (N.Y.) Community UCC for 40 years. Moyers’ 57-minute keynote address, followed by a two-minute standing ovation, lamented the growing gap between the rich and poor in America and called the UCC to act in the name of the Jesus "who was a disturber of the peace and threw the rascals out."

The "storied heritage of the UCC," Moyers said, "has a lineage that has influenced the American experiment far beyond its numbers and treasures.

"You have raised a prophetic voice against the militarism, materialism and racism that chokes America’s arteries.

"You have placed yourselves in the thick of the fight for social justice.

"You have aligned yourself on the side of liberty, equality and compassion.

"And you have been a church of prominent firsts: first to ordain an African American, first to ordain a woman, and first to ordain an openly gay person."

Speaking about deterioration of these core values, Moyers deplored a class war fought from the top down against the idea and ideal of equality. It has been a drive by a radical elite to gain ascendancy over politics and to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that checked the excesses of private power."

It’s as if you invited 100 persons to a party, divided a pie into five pieces and gave four pieces all to one person, leaving one piece for the remaining 99, he said.

"Don’t be surprised if they fight over it," he said, "which is exactly what’s happening when people look at their wages and then their taxes and end up hating the government and anything it does.

"Bill Moyers’ words are strong medicine," declared Kathy Eddy, pastor of Bethany Church, UCC, Randolph, adding, "By national standards we are a small denomination, but he called us to remember that all it takes is one denomination, or one congregation, or even one person to begin changing the world."

Obama Speaks

For many, Bill Moyers’ address was the oratorical peak of the day. For electricity in the Civic Center, however, nothing could match the energy of Barack Obama’s arrival on Saturday afternoon.

Speaking for about 30 minutes, Obama criticized elements within the church, saying, "some right-wing U.S. evangelical leaders have exploited and politicized religious beliefs in an effort to sow division.

"Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart," he said, adding, "Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us."

The senator brought the Hartford assembly to its feet with the vision of an "awakening taking place in America. People are coming together around a simple truth—that we are all connected, that I am my brother's keeper; I am my sister's keeper.

"And that it's not enough to just believe this—we have to do our part to make it a reality."

Vermont delegates stayed in Hartford until Tuesday of this week. Day visitors arrived home early Sunday, tired but invigorated.