The United Church of Christ’s 70th birthday will be a little different.
The denomination has always marked its round-numbered milestones in odd-numbered years, and always at a General Synod. The memorable 50th, for example, was celebrated in Hartford, Connecticut, in 2007, with Synod speakers like Barack Obama, Bill Moyers and Marian Wright Edelman.
But things are changing. The 2025 Synod – wrapping up July 15 in Kansas City – is the last biennial one, owing to a 2023 vote. The national meeting will now happen only every three years.
That means the 70th birthday, in 2027, will fall in a non-Synod year.
Nonetheless, the whole church should still get ready to celebrate, delegates learned on July 15.
Classic black-and-white film footage from the 1957 Uniting General Synod kicked off an announcement inviting “members, leaders, congregations and partners to join in a season of reflection and renewal.”
General Minister and President/CEO the Rev. Karen Georgia Thompson has asked the Rev. Kent Siladi to chair a committee to plan the celebration. In addition to Thompson, and Siladi, the working committee includes Joshua Baird, UCC Chief of Staff and Synod Administrator, Michelle Carver, Director of Philanthropy, and Charles Jefferson, Communications and News Manager. Siladi is retired from a UCC career including service as a local church pastor, a Conference minister and a national staff member.
Siladi told UCC News that the 2027 celebration will be designed to lead up to the next General Synod, in 2028. “It will be a multi-dimensional year of remembering, celebrating and addressing who we are now and what the vision will be for our future life together,” he said.
Thompson and Siladi took the stage together for the announcement in Kansas City.
“This milestone is a moment to look ahead,” Thompson said in part, “to dream of what the United Church of Christ can become in the years ahead, to imagine how we will worship, serve, advocate, build relationships and embody the gospel in fresh and faithful ways.”
“Amid uncertainty, we trust that God is not finished with us,” Siladi said. “The same Spirit who gathered us almost 70 years ago is still moving, calling us to be creative, courageous and compassionate in a world that is longing for healing.”
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