(Updated for January 2012 Institute)
Date and Time:
January 28, 2012 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
Location:
Howard University School of Divinity
Reeves Room
1400 Shepherd Street NE
Washington, DC 20017
Click here for directions to HUSD (there is plenty of free parking)
http://husd.dst01.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=97&Itemid=178
Bring a lunch or snack, we will take very short breaks. There is no time to go out to bring in fast food.
OVERVIEW: This Institute is part of a sequence of four Institutes that are offered each year in History, Polity, Theology and Ministry of the UCC by the Potomac Association. They normally meet from 10 am to 4 pm on a Saturday, with the exception of the Polity Institute which meets on a Friday in June from 10 am to 4 pm and requires Saturday attendance at the Central Atlantic Conference of the United Church of Christ at the University of Delaware. The Institute format is designed to serve the needs of persons who cannot enroll in a regular semester length seminary course to cover this material.
Participants may start the cycle of four Institutes at any point in the cycle.
Those persons who are seeking privilege of call or ordination in the UCC are expected to do the reading BEFORE attending the INSTITUTE (sometimes there are additional assignments, such as interviewing someone, or preparing a short report. All of the readings are available online. After each INSTITUTE they are asked to write answers to a group of “follow up questions” and participate in a conference telephone call/conversation about what they have written. There is a $25 evaluation fee for participants who seek evaluation and an evaluation telephone call cannot be scheduled or held until the fee has been paid. Please bring cash or a check made out to Potomac Association UCC.
Lay leaders are encouraged to attend the INSTITUTES as Observers and strongly encouraged to do the advanced reading and assignments.
ASSIGNMENTS:
Required reading and practical field assignments may be downloaded from this website. These UCC INSTITUTES are enrichment opportunities for all members of the UCC who want to learn more about the history, polity, theology and ministry of the UCC.
Materials covered in the MINISTRY INSTITUTE: (from the Essentials document)
* Forms of ministry: licensed, commissioned, ordained; ministerial partners (CC/DoC)
emerging patterns for authorized ministry; ministry of all the baptized
* Structures and patterns of accountability, i.e., ordination, standing, discipline
* Ministerial ethics (Ordained Minister’s Code, in MOM; other ethics documents)
* Understandings of ministry in the UCC: “embodiment” and “empowerment” models
* The ecumenical heritage and stance of the United Church of Christ)
INSTRUCTORS:
Barbara Brown Zikmund, retired church historian, seminary educator, UCC author
beebeezee@verizon.net
PRE-INSTITUTE ASSIGNMENTS
- IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST INSTITUTE please go to http://ucc.org and click on “About Us.” In the drop down menu click on UCC 101 and click on “New to the UCC” On that first page (Our Faith is 2000 years old, our thinking is not) under the video screen which says language of God) click on the “Short Course on the History of the UCC”. READ “short course” – it is not really very short, but it will give you important background. The direct link to that reading is http://www.ucc.org/about-us/short-course/
- BEFORE YOU DO ANY OF THE ASSIGNMENTS PLEASE WRITE (no more than one single spaced page) answering the question: If the 16th century Reformation rejected the clericalism of the medieval church by upholding the “priesthood of all believers” why do Protestants still have clergy?
- INTERVIEW (by phone or in person) an ordained UCC clergyman/woman and ask them the same question. Continue your conversation asking them to tell you what ordination, or authorization for ministry in the UCC means to them? How do they understand ministerial authority? Where do they get it and how do they lose it?
- BRIEFLY ASK three people-friends under the age of 30 (churched or unchurched) what they think about clergy. Do they trust them? Do they think clergy are important? Could they imagine being clergy themselves? Why? Why not?
READINGS:
1. READ about the historical understandings of ministry in UCC history and in contemporary society.
READ Hist and Theological Perspectives MOM 1977 Manual on Ministry (1977)
READ Zikmund Empowerment and Embodiment: Understandings of Ministry in the UCC :
READ Nevin on the Reformed Pastor A very high church view of clergy in the Reformed Mercersberg tradition.
READ how one contemporary pastor describes his ministry http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/Yordon-on-ministry.pdf
READ a recent CHRISTIAN CENTURY article on the status of clergy in American history CC Article on Clergy Status
2. READ about concepts and understandings of ministry and oversight in the UCC.
READ the relevant parts of the UCC Constitution Article VI “The Ministry” and the Bylaws of the UCC Article I “The Ministry” The UCC Constitution is at http://www.ucc.org/assets/pdfs/constitutionandbylaws.pdf
READ about the concept of “covenant”. How does it shape UCC understandings of ministry.http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/walker-on-covenant-community.pdf
READ “Partners in Ministry” and “Ordained Ministry” in The UCC Manual on Ministry http://www.ucc.org/ministers/manual/index.html What is a three way covenant and what is a four way covenant?
READ Steckel “Authorizing Ministry in the UCC: Sloughing Towards Order” (1996) Steckel Sloughing
READ “Ordination,” “Ministry,” “Pastor” and “Power and Authority” in the UCC Leader’s Box. Go to http://www.ucc.org/ministers/leaders-box/ Consult the “Perspectives” drop down menu to find these entries (and others)
READ Walker on Episcope LTH VII:46
READ Clyde Steckel’s assessment of how UCC understandings of the church have changed since 1957
http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/Steckel-UCC-ECCLESIOLOGY-AT-FIFTY.pdf
3. READ about ordination, placement (search and call), and clergy ethics in the UCC
READ the Order for Ordination to the Ministry
http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/order-for-ordination-to-ministry-bow.pdf
READ the Order for the Installation of a Pastor
http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/order-for-the-installation-of-a-pastor-bow.pdf
READ a typical “Charge to a Church” (1976) LTH VII:42
http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/charge-to-a-church-lth-vii-42.pdf
VISIT the UCC website for preparing “ministerial profiles.” Bring any questions you have to the Institute. http://www.ucc.org/ministers/profile/
READ about the “Criminal Background Check”
http://www.ucc.org/assets/pdfs/backgroundcheck.pdf
LOOK AT United Church Employment Opportunities
This list (updated every two weeks) lists employment opportunities for clergy and laypersons in the United Church of Christ.
READ “The Ordained Minister’s Code”
READ about Safe Church Look at the suggested policy guidelines for local congregations to use in developing their own safe church policy. http://www.ucc.org/ministers/safe/morehelpnow.pdf
READ about recent changes related to requirements for authorized ministry in the UCC. Note especially the “Marks of Faithful and Effective Authorized Ministries in the UCC.”
http://www.ucc.org/ministers/ministry-issues/
READ the article by Jonathan New in Prism on Ministry Issues (2008)
4. READ about how the UCC participates in ecumenical discussions about ministry.
READ the ecumenical Faith and Order document Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry
http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/baptism-eucharist-and-ministry-1982.pdf
READ the UCC Response to Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (noting UCC concerns related to ministry) http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/ucc-response-to-bem-1985.pdf
READ about the UCC Partnership Agreement with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) regarding ministry, especially the 1989 commitment to Partnership.
http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/ecumenical-partnership-with-christian-church-doc-1989.pdf Read the sections in the UCC Constitution and ByLaws about partner ministerial standing.
READ about the Formula of Agreement between ELCA, PC(USA), RCA and UCC. What does it mean for ministry? http://www.ucc.org/education/polity/pdf-folder/formula-of-agreement-1997.pdf
SUMMARY OF PRE-INSTITUTE ASSIGNMENTS:
- READ the Short History of the UCC at http:www.ucc.org “about us”
- WRITE A PAGE about why you think Protestants still have clergy.
- INTERVIEW an ordained UCC person.
- ASK three people under 30 years of age what they think of clergy and why.
- READ about various understandings of ministry/ordination in the historical traditions of the UCC. (embodiment, empowerment, higher calling, covenant, episcope, ecclesiology)
- REVIEW the Orders of Service for Ordination and Installation.
- VISIT the UCC website dealing with the search and call process/profiles.
- READ the procedures and ethics of ministry in the Manual on Ministry
- READ about recent Constitutional changes related to “ministry” and the analysis of these changes by Jonathan New in his Prism article.
- READ about the ecumenical debates surrounding “ministry” expressed in the Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry 1982 document. Read about the special UCC partnership with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Read about understandings of ministry in the Formula of Agreement.
bbz: 12-31-11
