Committee on the Church & the Metropolitan Community
Report to the Spring Meeting, April 26, 2008

Over the past year, the Committee on the Church & the Metropolitan Community has expanded our membership and our areas of work.

The committee has been active around immigration and sanctuary issues since the Association unanimously passed the resolution we submitted last year in support of the new sanctuary movement. We have taken training for trainers on becoming a new sanctuary church and have offered to make presentations to churches in the Association around joining the new sanctuary movement. Since then, the Revs. Michael Caine and Ruby Wilson have represented the Association at press conferences around immigration and the new sanctuary movement. Judson Memorial Church , Riverside Church , Victoria Congregational Church and Broadway UCC have been involved in the citywide new sanctuary coalition. Presentations were made at Garden City UCC, United Church of Spring Valley, Lemuel Haynes Congregational Church and the Association's annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. We have received a request from Ridgeview Congregational Church to present, and the Rev. Donna Schaper, senior pastor of Judson Memorial Church and a leader in the new sanctuary movement, will speak on sanctuary and immigration at the Association's 2008 annual meeting. Currently, we are exploring ways to approach immigration issues through the lens of diversity that the Association represents. We hope particularly to learn from the members of our UCC churches that are composed largely of immigrants. All churches that are interested in hearing a presentation or joining the new sanctuary movement should contact the committee.

We were privileged to organize a wonderful Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration on January 21that brought together an estimated 300 people. The 112 people who signed in came from 22 churches. The 19 Metro Association churches included our host Saint Albans , Riverside , Corona Congregational, Oscar Romero, Hollis Avenue , First Congregational of Rockaway Beach, Garden City, Lemuel Haynes, Judson Memorial, Church of the Evangel, Nazarene, Safe Haven, UC Rockville Centre, Pilgrim Richmond Hill, Christ Church , All Souls Bethlehem, Scarsdale , Victoria and Union Congregational.

Our keynote speaker on racism today, its symbols and how to work for racial harmony was the Rev. Dr. Carl P. Wallace, executive associate with the national United Church of Christ's Justice and Witness Ministries. We were graced with the presence and participation of host pastor the Rev. Henry Simmons of Saint Albans Congregational Church, New York Conference minister the Rev. Geoffrey Black and Association minister the Rev. Michael Caine. The Riverside Inspirational Choir inspired us with their music and youth dancers from Saint Albans moved us with their dance. Workshops focused on constructing symbols that celebrate and affirm diversity, the new sanctuary movement, and understanding anti-Arab and anti-Jewish racism. We honored the committee's long-time chair Dorothy Gist, who stepped down as board liaison to apply her considerable talents to other areas of work.

The UCC Metro-Suffolk Churches in Action listserv we administer is now up to 86 members. We use the listserv to let UCC churches and members know about peace, justice, witness and other social action issues around which the UCC is active. All members are welcome to post activities or advocacy carried out by their church, the association, the conference or the national church. The committee itself also posts information about actions that we recommend to the Association.

We are currently working to respond to issues of race and religion raised by the publicity around the Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, senior pastor of Trinity UCC in Chicago . We hope to help the Association and Metro Black Clergy bring our churches and members together to discuss these questions. We are in the process of preparing a letter to The New York Times to use as appropriate in defense of Dr. Wright, Trinity and the UCC. We also are working on a resolution to bring to the Association.

Following up on our advocacy last year around the killing of Sean Bell , we have asked Metro president Ruby Wilson to send a letter from the Association of support and comfort to his family.

With the permission of the Metro Board and Ordination Committee, we have added six in-care members to our committee to serve for at least six months. Our hope is that the experience will provide these members with the opportunity to become more familiar with both the Association and the UCC's work around justice and witness. For our part, we look forward to learning from them and expanding our scope of service with their help.

We have also created a category of associate members , people who are unable to come to our meetings, but who can provide us with feedback, ideas and support.

We thank everyone for your support in the past year. Please let us know if there are new issues or actions that you would like the committee to undertake.

COMMITTEE ON THE CHURCH & THE METROPOLITAN COMMUNITY

Members
Martha R. Gotwals, Chair
Claudia de la Cruz, Board Liaison
Jennifer Aull
Barbara Brecht
Elsa Callender
Elice Higginbotham
Mark Marsh
Tom Martinez
Freeman Palmer
Allan Ross

In-Care Members
Edith Beaujon
Peter Dennebaum
Michael Ellick
Ruby Solomon
Granprabhu Subramanyam
John Yesuratnam

Associate Members
Luis Barrios
Alice Brown
Michelle Brown-White
Dorothy Gist
Lana Noone
Anna Taylor-Sweringen