The Birth of the Granite State Association – Part II

Last month, I spoke of the “Conference Action as Association” model that is at the heart of our new Granite State Association.  This month I’d like to talk about “the work of associations” as it very much impacted the broader structure of how the Granite State Association has been organized. 

According to the United Church of Christ Constitution, an association is “a body within a Conference” tasked with two main responsibilities:

1. “An Association is the body which determines, confers, and certifies to the standing of Local Churches within its area.”

2. “An Association is the body which grants authorization which is required for various forms of ministry in and on behalf of the Church.  Such authorization is granted through the rite of Ordination, through commissioning, licensing, granting either Ordained Ministerial Standing or Ordained Ministerial Partner Standing and other acts of authorization” 

(Article IX, United Church of Christ Constitution)

This whole aspect of “the work of associations” has been traditionally, and will continue to be, the work that is delegated to our association Committees on Ministry (or what we referred to as Committees on Church and Ministry in our legacy associations).  The combined work of our seven former Committees on Church and Ministry would be too much work for any new Committee on Ministry to handle on its own.  So, in the Granite State Association we have formed four Committees on Ministry (COMs) each of which focuses on a unique aspect of the work of authorization:  the COM for Ministerial Discernment, the COM for Ministerial Authorization, the COM for Oversight and Accountability and the COM for Congregational Empowerment.  In upcoming months, I will dive more deeply into the work each of the Committees on Ministry do.

There is a whole other aspect of the “work of associations” that has also been recognized.  This part of the work is not defined by the UCC Constitution but rather by common practice.  As all the members of our Association Capacity Task Force will tell you, it was something frequently talked about in all our listening sessions.  This other aspect of the “work of associations” is networking and connection among our churches. 

This task will be the work of the Granite State Association’s Committee for Covenant and Connection (which I hear is referring to themselves as “C3”).  The work of this Committee will include continuing to nurture inter-church connections that are born out of geographic proximity.  However, we also recognize that today there are all kinds of other natural connections between our churches and that geography need not be a limit.  Perhaps it is connections between our Open and Affirming Church, or churches in pastoral transition, or churches that are updating By-laws, or churches that are trying to sell parsonages, or…well, you get the idea.  The work of the Committee for Covenant and Connection will be to nurture all these types of connections so that our churches can be of support to one another. 

Hopefully this little overview helps to provide confidence that, even though we will be organizing somewhat differently, the Granite State Association is fully prepared to continue “the work of associations” for generations to come.