Message from Bridge Conference Minister Julia Gaughan
In this past month, I celebrated Rev. Caela Simmons Wood - and women clergy generally - at the Antoinette Brown Society gathering, where Rev. Caela, as the Trailblazing Innovator Awardee, facilitated a conversation about our trip to Franklinton Center, where the Antoinette Brown Society joined with the African American Women in Ministry event. I had the joy of worshipping with the newly christened United Church of Christ in Prairie Village and the pleasure of visiting with the Women’s Fellowship Group at Community UCC in Gaylord, which is preparing for its 150th Church Anniversary. I was able to see how our Supporting Resilient and Robust Church grants are in use at Evangelical UCC in Marysville, and had the honor of being with so many folks in-person and over zoom for my ecclesiastical council at Plymouth Congregational UCC in Lawrence.
I am excited to introduce you all to our new Registrar, David Ball. With the Poindexters’ recent move to Hawaii, our current Registrar, Krystal Poindexter, has started training David with her duties. We will miss Krystal and thank her for all her gifts, and we are excited to welcome David as he gets started. If you’ve not met David before (he’s a member at Mayflower Congregational UCC in Oklahoma City), you can do so at our Annual Meeting in Tulsa on Nov. 6-7.
We have so many things happening across our conference - please send us your news! It is a balm in this time to be able to celebrate good news together as the KO Conference of the United Church of Christ.
Even as we celebrate, though, we must also continue to pay attention to what is happening around the world, so we might discern where and how we are being called to serve as God’s people. ICE has been active in Southwest Kansas and across Oklahoma - our prayers continue for our immigrant neighbors and so, too, must our advocacy continue for the protection of human rights and dignity. News articles abound about artificial intelligence and all that it means for us today - our prayers continue for guidance on how technology and ethics intersect and so, too, must our education continue, like the session recently hosted by First Congregational UCC in Topeka with our partner Kansas Interfaith Action on the impact of data centers.
I have been troubled by the news that our federal government intends to livestream an execution this December. I have long been against the death penalty, though I know this is not a universal view in our conference. The news about the planned public execution comes just after Tennessee attempted an execution that failed, resulting in torture and harm. Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, is much more eloquent when asking: “The question about the death penalty is not whether people deserve to die for crimes they commit. The real question is: Do we deserve to kill?” Even for people that support the death penalty, livestreaming an execution goes too far. Public executions are a tool of authoritarianism, meant to instill fear and normalize violence. Please join me in contacting our elected officials to urge that this plan be halted.