A Moment of Reflection

The following is a copy of an email (pasted below) that was sent out from the Joshua Generation Leadership Team on Friday, October 3rd, 2008.  The three documents referenced in the e-mail, are available for viewing in the following three posts.

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October 3, 2008

To the United Church of Christ family, 
 
It has been brought to our attention that statements addressing the Joshua Generation Leadership Team's Call to Action Regarding Concerns about the UCC Governance Proposal, written by Rev. Tim Downs and Rev. Davida Crabtree, have been recently circulated in mass throughout the networks of the church. Rev. Downs emailed the Joshua Generation Leadership Team on September 27th, sharing with us his views about the points we raised in our Call to Action. The JGLT emailed him back on the 29th, acknowledging that we had received his email, and that we were grateful he had shared his opinions with us. With regard to Rev. Crabtree's statement, we still have not received anything from her directly, and in fact, we had not yet seen the document until it was officially sent to the Executive Council this past Tuesday, October 30th. At this time, we would like to thank both Tim and Davida for taking the time to read the points raised in the Call to Action, and for offering their opinions on our concerns.
 
In addition to acknowledging Tim and Davida's individual opinions, we would also like to take a moment to note our concerns with the action that is being taken, in response to the Call To Action. We find it interesting that rather than directly addressing the concerns raised by the Call to Action, and the many people who have signed it, the national church has instead decided to invest their time in pursuing a public relations campaign, in an attempt to calm the swell of voices that are emerging. For example, today many of you have received an email from Rev. John Thomas (the email titled "Boards to consider modified governance proposal" was the first mass email sent to this denomination about the restructure from Rev. Thomas). Also, those of you who are on the social networking website, Facebook, have received a message by Rev. Ben Guess, who wrote, "While this may be a yucky, boring conversation to some, it's still one that's important to the future of the denomination, and we want people to have access to good and accurate information. Thus, UCC Facebookers are now in the know!"  
 
Although we acknowledge with great care that it is wonderful that National is presenting the proposal to the masses, we are wondering, why did it take so long? Is this a last minute, rushed effort to solicit for support, rather than taking the time and care to address the concerns that have been raised in the Call to Action? The people are speaking and it is imperative that these voices not be ignored.  
 
Lastly, today the Joshua Generation Leadership Team received the attached document from Rev. Thomas Dipko, in response to Davida's and Tim's documents. We hope that you will take the time to read the attachment, so that all opinions can be received before we rush to make the decisions that are upon us. We would also like to thank Rev. Dipko for taking the time to share his thoughts with us.  
 
  We pray from the depths of our hearts, that God be with us, especially during this difficult time in our denomination.  
 
Lovingly,
The Joshua Generation Leadership Team