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Tell your story!

When and how did your church or center become a member of the ICCC?  
                  Send it to the Council office by June 30th and bring it to conference for sharing at a special time
of story telling and sharing. 
And if your church has a banner – bring that too!

Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel & Suites - Register NOW!

The 2010 Annual Conference will be held at the Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel & Suites in Indianapolis, IN 
July 19-23, 2010. 
Follow the Annual Conference links on the left to register and see up-to-date information.
Click here to view a
tentative schedule (subject to change). 


Embracing Our Heritage: Freedom, CommUNITY and Love by Matthew Stephens

     
    
Greetings from the 60th ICCC Anniversary committee.   It is a privilege to be the chairperson for such a special and extraordinary event.   Sixty years ago the ICCC was born and a statement of love and reconciliation within the religious community and our country was made, with a hand shake.
     The theme for this conference is “Embracing Our Heritage, Freedom, Community and Love.” This will be an opportunity for us to celebrate and rediscover who we are.  Sixty years ago we were a people of faiths that the spirit of God chose and moved to say “Yes we can” and “Yes we will” shatter a boundary dividing whites and blacks.
     Now what is God calling the ICCC, the Community Church movement to be today in our time? This is an exciting time to be in the church and our conference will provide ample opportunity for us to be the church together as we explore our theme.
     Our conference will be held July 19 – 23, 2010 at the Sheraton Indianapolis Hotel & Suites  in Indianapolis, IN.  Please note that this conference will mark a return, for one year, to our previous meeting pattern.  The conference will begin with Opening Convocation and Worship at 7:00pm on Monday night.  This will make it possible for those who wish to worship in their own congregations on Sunday morning to do so and travel on Sunday evening or Monday morning and sill reach Indianapolis on time for opening worship. 

     For those who can’t wait to begin the fellowship there will be a tour planned for Sunday afternoon and all who arrive early are invited to worship on Sunday morning at our member congregation, the Covenant Community Church where the Rev. Dr. Landrum Shields is the pastor. 
     On Monday we’ve planned special programming for pastors including lunch and a workshop led by the Rev. Dr. Margaret Aymer, Professor of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA.  Dr. Aymer, a dynamic teacher and preacher will be our preacher at the opening worship service Monday evening. 
     Bible study on Tuesday through Wednesday will feature Dr. Tex Sample.  Dr. Sample, is no stranger to our conference, having been a much appreciated bible study presenter in an earlier year.  He also led a workshop at the Western Zone meeting last spring at the Church at Litchfield Park, much to the delight of a welcoming gathering of ICCC members. 
     You’ll hear more about workshops in subsequent issues of The Christian Community, however here is a small morsel to wet your appetite.  Workshops will include a focus on the spiritual life of boys, an exploration of how we “engage the other,” and the invitation to participate in hands-on mission work in a worthy program in Indianapolis. 
     The conference will feature a Town Hall experience where the focus will be on remembrances of years past and expressions of hope and challenge for the years ahead—so bring your stories and your prescriptions for tomorrow.  We’ll also have an evening of sharing our talents with one another—skits, musical offerings, poetry readings—your choice! 


Pastors’ Gathering and Opening Worship, led by Dr. Margaret Aymer

Dr. Margaret Aymer is an assistant professor at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta where she teaches courses on the New Testament and has a special interest in biblical hermeneutics, particularly how African diasporic communities signify the Bible as “scripture.” Some of her most significant publications are “Teaching Christians to ‘Read’: Theological Education and the Church”; “Empire, Alter-empire and the Twenty-first Century”; “What Do the Gospels Say about Sex and the Church?”  Dr. Aymer’s degrees include a B.A., from Harvard-Radcliff College,  a M.Div., M.Phil., and a Ph.D. all from Union Theological Seminary.


Tex Sample to lead the 2010 Bible Study program

Dr. Tex Sample will be the bible study leader at our 60th Anniversary Conference in Indianapolis, IN July 19-23, 2010. 
Dr. Sample's lectures will be squarely rooted in the practice of discipleship.  They proceed from the truth of that text from James - that our faith and beliefs have no value "if they are not embedded in practices."  The four lectures gathered under the heading The Craft of Discipleship are titled: The Practices of Transformation, Reading the Scripture as Church, The Craft of Discipleship and Justice as Craft.  For more about Dr. Sample
click here.

 

2010 Annual Conference Workshops

"Church as a Community Center - Creating UBIQUITY for your church in your Community"  Led by Roberta Smith
      This workshop will present practical ideas for projects and activities that can promote your church as a "community center" in your area.  These activities are draws for individuals or families - they are not ALL necessarily "spiritual" in nature -but the activities do serve to have folks visit your church to meet their personal needs.  And if the church is meeting their practical needs, can reaching out to the church for their spiritual needs be far behind ?     Many of these activities have been in use at Wilson Memorial Church in Watchung, NJ.  There will also be a time for you to share activities that have worked to draw folks into YOUR church.

Engaging the Other: The Power of Compassion, Led by Devi Gursahaney
    
One of the biggest conversations for the past two decades has revolved around how mainstream Americans and minority groups can communicate effectively and understand one another to build communities of goodwill for all human beings. A lack of effort and understanding around these issues has been the basis for enormous challenges confronting our society, our economy, our religious institutions, and finally our own sense of security.
     Today more than ever, if we wish to make our world a better place, we all need to sow the seeds of kindness and cultivate compassion.
 Engaging the Other" is not just an idea…it is a PRACTICE. In this interactive session full of anecdotes from her personal journey, Devi will challenge participants to explore how their stereotypes of the other become internalized and shape their imaginations as well as their capacity for critical questioning and compassion. She will then share how change begins with compassionate listening in order to discover humanity in oneself and in others. 

Losers, Loners, and Rebels: The Spiritual Struggles of Boys (1 of 2 sessions), Led by Robert C. Dykstra
     Men tend to idealize their early adolescent years between the ages of 11-14 as among the best of their lives. When pressed, however, to revisit specific memories of those years, they are often surprised by how many of them focus on embarrassing, anxious, even painful events and feelings -- times when they thought of themselves or were derided by others as losers, loners, or rebels. Without minimizing the real pain of these moments of early adolescence, this workshop seeks to reframe them as the crucible in which are forged a boy’s resilient spirit and the spiritual qualities of self-awareness, self-transcendence, and self-reliance. If a man loses track of these painful boyhood experiences, he may find himself losing track of the religiously inquisitive boy he once was and, in some secret part of himself, continues to be. In the act of remembering, however, a man may become more attentive to and understanding of his own and other men’s sons.

Subversive Friendship (2 of 2 sessions), Led by Robert Dykstra
     Pastoral theologian Philip Culbertson has called men’s fear of close friendships with other men “one of the most critical forms of oppression under which they live.” This workshop explores the spiritual and psychological roots of these anxieties around same-sex friendships and offers strategies for caregivers who seek more effective ministry with adolescent boys and men.

Enough for All – Led by William Wildey, Church World Service
   
 Focusing on the Church World Service theme of "Enough for All", Bill Wildey will share stories of hope and help in our fragile world.   Come and find out how your church can reach out to neighbors near and far in exciting and engaging ways.
    
William Wildey is the Director of Development and Marketing for Church World Service.  Based in Elkhart, IN, Mr. Wildey oversees marketing and US-based fundraising which includes CROP Hunger Walks, congregational fundraising, planned and estate giving, foundations and corporations and special events.  He started with CWS in 1983 and served as the Director of the Northern New England regional office until the appointment to his current position in 2006.
            A recipient of the Forrest L. Knapp Ecumenical Award in 2005, Wildey was a board member of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Council of Churches. He has hosted and been a guest on numerous radio and television programs and worked for singer/songwriter Harry Chapin as he sought to address hunger and poverty issues.  He has visited CWS programs around the world. 

 

Women’s Christian Fellowship Bazaar at Conference
by Elaine Richardson and the WCF Bazaar Committee

We greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  The Women’s Christian Fellowship is excited about our 60th ICCC Annual Conference.  The WCF has been helping boys and girls achieve their education goals for 33 years.  The bazaar has been a significant element, making a difference in the lives of many youth.  We need your help to continue bringing many dreams within reach.  We are asking you to please support the bazaar.  We thank you all for your prayers, words of encouragement, gifts and support.  See you soon in Indianapolis!  Be Blessed!!


WCF  Shoebox Ministry Conference Plans

By Helen Nicholson

 

The Women’s Christian Fellowship is planning to continue the “Shoebox Ministry” at this year’s ICCC Conference.  As in the past, we ask that each of our members bring essential new toiletries to fill the individual bags.  We will do the packing of them together at one of our meetings.  Ladies, our time together each year is short, but we can do some good for some homeless, abused women on the receiving end.   So please remember to pack some items for our “shoeboxes.”


                                                  Volunteers Needed!

 DeAnn is in need of volunteers for the Bookstore and Registration. 
Tentative hours for the Bookstore are: 
            9:30am – Noon   
Tuesday thru Friday
            1:00pm-4:00pm  Monday and Wednesday

Tentative hours for Registration are:

                               Sunday  1:00pm-4:30pm, 6:00pm-9:00pm
                               Monday  8:30am-Noon, 1:00pm-5:00pm

      

 


Executive Director Livingston: “It’s time”

Saying “It’s time,” Michael Livingston announced that he would conclude twelve and a half years of service to the ICCC on December 31, 2010. The announcement was made at the winter meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Council in Indianapolis, the site of the Annual Conference this summer.  Board members were not expecting the announcement and received it with a mixture of sadness and many kind expressions of appreciation for Livingston’s ministry to the Council.   The planning committee for the 60th Anniversary conference, July 19-23, will include in the program an appropriate celebration of Rev. Livingston’s ministry and the Staff Affairs committee was charged with the task of planning for a transition in leadership.  The December 31st date allows time for the completion of work to begin planning in the fall for the 2011 Annual Conference, to secure a site for the Annual Conference in 2013 and opportunity for a round of visits to say goodbye to member congregations of the Council.  Rev. Livingston does not yet have plans for what comes next.  Should he receive a call to ministry he and the board agreed that he could end his service at some point between October 1 and December 31.  


STATEMENT FROM THE STAFF AFFAIRS COMMITTEE (in regards to Michael's departure and their efforts to replace him.)

 

The Staff Affairs Committee was asked by the board of trustees to make suggestions to them regarding:

1. A process for securing leadership once Reverend Livingston's tenure has been completed.

2. Updating the Executive Director's job description.

 

3. Establishing priorities for the Executive Director's position.

 

4. Determining how best to search and fill the position of Executive Director.

 

5. Establishing a timeline for filling the Executive Director's position.

 

6. Talking with Ms. DeAnn Chatlosh about her future plans.

 

The Staff Affairs Committee has completed its work on all six items above and will be submitting its suggestions to the board of trustees at annual conference and the board will give a full report to the delegates at conference.

 

Submitted by the Staff Affairs Committee

Rev. Paul Drake, Moderator; Ms. Myrtis Brame; Ms. Charlene Cornelius-Neely; Rev. Richard Griffith; Rev. William Grossman; Rev. Leroy McCreary; and Ms. Saundra Nelson


Through the Years: An occasional look back at the early years in the history of the ICCC

The following predates the merger that formed the ICCC.  This is an excerpt from the minutes of
The Twelfth Session of the Biennial Council of Community Churches, one of the predecessor bodies of the ICCC. This annual conference was held at People’s Independent Church of Christ in Los Angeles, California, August 18-23, 1937.  The Rev. Clayton D. Russell, was pastor of the church.

After appointing the committees the President relinquished the Chair to Vice President Wilbur Waters, who in turn, with oratory so characteristic of him, presented our President, Dr. Joseph A. Winters, stating that Dr. Winters would deliver his Annual Message.  This was a masterpiece, eloquently delivered.  Pregnant with good wholesome advice for the promotion of the principles of this religious effort and convincingly and conclusively put up to his hearers  as he held them spell-bound with the fervency of his delivery.  Rounds and rounds of applause followed this splendid address and after heated discussions full of appreciation for this matchless message and because it was thought far too inspiring and informative to have been delivered to the delegates alone and feeling that such an address should have been given at night, when a larger audience would have been in evidence, a motion was offered and prevailed that in the future, the Annual Address of the President be given on an evening program.  It was further decided that this splendid address be referred to the Committee on Recommendations.  Thus closed the afternoon’s session of the first day’s meeting. 

Editor’s note:  Alas, the records of the Committee on Recommendations are not available to us so that we could read “…good wholesome advice for the promotion of the principles of this religious effort…”


ICCC at the General Assembly of NCC and CWS by Gary Batey

 

In more ways than one Minneapolis, Minnesota gave a warm welcome to the delegates of the 2009 General Assembly of the National Council of Churches and Church World Service.  Unseasonably warm weather for Minnesota in November greeted the arriving delegates from the General Assembly’s thirty-five member communions, representing a broad range of Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox Christian groups, including the International Council of Community Churches.   This assembly voted into membership a 36th member communion, the Apostolic Catholic Church based in Tampa, FL. Five representatives of ICCC were in attendance:  delegates Gary Batey, Herman Harmelink, Leroy McCreary, and Lonnie Miller, plus ICCC Executive Director Michael Livingston, a Board Member and Immediate Past President of the NCC.   For more of Gary's article, click here.   


ANNUAL REPORT:  ENDOWMENT FUND, AN ICCC SUCCESS VENTURE
By Jim MacVicar & Bob Harris

        Since its inception in 2001, more than 160 individuals, churches and organizations have contributed over $127,000 to the Permanent Endowment Fund of the International Council of Community Churches (the Fund). Despite the worst recession in more than a half century, the Fund has grown in value to over $145,000. 

      The Fund is a perpetual fund separate from the ICCC General Fund and is financed entirely by gifts and bequests made specifically to the Fund. At the direction of the Fund Committee the Fund assets are invested by professional fund managers through socially responsible no-load mutual funds and bonds.

 Fund Performance:  Remarkably, our loss for the Fund’s Investment Year (7/1/08 thru 6/30/09) was only -2.5% versus nearly a 30% drop in the S&P 500 index.   What’s more, the Fund’s growth in assets for the first 3 months of this Investment Year is +11%.  We are very pleased with our portfolio return and management.  Our Fund Account Balance as of 9/30/09 was $149,922.

        The principal of the unrestricted endowed gifts to the Fund is not to be spent.  However, based on the financial performance of the Fund, the intent is to distribute earnings in excess of inflation to the Council’s General Fund annually.

        The Council depends on the ongoing, regular financial support of the member churches, individuals and organizations. Please continue to support and hopefully increase your giving to the ICCC General Fund.

        To help further promote and ensure the mission of the Council, please add financial support to the Permanent Endowment Fund to your gifting contributions. To date, most gifts to the Fund have been by familiar, time-honored cash donations.

 
New Giving Levels:  This year the Endowment Trustees have introduced the following new donor levels to encourage continued giving by Council member churches, organizations and individuals:

 

Acolyte            $1 - $999

Disciple           $1,000 - $2,499

Teacher           $2,500 - $4,999

Deacon           $5,000 - $9,999

Apostle            $10,000 - $24,999

Angel               $25,000 or more

 

 Bequests Appreciated:  Several individuals have made it known that they want to provide continued support to the Council’s worthwhile mission by including the Endowment Fund in their wills, trusts or life insurance. There are other gifting opportunities and plans to consider. Please contact the Council office (815-464-5690) or any of the Fund committee members for assistance.  

       Endowment Fund Trustees are Myrtis Brame, Chairperson, Carolyn Ford, Jan Irwin, Louis Joy, Jim Mac Vicar, Abraham Wright and Bob Harris, Past Chair.

 

A first step – by John Woodcock, Church of the Loving Shepherd

      In January I received a call from Thomas Swain of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Society of Friends).  At the suggestion of Michael Livingston of the ICCC, our church network, he was calling to invite me to attend Heeding God’s Call: a Gathering on Peace as a representative of the ICCC.  I was happy to participate, because the ‘Gathering’ was bringing together representatives of many denominations and several faith traditions to focus on something hugely important to many of us.

      I soon discovered that the conference would involve more than talk; there would be an action component.  Attendees were asked to consider what role they might be willing to take in vigils and activities at Colosimo’s, a Philadelphia gunshop.  A number of activities, including sit-ins, were planned through the week, and the conference would end with a march from Holy Ghost Headquarters, a church on N Broad Street, to Colosimo’s on Spring Garden Street. 

     Through the years I have preferred to work ‘behind the scenes’ on social issues when I was in a position to do so, but in the context of the conference I was challenged to consider what role I should take in this project to limit handgun violence.  The words which moved me from cold to hot were spoken by Dr. Vincent Harding of the Iliff School of Theology, a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement.  He spoke of a conversation between Dr. M. L. King and some young men responsible for many of the fires in Watts.  When Dr. King asked how they could cause destruction in their own community, they responded that ‘no one ever paid attention to them, but that now people were paying attention’.  Referring to children growing up in the middle of Philadelphia’s violence, Harding asked us to show them we were paying attention.

      Colosimo’s was chosen as a focus because so many handguns turning up in crimes, not only in Philadelphia but also across the river in New Jersey, had been sold there.  Before the Congress passed legislation to keep from the public the government’s records on sales of guns used in crimes, the Brady Center had ranked Colosimo’s as the 5th most dangerous store in the United States.  And it was Colosimo’s  sale of guns to ‘straw buyers’ (individuals who could pass a records check, buy handguns and resell or pass them along to criminals) which ultimately led to charges being brought against the store.

My part from January to September was small but enlightening.  At the opening march and vigiI I heard mothers who had lost children and a survivor, a teen shot during an argument.  On a rainy Saturday I was one of the two people present.  The other was an ‘overseer’ in the Mennonite Church; he talked about the response one of the Mennonite pastors in Philadelphia got when he asked a class of 8-year olds in his Sunday school if they knew where to get a gun.  Almost every hand went up, and the children began to name names.  At Dilworth Plaza in May, during the trial of those arrested for ‘sitting in’ at Colosimo’s, I saw the T-shirts lining the railings, each bearing the name of one person killed by a handgun in Philadelphia or Chester during one recent year.  The count was nearly three hundred.

      Of course, I learned more about how so many guns wind up in the ‘wrong’ hands - contrary to popular belief, more come from gun shows and straw buyers than are stolen.  I discovered again the truth of Margaret Meade’s words regarding what a small group of committed people can accomplish.  And with many others I offered prayer – for Mr Colosimo, for those slain or injured, for those who suffered loss, and for the children.

      It would be good to know whether the investigation which led to Colosimo’s closing resulted from the vigils, the not guilty verdicts in May, or from something ongoing.  But what seems really important is that what has been so easily accepted as a part of urban life- handgun violence - has been challenged by a vision of what might be, and that in one neighborhood children may come to know that others are paying attention.



To my many friends in the ICCC,  

      I have been honored to serve as MMBB’s relationship manager to the ICCC since 2001. In that capacity, I have come to know many of you not only as clients but as dear friends. The ICCC family has been special to me and my relationship with you has truly been one of the best parts of my job.

    I have recently been appointed Director of Member Education at MMBB and have been elected Corporate Secretary by our Board of Managers.  Since my new roles take me in different directions, I will no longer be working with the ICCC as your relationship manager.

    The Rev. Dr. Sara Day will be taking on this role as of January 1.  You can read Sara’s bio on the MMBB website.  I know you will enjoy working with her and I will certainly tell her how lucky she is to have you in her portfolio!

 

 

 

Ecumenical Update: What’s Up in Ecumenism?

On Friday morning, July 23, 2010, during workshop time, an ecumenical panel, chaired by Rev. Herman Harmelink, will review ecumenical relations with CUIC, NCC, WCC, Interfaith and local ecumenism – what our congregations are doing ecumenically or in an interfaith way.  Currently scheduled to be on the panel are: Robert Walsh, Ecumenical Officer, Disciples of Christ, Gary Batey, John Woodcock, Roberta Smith and Abraham Wright. 


Strengthening Our Spiritual Immune System
led by Donna Podobinski


From 1967-1980, as a Carmelite contemplative nun, Donna learned that the essential meaning of her vows is Freedom, Unity and Integrity, which is a universal call for every state of life.  In ministry, she has developed the importance of selfless freedom, supportive unity and a holistic integrity within all forms of community.  In this workshop, Donna will encourage a healthy spiritual immune system for inner peace that is reflected through all of our relationships.

 


 

International Council of Community Churches
21116 Washington Parkway     Frankfort, Illinois  60423
815.464.5690    Fax: 815.464.5692
   www.icccusa.com