Reply #3: The UCC is definitely in a time of ecclesiastical transition.

[Rabrrrrrr]

What to do with a black UCC church, which the UCC never really had before, that carries on traditions of denominations outside the UCC - such as choosing one's successor.

What to do with Samoans who traditionally do not have educated clergy, but have clergy who are called from within the congregation?

How do we properly license and vet the lay people who will be needed to serve the small rural churches who can't afford an ordained minister?

We're going to be having some real conversations in the UCC about this.

And I'm not sure where I stand on this, either - is it fair to expect the white guy to take college grad school and some other hoops before getting "Rev." before their name, while at the same only needing for the Samoan guy to say "My church ordained me"?

What I would like to see - pursuant to your early critique of Wright getting away with stuff the C&M committees would go ballistic over - is to see the white churches support their pastors with the love, dedication, honor, and forgiveness that the black churches do.

The white churches scrimp and scrounge and give the pastor as little as they possibly can because he/she is just the hired help, and then complain when his car isn't in good enough shape and his clothing is old and frayed and his house is falling apart; the black churches, in general, think that their pastor should live well, of course the pastor should have a new working good quality car and wear quality well-made clothing and have a nice house! How he looks reflects on how we look, so we should give him enough money to look good!

I think of Bertha's situation, in which the church doesn't think she's keeping the parsonage clean enough - her church gives her a date by which to have it cleaned. In a black church, I think, the congregation would be "Oh, my! We're not giving pastor enough time to clean the parsonage - come on, everyone, let's go give him/her a hand and clean that and set up a group to do monthly cleaning!"

Anyway, that was a tangent. Sorry.