Midweek Message April 26, 2023

We Are the UCC

As you may remember from your new members’ classes and various other places where we talk about the wider church, First Congregational Church of Bellingham, UCC is the local expression of our denomination connected to others by several circles of covenant. Members make a covenant with our local church ==> the local church is in covenant with the conference ==> which covenants with the national United Church of Christ.

Each year, clergy and lay delegates of our 72 conference churches and two camps (N-Sid-Sen and Pilgrim Firs) reconnect with one another in worship, study, and business meetings at Annual Meeting. The last few years our Pacific Northwest Conference Annual Meetings have been online only because of the pandemic. This year we’ll finally be back in person with our UCC siblings right here in Bellingham—we’re hosting!

Amidst hearing annual reports from our Conference staff, voting on the projected 2023-2024 budget, and listening to keynote speakers, we will worship together several times—we hope you’ll join these worship services on Zoom  to see how our Pacific Northwest Conference comes together. Contact the office for Zoom links.

If you’re curious about this weekend’s agenda, check out the Annual Meeting section of our conference website, and maybe explore more about who we are as a conference. As a member of First Congregational Church of Bellingham, you are the Pacific Northwest Conference; you are the United Church of Christ.

In Community with each of you,

Sharon