By Pastor Phil
February 2012

At Memorial’s annual meeting at the end of January, one member raised the question of what is happening with the larger church organizations that we are part of. There have been a lot of changes over the past few years, so this is a good time to bring folks up to date … and to extend an invitation.

Memorial is one congregation among 53 that are part of the Southwest Wisconsin Association of the United Church of Christ. This is a regional grouping of congregations that, as the name suggests, covers the southwestern part of the state.

In Wisconsin, there are four such regional associations that together form the Wisconsin Conference of the UCC, which includes 229 congregations. And we are part of the national United Church of Christ, which has its headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio and has 5,000+ congregations with about 1 million members.

So those are the basics. At every level, our church partners have been going through restructuring over the past decade to account for declining financial support and the changing religious landscape of our country. In Wisconsin, the change we notice most is that the four associations no longer have their own association minister – a role filled here for nearly 30 years by Rev. Bob Mutton. 

Now there are two regional conference ministers who each cover half of the state. Rev. Art Wille covers the northern half of the state and Rev. Kent Ulery covers the southern half. They primarily focus on work with each association’s Division on Church and Ministry, which works with people seeking ordination, works with pastors on their continuing professional and spiritual development, handles any disciplinary issues involving clergy and deals with significant congregational conflicts.

But the associations also deal with many other items that involve the congregations in our region working together. In the Southwest Association, we have global partnerships with Bethlehem (growing out of our partnership at Memorial), Egypt and Germany. The SW Association is in partnership with the Prison Ministry Project and Jail Ministry. It looks at ways to strengthen faith formation and lay leadership in our congregations. How we do these things is increasingly up to the people from congregations who chose to be involved, since the association minister position that used to help coordinate those things is no more.

At the statewide level, the Wisconsin Conference offers a wide array of programs for faith formation like the Lay Academy, church renewal like the program Memorial is now participating in, camp opportunities at Pilgrim Center and Moon Beach and administrative support for the four associations.

All of the congregations in Wisconsin have a stake in sustaining our covenant across the various levels of our church structure. We do this financially with dues we pay to the Southwest Association ($981 from Memorial in 2012) and money sent to Our Church’s Wider Mission to support the state and national levels of the church ($7,438) from Memorial in 2012). We also do it by our participation in the activities of the association and conference.

So here’s the invitation.

The Southwest Association is currently looking for people to serve on what it calls its Divisions – Church and Ministry, Lay Leadership, Christian Education, Social Concerns and Partnerships. If any of those topics interests you, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for more information.

Memorial will also be sending two delegates to the Association’s annual meeting on Saturday, May 6, in Sauk City. If you would be interested in being a delegate, contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . And anyone is welcome to attend the meeting. The focus of this year’s meeting will be on cultural shifts and how they affect the lives of congregations in the Southwest Association.

Memorial will also be sending two delegates to the Wisconsin Conference annual meeting on June 8-10 at the Green Lake Conference Center. Again, let Pastor Phil know if you are interested. And Rev. Geoffrey Black, the general minister and president of the national UCC, will be spending Thursday, June 7, at the Green Lake Conference Center in a day-long conversation about our denomination with anyone who is interested.

Finally, there are handy ways to stay in touch with what is happening in the wider church.

The association has a web site (http://swwisconsinucc.org/) and sends out a monthly newsletter called Shalom by email. If you would like to be on the mailing list for Shalom, contact Susan Taylor at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

The Wisconsin Conference has a web site (http://www.wcucc.org/) and on the very bottom on the home page is a place to sign up to receive Wisconsin Conference Life, the monthly electronic publication of the conference.

And the national UCC has a web site (http://www.ucc.org/) and a weekly email newsletter that you can sign up for here - http://www.ucc.org/news/keeping-you-eposted/

We at Memorial are part of a much wider network of church that we see when we gather here. That network sustains our work and relies on us to be part of the work of the wider church.