October 28, 2008

Conducting business at the Hilton Garden Inn in New Orleans, Oct. 23-26, Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) board members narrowly affirmed the Governance Follow-up Team II (GFT-II) restructuring proposal. The vote was 21 to 16, with three abstentions.

Several members spoke with humility and passion about their feelings and positions on the new proposal.

In a plea, Pacific Islanders & Asian Americans (PAAM) representative, Melissa Woo voiced her concerns regarding the Historically Underrepresented Groups (HUGS) within the newly proposed organizational structure and offered an alternative proposal from the Council for Racial and Ethnic Ministries (COREM).

Some also spoke of the challenges they will face in implementing the new proposal that is modeled after the JWM board configuration. The proposed arrangement gives 50 percent representation to people of color and women in a denomination with a majority Anglo population.

Kansas-Oklahoma Conference representative, Leslie Penrose, invited the board to see it differently, as a way of leveling the playing field – "50 percent majority as well as 50 percent minority."

The board passed three recommendations to be addressed by the GFT-II as action items:

• One additional representative from each of the five COREM bodies should be added to the United Church Board (UCB). This would raise their representation from 2 to 3 members resulting in a UCB size of 90-93 instead of 85-88.

• The proposal for a new governance structure should include language preserving the role and authority of General Synod over the United Church Board.

• Given the reduction of the number of Covenanted Ministry Board, it is also recommended that language be included to specifically grant authority of the General Synod over the UCB.

The Rev. Linda Jaramillo, JWM executive minister, was recommended for re-nomination to a second term. In her address, she said that the ministry of JWM was central to the entire denomination. "We are its heartbeat!" she said passionately.

During Q&A, executive council representative, A. Rebecca West, questioned Jaramillo on how she envisioned "JWM continuing that role as heartbeat within a governance new structure?"

She replied, "No longer will we be on the margins or in a ministry silo of our own, but we must be and will be fully integrated into the whole."

Saturday, the board experienced a New Orleans immersion, visiting the Amistad Research Center, various neighborhoods, and Lower Ninth Ward where Hurricane Katrina severely destroyed the city due to levee collapses.

JWM, in conjunction with UCC National Disaster Ministries, has been on the ground offering support to local residents beginning days after Katrina's impact upon the Gulf Coast.

United Church of Christ News Service