The question among Conference Ministers these days is how did your Conference giving fare in 2020? What was your OCWM (Our Church’s Wider Mission) giving? Well, the news for KO is GREAT!

The Conference is grateful for the work of Mark Van Dorn, who has served faithfully as Conference Treasurer and Chair of the Finance & Stewardship Committee. Mark made the decision to step back from his duties so that he could focus more readily on family and business obligations.

The opportunity to serve in leadership with the K-O Conference allows me to honor and pay a debt of gratitude to those who raised me – my parents, extended family, and my Fellowship Church family. While I understand that I’m steeped in the unearned privilege of my whiteness, I also find myself reflecting on the value of an upbringing surrounded by people who in mid-20th Century disavowed race prejudice.

Most of us have discovered over the past year that it is never too late to learn something new. Like other Conference pastors, I’ve learned to do worship and pastoral care in ways I was never taught in seminary or learned through nearly fifty years of parish ministry.

By now, many of us are Zoom meeting experts. The pandemic has made us quick studies of webinars and teleconferences, whether we like it or not. Every once and awhile, though, you attend a meeting that makes it all worthwhile. 

Each year, all UCC churches report to National Setting the current information about membership, attendance at congregational activities and finances. This is done by completing online forms on the UCC Data Hub.

“Churches in transition” is a bit of an understatement these days! It used to mean churches that were somewhere in what was the “typical” or “standard” search process of the UCC. It’s beginning to feel that the “standard search process,” at least in KO, is the exception rather than the rule!

Don Miller has ended his service as interim at Community United Church of Christ in Carbondale. Finishing his ministry at Carbondale ended a period of four years of ministry serving as interim in 3 different congregations.

As I write this final message to you in 2020, I am tempted to spend time looking backward: especially when the past year has been as challenging as this year has been.

This winter, the Oklahoma City Community Foundation is helping provide warm meals to homebound elderly citizens by awarding grants to 40 area churches and organizations that prepare and deliver mobile meals through Meals on Wheels Oklahoma City, including Mayflower Congregational Church.

In spite of everything going on around us, I simply want to remind you of what you already know; despite what you read on your screens and tablets or hear on the news; Christmas is coming.

I had just arrived at Fellowship when my own kids’ interactions with church brought (once again) my attention to the need for a good Christian Education program. And I wasn't long after that realization when had a chance encounter with a friend from seminary, Rev. J.D. Morrison.

Julia Gaughan began serving as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Setting of the UCC following the close of the General Synod in 2019. Her first Board meeting was in October 2019.