"Within the United Church of Christ, the various expressions of the church relate to each other in a covenantal manner. ... Each expression of the church listens, hears, and carefully considers the advice, counsel, and requests of others. In this covenant, the various expressions of the United Church of Christ seek to walk together in all God’s ways."

Those words from the UCC Constitution & Bylaws frame the ways in which we receive the pronouncements, resolutions of witness, and prudential resolutions, adopted last week by the 31st General Synod. Having given us their best advice and counsel, and having made requests of us, each Conference, association, and local church within the United Church of Christ now begins the covenantal responsibility of reviewing what General Synod has discerned, and asking itself, "What does this mean for us? What now shall we do in response?"

Over the next few weeks we will be sharing with you the resolutions and pronouncements from General Synod 31. And we will be collecting stories about how you and your congregation are listening and responding to the advice, counsel and requests from the gathered UCC in Baltimore. We look forward to sharing your stories with the entire Southwest Conference as together, we live into the covenant that makes us the United Church of Christ.

We invite you to forward your stories to wgonzales@uccswc.org. If you share them on social media, be sure to tag the Southwest Conference - our tag is @swcucc on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram - and we will share your posts!

The first resolution from General Synod 31 released in final form is at the link below.

THE EARTH IS THE LORD’S – NOT OURS TO WRECK
IMPERATIVES FOR A NEW MORAL ERA