What is faith? What is our identity and what are we doing here? These questions have been circling in the back of my mind throughout my days at the Synod. Is this church? Yes we have had prayers and songs and hymns and sermons, but this is so different than what I imagined church to feel like. Instead of tiptoeing around important but uncomfortable topics like what I assume people should be doing in a church, here the delegates walk up to the microphone and speak boldly and truthfully on their beliefs into disagreements, and instead of simply shedding some tears in prayer, we are actually talking about actions and the risks of those actions. This must be faith. This must be Church.
Many people outside of the communities of progressive Christians would never associate Christianity with progressive politics. Yet here I was at the meeting hall of the 2025 General Synod of the United Church of Christ, listening to the discussions on how we can better support immigrants under the current administration’s persecution, and how we can more thoroughly reparate the ongoing crisis and damages rooted in centuries of colonial harm done in the name of Christ and his churches. We asked ourselves how much do we dare to stand up to the state of Israel’s genocide in Palestine in the name of Zionism, which has a complicated and heavy bond with our very own history as American churches…
In peace, in force, in love, in anger, in fear, in faith, here we are, people from different towns all over the US gathering in one place to listen, to learn, to reflect, to pray, to plan, to decide: what is the next step for us to take to follow Christ? What kind of future are we creating? Who are the people we are becoming?
‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ (Matthew 3:2) Yes my Lord, I think I have had a glimpse of the Kingdom, and yes my Lord, I think what we are doing is repenting our collective sins, in a collective manner, with collective actions. Truly, expensively, heavily, yet gracefully, we weave our lives into this one body of Christ, the United Church of Christ, and I know I am at where I belong.
Click here to see the photo album from General Synod.