Global Mission Team Report
History
The Global Mission Team of the Penn West Conference was formed in response to an initiative from the national United Church of Christ. This initiative calls for the national church, conferences and churches to become “Global Mission Partners”. It is a call to see missions in a new way. Rather than a process by which American churches give their resources and culture to mission fields in foreign lands, missions become a covenantal relationship with our mission partners. Recognizing Christians around the world as partners rather than as wards, we seek to share and to receive, to teach and to learn, from Christians from many cultures.
At the 47th Annual Meeting, Penn West Conference voted to form a team to pursue the goal of becoming a Global Mission Conference. The first step in this process was for the new Global Mission Team to carry out a self-study provided by UCC. Global Ministries. When this was completed, Global Ministries approved PWC for Global Mission Partner status. The Penn West Conference voted to become a Global Mission Partner Conference at its Annual Meeting in 2009.
As part of the process, the Global Mission Team worked with Global Ministries to identify a partner conference. Our partner conference is the Northwest Luzon Conference of the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (NWLC/UCCP). The Global Mission Team and the (NWLC/UCCP) have established a working relationship. To cultivate that relationship the Global Mission Team provides information on our partner and suggests ways that the local churches can participate.
The next step was to challenge individual congregations to become Global Mission Partner churches. Churches that do this complete a self-study for local churches and pledge to carry out specific activities to develop a stronger commitment to global missions. The Global Mission Team has distributed materials regarding this to the churches of our Conference and a number of churches have entered into this process. A handbook on becoming a global mission partner church is available from the Conference office of from Global Ministries.
An additional step was to encourage individual congregations to become a partner with a specific congregation in the (NWLC/UCCP).
Update
Currently, eight PWC churches are partners with a church in (NWLC/UCCP). These churches and their partners are:
Emanuel UCC in Warren, PA - UCCP Exodus Community Christian Church, Barranggay Pias \ Norte, Currimao, Ilocos Norte
St. John's UCC, Evans City, PA --- UCCP Pinili, Poblacion, Pinili, Ilocos Norte
Trinity UCC, Berlin, PA --- UCCP Koinonia, Del Posario, St. Laoag City
Birmingham UCC, Pittsburgh, PA --- UCCP Piddig, Poblacion, Piddig, Ilocos Norte
St. Paul's UCC, Trauger, PA --- UCCP Cadaratan, Bacarra, Ilocos Norte
St. John's UCC, Martinsburg ---UCCP Cabulalaan Bacarra, Ilocos Norte
Export, Emmanuel UCC - UCCP Solsona, Laoag City, Ilocos Norte
Altoona, Grace UCC - UCCP Baruyen, Laoag
Other churches have shown interest in being in partnership with UCCP. No other partnerships have been established at this time due to the communication problems.
We are discovering that their world is a little different than our own. It takes months for local churches in Northwest Luzon to receive mail from the USA and access to the internet is sparse. Pastors are assigned to local churches and serve a particular church for 2, 4, or at the most 6 years. This means there is more pastoral transition than happens in our local churches.
Rev. Paul Veracion, the new conference minister, has contacted Xiaoling Zhu at the national church office communicating that he would like to continue the partnership with PWC and the church partnerships even though we have had a slow start.
As our Conference Global Mission Team and the partner churches work to discover ways to increase communications, all conference churches are encouraged to do the following:
• Learn about the Philippines as a country and the issues that they face in today's world.
• Check the website from the UCCP. (www.uccphils.com)
• Check the Face book page of the UCCP which contains local church pictures as well as various
church activities.
• Include the Northwest Luzon Conference in our congregational prayers.
During the year, the Global Mission Team sent ideas and information to the local churches to encourage local congregation participation in learning about missions. We continue to ask for your prayers for missions in the world. Also to help congregations celebrate Global Mission Sunday, the Global Mission Team compiled worship materials, a bulletin insert, and cookie recipes to use on April 28, 2013, for Pacific Island and Asian American Mission Sunday.
The Global Mission Team encourages our churches to have mission moments on a regular basis to share how our special offerings and OCWM offerings are making a difference in the world. Supported by your prayers, we will continue to seek ways to increase enthusiasm for missions and to encourage on-going covenantal relationships with churches and mission fields around the world.
If you would like to join the Global Mission Team, please contact any of us of the Conference Office.
Global Mission Team Members this past year: Rev. Frank Demmy, Rev. Keith Kensinger, Ms. Linda Lesnevich, Ms. Mary Alice Lynn, Ms. Cathie Mossburg, Ms. Eileen Seigfried, and Rev. Todd Snyder.