The 5th Annual Meeting of the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ will be held June 21 and 22 at UMass, Amherst, and will focus on growing the church.

The keynote speaker for the event will be the Rev. Dr. Courtney Stange-Tregear, the Chief Relationship Officer at the Cornerstone Fund of the UCC, who plans to talk about "God Math," and to share inspiring stories of churches that have grown their ministries - and more greatly impacted their communities - by working smarter, not harder.

"God Math is about the abundance of God’s grace manifest in real and practical ways," she said. "We are not necessarily called to work harder and harder to build the Church; we can work smarter, and with faith and God Math, see our ministries grow and stretch beyond our wildest imaginations."

Read 2 Min Read

Executive Conference Minister the Rev. Darrell Goodwin recently sat down with two Connecticut legislators to talk about a bill that would expand the state's sick leave law to guarantee that all workers can earn up to 40 hours of paid sick time a year. Currently, the paid sick leave law only applies to companies with more than 50 employees.

State Sen. Julie Kushner (D-Danbury) and State Rep. Manny Sanchez (D-New Britain) are co-chairs of the Labor Committee. They talked over the bill with Rev. Goodwin, who called it a "no-brainer for faith involvement." 

"When I think about the people who are sitting in the pews of our churches and are a part of the workforce, things like this are what I might describe as common-sense legislation," he said. "It makes sense with the values we have in the United Church of Christ to fully lean in and support this ... because of the justice commitments we have."

Read & Watch 4.5 Min Read; 15 Min View

Executive Conference Minister the Rev. Darrell Goodwin this week attended the Connecticut Business Day along with a handful of other Conference staff and local pastors, to build connections with business representatives from around the state. 

"I think our presence matters," he said. "People recognized our staff and our clergy were there asking questions and making a difference."

Read & Watch 1.5 Min Read