Jim Moos to end service as UCC National Officer following General Synod 32 in Milwaukee

The Rev. James Moos, UCC Executive Minister for Global Engagement, has decided not to seek a third term as a National Officer of the denomination.

In a letter to his colleagues, Moos indicated that he has “deeply loved my ministry among you,” and that this painful decision was made “through long and prayerful discernment.”

“I am profoundly grateful for the opportunity I have been entrusted with to serve in national and global work these past years,” Moos writes in his announcement. “Fellow staff members, board members, global and domestic partners have encouraged me, challenged me and supported me as, together, we have sought to proclaim in word and deed the good news of God’s peace, justice, reconciliation and forgiveness.”

Moos was elected to serve as Executive Minister of UCC Wider Church Ministries in 2011 by General Synod 28 in Tampa. He will continue to serve the full length of his term, which concludes after the General Synod 32 in Milwaukee. After traveling the world as Co-Executive of Global Ministries, the combined mission of the UCC and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Moos plans to take time off after he ends his service to get some rest and spend time with his family.

Before accepting the call to serve as a UCC National Officer, Moos served as senior pastor of Bismarck (N.D.) UCC for 15 years. He’s a former U.S. Air Force Reserve Chaplain and former chair of the UCC Executive Council. His involvement at the Conference and national levels also includes serving as chair of the Northern Plains Conference council (1990-1991), multiple periods of service with the Conference’s Church and Ministry Committee and Mission and Outreach Committee; and on the Wider Church Ministries/Common Global Ministries Board of Directors (1999-2005). He is married to Sharon Moos, who has spent her career in health care administration.

“Having had the opportunity to witness the work of the church in many settings in this country and throughout the world, I am confident that God is calling us to a new future and that God’s people will faithfully respond,” Moos writes. “Let us continue to move forward into freedom, resisting the pharaohs of our day and the evil they perpetuate in an attempt to divide, marginalize and oppress. Let us joyfully respond to the calling of Jesus the Christ who bids us to follow as the co-creators of a just world for all.”