Changes to UCC’s Constitution and Bylaws to be considered by General Synod 35

The 35th General Synod of the United Church of Christ, which will take place July 11-15 in Kansas City, Missouri, will consider and vote on several sets of proposed amendments to the UCC Constitution and Bylaws. The UCC Board is offering a series of webinars and a question and answer document to help answer some of the frequent questions that are submitted about this topic. You can view this, as well as sign up for the webinars, currently scheduled for Tuesday, May 20 from 12-1:30pm, and Tuesday, June 3 from 5:30-7pm below.

Proposed Constitution & Bylaws Changes for Consideration by General Synod 35

This summer, General Synod 35 will review and act on three different sets of proposed amendments to the UCC Constitution and Bylaws. To help answer questions and engage in dialogue around these proposed amendments, the United Church of Christ Board is offering up a series of articles and webinars along with a Frequently Asked Questions document. The UCCB aims to support General Synod delegates, Conferences, local churches, and interested UCC-ers in understanding why these changes are being proposed as well as the practical implications of these proposed changes.

Changes regarding Director and Member Terms

Two sets of changes relate directly to how long people serve as either a Director on the United Church of Christ Board of Directors or the United Church Funds Board of Directors, or as a Member of the General Synod Nominating Committee. During General Synod 34, the General Synod voted to change the frequency of General Synod terms from every two years to every three years. This change in frequency impacted existing term lengths for UCCB Directors, GSNC Members, and UCF Directors. In response to concerns raised during debate about General Synod frequency, the UCCB pledged to review the Director Term length issue and bring that back to General Synod 35. The changes proposed regarding Director and Member Terms are the result of this pledge. 

Under the current UCC Bylaws, a Director for the UCCB and a Member of the General Synod Nominating Committee are elected to serve for three terms of the General Synod, or nine years. With the proposed changes to the UCC Bylaws, a Director for the UCCB and a Member of the General Synod Nominating Committee will be elected to serve for two terms of the General Synod, or six years. 

Under the current UCC Bylaws, a Director for the UCF is elected to serve for three terms of the General Synod, or nine years. With the proposed changes to the UCC Bylaws, a Director for the UCF will serve a term of six years. 

An additional article will delve more deeply into these two sets of proposed changes to the UCC Bylaws.

Changes regarding Election of Associate General Ministers

The third set of changes relates to the election of Associate General Ministers and involves changes to both the UCC Constitution and Bylaws. The United Church of Christ has been on a long journey of restructuring and unified governance, and this is the final step in a process that is not new, but has been decades in the making. Following the General Synod’s UCC Bylaws amendments in 2017, the AGMs (formerly Executive Ministers) are no longer chief executives of the Covenanted Ministries. Now, their portfolios are assigned by the GMP and confirmed by the UCCB, and they are functionally supervised by the GMP. The GMP is the chief executive of the Covenanted Ministries and other National Ministry corporations, accountable for the budget, and authorized to make all human resource decisions. The AGMs and the GMP are not co-equal; treating them as co-equal in their election by General Synod and accountability to the UCCB as General Synod ad interim has resulted in a lack of clarity about the AGM’s role and the GMP’s role, and is not a best governance practice. Because the AGMs are not ultimately responsible for human resource decisions or matters of budget for the Covenanted Ministry corporations, and because they are accountable to the GMP, there is no need for General Synod to elect them as AGMs or as Officers of the UCC. 

The UCC’s journey to Unified Governance has been long and winding. In the Frequently Asked Questions document, a summary of the Unified Governance History of the UCC is enclosed to more thoroughly examine this process. Furthermore, an additional article will delve more deeply into this set of proposed changes to the Constitution and Bylaws.

Webinars regarding Proposed Constitution and Bylaws Amendments

The UCCB recognizes that there are undoubtedly many questions and opinions about these proposed changes and wants to hear directly from the church in advance of General Synod. To help facilitate this process, we are scheduling at least two webinars where we will present these proposed changes at length and hear from the wider church about these proposals. 

Currently, these webinars are scheduled as follows: 

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 from 12-1:30 pm (Eastern) – Register by Clicking Here

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 from 5:30-7 pm (Eastern) – Register by Clicking Here

When a third webinar is scheduled, we will circulate that information via UCC News as well. If you would like to discuss this information in greater detail, please reach out to the UCCB Chair Julia Gaughan at gaughanj@ucc.org.

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