On November 12, 2020 the SWC Executive Board adopted three significant bylaws changes purposed to implement the SWC resolution “Decentering Whiteness in our Churches and Society.”
· Article I, Section C was amended to include: Decentering Whiteness in our churches and society as value #9, and Courage to be a voice of prophetic witness was retained as value #10.
· Article III, Section G was amended to include: No standing committee may be comprised of only persons who identify as White. All standing committees shall include members who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color.
Article IV, paragraph G, section 1. was changed to read: The MCVC shall schedule at least one meeting each year. The dates for the upcoming year’s meetings shall be set and announced at the last meeting of the current year’s meeting of the MCVC. Those dates shall be communicated to all Churches. The MCVC shall make use of all current, affordable, and available technologies to reduce time and travel expenses incurred by its members.
· Article V, section A., paragraph 1 was amended to include: The Executive board shall not be comprised of only persons who identify as White; the Executive Board shall include members who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color.
These additions will impact how the nominating committee identifies and recruits conference leaders. The nominating committee will invite local church’s and clergy to submit individuals’ names for consideration as SWC leaders with a particular emphasis on church members who identify as Black, Indigenous, and/or Persons of Color.
The Board also updated the SWC bylaws to include Lay Ministerial Standing. In 2018 the Manual on Ministry replaced Licensed Ministry and Commissioned Ministry with Lay Ministerial Standing. Whereas licensed and commissioned ministers are recognized as clergy with voice and vote in denominational as well as conference business, Lay Ministers are not identified as clergy in the 2018 Manual or in the denomination’s governing documents. The 2018 Manual acknowledges Lay Ministers as lay persons who are authorized for ministry in and on behalf of the United Church of Christ in a particular setting or congregation.
The SWC bylaws term “Authorized Clergy” was changed to Authorized Ministers and its definition now reads: All persons holding ordained, licensed, commissioned, or lay ministerial standing in the Southwest Conference. References to ministerial standings will be reviewed throughout the bylaws and specific wording may change to reflect the new definition. The impact of this change will give Lay Ministers both voice and vote in the SWC. That privilege will not extend outside of the SWC. These bylaws changes will not impact members who already hold standing in the SWC as ordained, licensed, or commissioned ministers.
The Board also identified several grammatical or punctuation errors that were missed in previous edits. Those will be corrected. These revision includes replacing the word those when referring to persons with the more inclusive word ones.
The bylaws permit the Executive Board to change the document between annual meetings. Those changes are effective until the next SWC Annual Meeting. At that time delegates have the opportunity to affirm or reject bylaws made by the Executive Board. Delegates will convene April 23-25, 2021 for the next SWC Annual Meeting. More detailed information and a draft of the SWC bylaws that includes these changes will be shared early next year.