All Church Conference Held Sunday, October 21
On Sunday, October 21, after morning worship, an all-church conference was held to consider five motions put forth by the LUMC 50th Anniversary Task Force. 

The motions were as follows:
1. Establish a Social Justice Endowment Fund.
2. Establish a Social Justice Pavilion to Beautify the Main Entrance to the Church.
3. Move the Katie McPhee Fund into the Social Justice Endowment.
4. Conduct a Capital Campaign to raise $60,000 for the Pavilion and $65,000 for the Endowment.
5. Recommend to the Endowment Committee that it consider a Summer Reading Program at the Morse school for its first social justice project.

Since the motions represented such large commitments on the part of the church, the voting rules were that any motion would need 75% of the votes cast in order to pass and votes would be conducted by secret ballot.

After a brief discussion, the first motion, to establish a Social Justice Endowment fund, passed by a vote of 39 to 2. This motion had been amended by a proposal of Al Landers to change the membership of the endowment committee so that it would be composed of  three people nominated by the Nominating Committee and Elected by Charge Conference, and also three people appointed by the Outreach Committee and also the Pastor.

While the votes were being counted for the first motion, discussion began on the second motion.   Ken Kreutziger presented his plan for the Social Justice Pavilion that would beautify the church entrance from the parking lot.  During the discussion on this motion, some concern was raised that spending money on a building program was not in line with the tradition of LUMC to spend its resources on social justice programs. The second motion was defeated by a vote of 33 to 7.  At this point Ken said he would turn over all his plans for the pavilion to the Corporation to use in the future as they saw fit, and he was warmly thanked by all at the conference for his hard work on this project.

The third motion was to move the Katie McPhee fund into the Social Justice Endowment Fund.  Concerns were raised that this would make it harder to tap these funds for emergency church use as has happened in the past.  An amendment was offered to move only 80% of the Katie McPhee fund to the Endowment, but it was defeated by a show of hands.  The third motion itself passed by a vote of 32 to 7.

The fourth motion was to establish a capital campaign.  This motion now represented only a campaign for $65,000 for the Endowment.  After a brief discussion around questions of how much money the Endowment would need to fund programs, this fourth motion was defeated by a vote of 30 to 7.

The fifth motion, recommending to the Endowment Committee that they consider supporting a summer reading program at the Morse school in Cambridge as one of its first projects, was passed by a vote of 29 to 9.  The proposed program would provide for children entering second grade who are behind on their reading skills and give them a chance to catch up with their peers.

 
The LUMC Social Justice Endowment
The Social Justice Endowment fund has been under consideration by the LUMC 50th Anniversary Task Force for almost two years.  In keeping with the spirit of outreach at LUMC, this endowment will not be for the sake of maintaining and improving the church, but instead will be dedicated to supporting social justice programs outside LUMC.   A Social Justice program is defined in the Endowment Statement of Purpose as “a program which promotes and enhances the dignity and welfare of people in unjust circumstances and programs which address the underlying systemic inequities and causes of injustice.”

Over the past summer, a committee headed by Al Landers created three documents which define the purpose and the procedures for the Endowment.  The full text of these documents is available here by clicking on the document name.  The documents have been revised to reflect the ammendments that were made at the Charge Conference.
1. LUMC Endowment and Investment Policy – Statement of Purpose
 This document defines the purpose of the endowment and defines policies and procedures to be followed in the investment and administration of the endowment.
2. Resolution for the Charge Conference of LUMC Social Justice Endowment Committee
 This document defines the endowment in accordance with policies set forth in the Book of Discipline.  It also defines how the members of the endowment committee will be chosen and the duties of that committee.
3. Charter of the Social Justice Endowment Fund for LUMC
This document also defines the purpose of the endowment, investment policies, policies on receiving gifts and bequests, and also the relationship between the endowment committee and LUMC.  This document specifies that an emergency loan may be made from the endowment to LUMC on a 2/3 vote of Charge Conference.
In addition, there is a Flow Chart summarizing the responsibilities of the committees and conferences involved in the Social Justicve Endowment fund.

The Morse School Summer Project

The fifth motion that was considered by the All Church Conference was to recommend to the endowment committee that they consider using  the initial income from the Endowment to fund (in whole or in part) a summer program at the Morse School that would assist regular Morse School students who need help with basic reading skills.

The program would be designed to refresh the reading abilities of disadvantaged children who are entering second grade, so that they can start on the same level as their peers when the regular school program begins in the fall. 

Description of Morse School Program Conducted in August 2001

The Morse School conducted a one-week, three-hours-a-day program of this sort in the middle of August this year. Fifteen students were invited to attend, and eight actually did so.  All the children walked to the school from their homes.  The staff worked with the children to improve their reading skills.  By the end of the week, one child who could not read at all at the start was able to read at the level of his class.