For a seminarian in search of field experience, it can’t get any better than this.

Since May 20, Sylvie Bowen-Bailey, who’s about to enter her senior year at Eden Theological Seminary outside St. Louis, has served as licensed pastor of Pilgrim UCC in Grafton, filling in for the Rev. Ashley Nolte, who is on sabbatical.

For Sylvie, the three-month stint in Grafton has affirmed her call to congregational ministry. She connected with the Wisconsin Conference during a virtual search-and-call day attended by Associate Conference Minister Jane Anderson.

Baptized and raised at Peace UCC in Duluth, Minnesota, Sylvie discerned a call to ministry while studying in Beijing as a junior at Knox College. There, she attended an international church with a very different, evangelical theology. “I left every Sunday wondering ‘What are you talking about that everyone who’s not a Christian is going to hell,’” she said. I thought that I’m spending so much time in China considering these questions, that’s the beginning of my call.”

When the opportunity arose to serve Pilgrim, she asked the pastor of the St. Louis congregation where she had worked whether she was ready. “No, but you’re never ready for it,” came the response. “I wouldn’t be ready for it. So do it anyway.”

“A lot of it was about preparing for discomfort,” Sylvie said of the run-up to summer. “I wasn’t trying to learn everything about the congregation in advance and come up with a plan for every contingency.” The experience has provided crucial lessons in pastoral leadership.

“So much has been about learning how to get to know a congregation,” Sylvie said. She had previously preached only among classmates and at the church where she’s currently a member, a place she knew well. At Pilgrim, she wondered, “How am I going to know what message this congregation needs to hear?” Answers came through casual conversations with groups and individuals. The result? “I’ve gotten a sense of who the community is quicker than I thought I could.”

Sylvie has gotten to know herself better, too. “I’ve been learning about when I need to reach out for support and when I can handle things on my own, trusting in the continued presence of God with me,” she said.



Jane Anderson hopes that Sylvie’s experience prompts other Eden students to pursue sabbaticals as opportunities to gain pastoral experience. More important, Jane said by email, “I hope that Sylvie will share her positive experience with other Eden students that will help us continue to build relationship and attract more students like Sylvie to serve in Wisconsin.”

A year ago, the Rev. Dr. Christopher Ross, pastor of First Congregational UCC in Watertown, was present when neo-Nazis disrupted the community’s Pride in the Park event. That event prompted this reflection, published last August. What followed was a year of discernment, collaboration and action. Read on for an update from Chris.

Dear siblings in the Wisconsin Conference:

Let me tell you about Watertown’s 2024 Pride celebration the year after Nazis came to town and those who call themselves Christians stood with them.

In the aftermath of last year’s armed neo-Nazi presence at Pride in the Park, organized expressions of white Christian nationalism began to pop up around the community, often explicitly in response to Pride in the Park. As a result, I reached out to my clergy colleagues serving the other actively progressive congregations in the community—Immanuel ELCA, St. Paul’s Episcopal, and Ebenezer Moravian—and we, along with lay people from the four congregations, began meeting and strategizing about how to offer local Christian witness as an alternative to the voices of Christian nationalism.

A group called “Building a Welcoming Watertown” was born. We began meeting regularly with staff from the WISDOM interfaith network. We explored ways we could offer a prophetic challenge. We even formed a Housing Justice Task Force to take on issues surrounding the lack of affordable housing in the community.

But at the same time these four congregations began coming together to do this work, the elected city government in Watertown took a different approach.They sought ways to restrict future Pride events and their use of public spaces. Eventually finding a strategy that could pass legal muster, they decided to raise costs for the Unity Project of Watertown (the group that runs the community Pride event) to make it unfeasible for the event to happen at a city park in 2024.This move was grounded in excuses of the expense of providing protection.

The Unity Project needed a new venue for 2024. And so, they asked us at First Congregational UCC if we would be willing to host.

Read the full story

If you want to know more about the Damascus Project’s new online confirmation curriculum, make sure to attend one of two virtual information sessions, scheduled for 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 8. Email the Rev. Uriah Williams with your preferred session time and to receive access.

The online program, for youths in eighth grade and up, is designed especially for congregations with just one or two young people of confirmation age and for churches that don’t have anyone available to teach confirmation. The course will run from September to May and will consist of weekly individual asynchronous content – readings, videos, worksheets and other homework assignments – plus twice-monthly group Zoom sessions. The materials and program fee for each learner is just $75. Register today.

If you’re a faith formation or youth leader and want to attend this month’s Faith Formation and Youth Leader Retreat, there’s no better time to register than today. Registration will close Thursday, Aug. 8. The retreat will take place the weekend of Aug. 23 to 25 at Daycholah Center. Participants will engage with presentations from the recent Rethink Children and Youth Ministry Summit, share ideas and resources, and imagine what’s possible in these important areas of ministry. 



Register now. Questions? Email Lisa Hart, associate conference minister for faith formation and justice ministries.

Registration is now open for Community of Practice groups starting in September.

Communities of Practice clergy groups provide the sustenance that your ministry needs in order to be effective well into the future. COP groups are designed to be peer learning groups, focused both on the practice of ministry and your growth in your role as a pastoral minister.

Note: Previous COP participants need to register again each year to continue in a group.

More information

Register for a clergy COP group 

The Christian Education/Faith Formation Commission of the Wisconsin Conference offers a Communities of Practice program for educators similar to the successful COP program for pastors. Lay volunteers or paid staff involved in Sunday school, youth group, or other education or faith formation ministries are supported and enriched by involvement in a COP with others ministering in similar ways.

If you would appreciate the support of a network of peers, register today. COP groups for 2023-2024 will start in September. The cost for the year is $250. For more information, read the webpage or contact Lisa Hart.

Note: Previous COP participants need to register each year to continue in a group.

The Wisconsin Conference WISE Team will host a daylong workshop on suicide prevention in faith communities Sept. 10 at Daycholah Center. Sept. 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. WISE is a designation awarded by the UCC Mental Health Network that recognizes congregations and conferences that are Welcoming, Inclusive, Supportive and Engaged for mental health.

The event is designed for clergy and lay leaders from any faith-based community. Across three sessions, workshop participants will examine the role of the church in suicide prevention and mental health self-care practices for faith leaders, and hear from a panel of guests who will share their experiences as survivors of suicide attempts. 



To arrange for overnight accommodations before or after the event, contact Daycholah Center. Registration will open shortly. Questions? Contact  Lisa Hart, associate conference minister for faith formation and justice ministries.

The Conference Palestine Justice Working Group has compiled resources for use by congregations studying the issue of a just peace between Israel and the Palestinian people, following a vote by delegates at this year’s Wisconsin Conference Annual Meeting to launch a year of study by local churches. If 30 percent of congregations engage the issue, the 2025 Annual Meeting will vote whether to adopt the Declaration for a Just Peace Between Israel and Palestine adopted at the UCC’s 2021 General Synod.

Most recently, the working group flagged an NPR report from earlier this year that highlighted the ways in which some rabbis and synagogues seek to honor the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians alike. The report quoted Rabbi Sharon Brous: “How do you hold both your commitment to stand with those people whose loved ones have been in Gaza now for an unthinkable amount of time, suffering in all kinds of ways? . . . And also know that any child that is killed in our effort to retrieve those hostages or any innocent who is killed, that itself is a moral catastrophe?” Listen to or read the full story.

Members of the working group are available to support congregations in their study. To reach the group, email Lisa Hart, associate conference minister for faith formation and justice ministries.

August Ministry Roundtable: Worship Reboot

If you’re looking for ideas to turbocharge worship in your congregation, make sure to attend the August Ministry Roundtable, a facilitated Zoom discussion of innovation in worship. It’s a great opportunity to learn about and share some of the many worship resources available and to share your own ideas and experiences. Everyone is welcome – clergy, laypeople and anyone with an interest in the topic.

Time: 4 p.m.

Date: Aug 7

Register now

Palestine Justice Working Group

The Wisconsin Conference work group educates UCC members about the state of Israeli-Palestinian relations and advocates for justice for all Palestinians. The group meets by Zoom on the fourth Monday of each month. Meetings are open to all.

Time: 7 p.m.

Date: Aug. 26

Register now

3 Best Practices for Stewardship in Congregations

We will discuss the three practices most likely to increase giving in a local congregation: teaching about generosity, pastoral leadership, and online giving options. The webinar will examine why these practices matter and discuss how to implement them in a congregation.

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Date: Aug. 28

Register now

Save the date

Youth events:  The Wisconsin Conference and United Church Camps Inc. will host five youth retreats at Daycholah Center in the coming program year. Registration will open in late August.

Oct. 11-13: Knock Knock Retreat for middle schoolers (grades 6-8)

Nov. 8-10: Youth Faith Formation Retreat I (grades 6-12)

Jan. 24-26: Winter Soulstice Retreat for high schoolers (grades 9-12)

Feb. 21-23: Youth Faith Formation Retreat II (grades 6-12)

Feb 28-Mar 2: Youth Faith Formation Retreat III (grades 6-12)