PROVIDENCE Offers Historic Site for 50th NACCC Meeting The Annual Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island, taking place from June 26-29, promises to be a solid, productive experience for those attending. Many people have been dreaming dreams and working hard to make those dreams become reality for our member churches. Carrie Dahm, NACCC meeting planner, and Jim Hopkins, chair of the host committee, and that committee’s members have been putting in long hours to ensure that the 2004 meeting will be worthwhile for all attendees. The Divisions, Commissions and Committees are planning seminars and workshops in response to feedback we have received from previous years’ delegates.

Bible Lecturer James A. Sanders translated the Psalm Scroll from Cave 11 of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection.

There will be three one-hour sessions of seminars on Monday. During each session there will be seven different choices of topics. Each of these topics will be repeated in each of the three sessions. Topics include An Overview of Clergy and Staff Benefits by Maggie Lewis of The Missionaries and Ministers Benefits Board of the American Baptist Church (MMBB), Encouraging Ministry by the Rev. Richard Hotchkin, A Spiritual Strategic Journey for Churches, a seminar on Grieving Within the Local Parish, and a seminar on Applying Statistical Reasoning to Biblical Scholarship by our Moderator, Dr. Donald Bentley. We will also have the popular seminar about the work of the missionaries supported by our Missionary Society. And there will be a seminar by the NACCC Executive Committee, in which you will be able to learn about the actions taken by the EC during the past year, which the delegates must vote to approve during Tuesday’s business session. A list of these actions will be handed out in your registration materials so you can prepare your questions ahead of time.

The Biltmore Hotel (right) is located in downtown Providence within walking distance of parks, museums, and historical buildings. (Providence photos courtesy Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau.)	Our Congregational History lives again at Plimoth Plantation, site of a pre-meeting tour. (Photo courtesy Plimoth Plantation.)
Benefit Street has the most impressive collection of colonial homes in the U.S. The Stephen Hopkins House was the home of an ancestor of James Hopkins, host chair of the Annual Meeting.	The Continental Sloop Providence, a fully rigged sailing vessel replicating the ship of John Paul Jones’ first command, sails on Narragansett Bay.

This year there will be a number of workshops offered by the Church Services Commission. These workshops are intended to provide useful information which the attendees can apply in their local churches. These workshops offer a wide variety of topics from the assessment of spiritual gifts, to how the Stephen Ministries program works, to using the popular Rotation Model Curriculum for Sunday School, to looking at what happens when your town loses people. The question of Parish Nursing will be discussed, and the pluses and minuses of entering the ministry as a second career will be considered. There will be a youth leaders’ roundtable and workshops on ideas about starting up an after-school program, mission tips, advice about ministering to ministers, information on the NACCC Investment Trust, and a workshop titled “Step Two in the Revitalization Process: Once you have your vision, what do you do with it?” The newly formed Institute for Congregational Studies will offer a workshop on Congregational polity for those new to our tradition or those of us who might need a refresher course. All groups within the leadership of the NACCC are working toward having programs that will appeal to everyone.

Unfortunately, the space in the Biltmore will be limited. You will note in the registration materials that we will have to be using an overflow room for our main sessions. The cause for this inconvenience is beyond our control, and we are doing our best to make sure everyone will feel like a participant in all phases of the meetings. We will all be together for worship on Sunday morning and for the Tuesday evening communion service, both of which will take place at historic Beneficent Congregational Church. The Communion Service, which will incorporate the third Bible Lecture, will be the conclusion of the meeting. The Senior Minister of Beneficent, the Rev. Richard Taylor, has offered us hospitality beyond measure. The church is about a fifteen-minute walk from the hotel. Transportation will be offered for those who desire it. Be sure to take part in these special services as an expression of faith.

The Entertainment Sub-Committee of the Host Committee, under the leadership of the Rev. Don Bliss of East Freetown Congregational Church, East Freetown, Massachusetts, will be presenting its program on Saturday Evening. Don has scheduled “Elder Dour’s Wicked Frivolity Hour” featuring the music of John Bunyan and the “Cornplasters!” It will be an evening of “humor, old-time gospel tunes, and a sing-along of tunes that never made it (for very good reason).” This promises to be a time of fun and fellowship. Look closely and you might see some familiar faces in the group.

An intergenerational event with NAPF and HOPE will feature a cookout and time of fellowship on Sunday evening. There will be opportunities to sit and visit or challenge one another at bocce, horseshoes, or basketball.

The Biltmore Hotel is located in the center of Providence, which is undergoing renewal. This process has taken place over the past several years. The city is as safe as any big city, but use caution as you would anywhere else. If you choose to walk, be sure you are in a group and stick to well-lighted areas.

There are many things to see and do in this small, yet big city. The Banner Trail is a walking tour that starts and ends at Waterplace Park. It is a self-guided stroll around Downtown Providence and the historic East Side. You will see, among other things, The Rhode Island State House, the Roger Williams National Memorial (the smallest National Park in America), and the Museum of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). This is a very fine yet small and manageable museum with a diverse collection of art. And you will pass by the Arcade, a wonderful Greek Revival structure which is a National Historic Landmark. If you do not want to walk or do not have a car, you can get around Providence by taxi or the Providence Link Trolley.

There are pocket-sized parks close to the hotel. One is right across the street and features a statue of General Burnside who, in the words of a native, is “famous for underperformance at Antietam and the facial hair named sideburns.” One block away is Waterplace Park. There will be more information on interesting places to visit and places to eat at the registration and host tables.

The hopes of those planning this meeting are that we will gather for a time of sharing Faith, enjoying the Freedom of our tradition, and relishing the times of Fellowship with one another. During our time together, we need to reflect on the words of scripture chosen by the Host Committee for our meeting theme that remind us: “so we, being many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.” (Romans 12:5)

NACCC Moderator Donald L. Bentley and Host Committee member the Rev. Alice Murphy contributed to this article.

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