48th NACCC Annual Meeting

Citations to Hall, Heilmann, Rouner

"Outstanding meritorious service to the NACCC" is the primary basis for receiving the NACCC’s top honor, a citation approved by the Executive Committee.

The Rev. Dr. Lloyd M. Hall, Jr., Lois Heilmann, and the Rev. Dr. Arthur Rouner, Jr.—the 2002 recipients of NACCC Citations—certainly meet and exceed the criterion for membership in a select group of Congregationalists.

Some highlights from their citations:

Ordained at Plymouth Church in Wichita, Kansas, Lloyd has served congregations in Kansas, Maine, Illinois, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Michigan. With his wife Hannah, whom he met at Bangor Seminary, he led and leads covenanted people in cutting edge ministries with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.

Lloyd was formally educated at Harvard College, Bangor Theological Seminary, and Southern Bible Seminary, but everyone knows that education is an ongoing passion for him. This passion is never for him alone, which is easily recognized in his numerous publications in The Congregationalist, The Congregational Journal, The Wisconsin Congregational Association booklet, Wisconsin Congregational Society, Past With a Future Symposium, From Call to Settlement, and many others. His quest for education of others in the Congregational Way has led him to champion the cause of Piedmont College. As a member of the Board of Trustees, Lloyd chaired the board’s Church Relations Committee and is Chairman of the Congregational Visitors.

Active on many levels of the National Association, Dr. Hall was Chairman of the Executive Committee in 1986. He was the Moderator in 1991 when the Annual Meeting was in Seattle. The theme of that meeting had an appropriate "Hallian" title, "Right Hearts, Clear Minds, and Wise Ways." He’s served unselfishly on three Annual Program Committees, Executive Search Committees, and on the Long Range Planning Committee, Nominating Committee, other numerous standing and ad hoc committees of the National Association, and of course and most important, as our Historian.

Many of us have grown to know Lois Heilmann and to love her as she has served as Corporate Secretary of our National Association since 1992, but some will remember her from many years of association before this.

Lois attended her first NACCC Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1982. Very quickly the Nominating Committee learned what an asset she would be to the organization and nominated her to serve on the Women’s Commission from 1983 to 1987. Following that term, she was elected to serve in the Congregational Church Development Division from 1988 to 1992. In due course she became the Chairman of each of these groups.

Lois retired from her profession as a Legal Secretary and word has it that the firm would take her back in a minute if she were willing.

In addition to serving the NACCC, Lois has been active with the Western Pennsylvania Association of Congregational Churches serving as Moderator of that association and as Editor of that organization’s newsletter, The Sojourner.

She has been loyal and supportive of her local church, The First Congregational Church of Etna in Pittsburgh, and at one time served as Editor of that church’s newsletter, The Belfry.

Lois has traveled extensively, but in recent years has happily stayed closer to home, where she lives with her mother, Freda*, and her cats. Never a dull moment!

Ask any Past Moderator or Executive Committee Chair and he or she will tell you how supportive Lois is. While she frequently may have them, Lois never expressed personal opinions about an issue under discussion. In both letters and minutes, she expresses the essence of the meeting or thought beautifully.

* We regret to report that Lois’ mother, Freda, 94, died July 24, 2002.

A graduate of Harvard, Union Seminary, and Luther Seminary, Dr. Rouner was ordained in the church at which his father was the minister. He served congregations in Massachusetts before becoming the Senior Minister of Colonial Church of Edina. During his pastorate, the congregation grew to 3,800 members, with 1,400 worshiping on a Sunday morning.

Arthur Rouner’s citation was presented by Executive Committee Chair, Carol Cole.

In 1982 the church’s ministry expanded to partner with four other churches in the Twin Cities area to join World Vision International, raising funds and making numerous mission trips to Africa to bring not only the Gospel but its important by-products of reconciliation and peacemaking to warring tribes.

Upon his retirement from Colonial Church, the Pilgrim Center for Reconciliation was founded as an outreach organization which brings love and service to America and the world and primarily focused on the work of reconciliation. Over the years since its establishment, more than 4,000 church leaders have attended reconciliation retreats led by Dr. Rouner and his wife, Mollie. These same kinds of retreats have been led on native American reservations.

He is the author of numerous articles and fifteen books. Among them is the National Association’s bestseller The Congregational Way of Life, for which our Association receives regular requests.

As in all of his writings, Dr. Rouner has called on Congregational Christians of every age to rise up and be the adventurous Christian people of a heritage worthy of an important place in American religion.