Meetings of the wider church, such as Association, Conference and General Synod meetings are, in part family reunion. The United Church of Christ is a relatively small denomination and those of us who have been active members can expect to meet up with others whenever we have gatherings. Susan and I are new to the Pacific Northwest Conference. We moved here in 2020 following our retirement from the congregation we were serving in South Dakota. We had never previously lived or served in this Conference. We didn’t attend the annual meeting of any Conference in 2020 or 2021. Last year we participated in the Pacific Northwest Conference annual meeting online. This is our first time of meeting with this conference in person. Still, we ran into several friends at yesterday’s opening of our Conference annual meeting. A retired pastor who served in the Montana-Northern Wyoming Conference when we were camp directors there was present at the meeting, as well as his son and daughter-in-law, whom we have known for 50 years. A colleague who served a congregation in the Black Hills Association while we were serving in Rapid City has since moved to this conference and retired. He was at the meeting. People we met at camp last summer are active in the Conference and were present at the meeting. I suspect that during today’s sessions we will run into others - including several whose presence will surprise us. We are part of an extended family related through our service in the church.

Early in our careers, when we were serving congregations in North Dakota, I would occasionally visit with other church leaders at regional and national meetings. Often someone would ask me, “Do you know so and so?” Chances were pretty good that if the person they were naming was from North Dakota it would be someone I knew. The Northern Plains Conference is very small with just a handful of churches. I was very active in the conference and served on several different committees and had led workshops on a variety of different topics. I had traveled all over the state for church meetings. When I was out of the state for church meetings or events, chances are the people that I met who knew folks from North Dakota had met those folks at church meetings, so the odds that I would know that person were relatively high. When another person showed surprise that I knew the person from North Dakota they knew, I would laugh and say, “It’s a small state, I know everyone who lives there.” That wasn’t literally true, of course. I didn’t know all of the people who lived in North Dakota. I did, however, know most of the ones who were active in church affairs.

Although Susan and I only served in three Conferences of the United Church of Christ prior to moving to the Pacific northwest, we grew up in a fourth. Two of those four share common borders with the Pacific Northwest Conference. We live in a mobile society. People often move across state lines. We’ve done that five times in our married lives. It doesn’t surprise me that there are people we know at this meeting. It would be true of many other Conference meetings across the country.

I have never served anywhere in the East, but I have at least a half dozen friends who will be at the annual meeting of the Southern New England Conference this year. Susan and I moved from Chicago in 1978 and we were not active in the Conference when we lived there, but I would be able to find friends present were I to attend their Conference Annual Meeting.

I think it has always been true of me, but as I grow older, the “family reunion” aspect of Conference Annual Meetings is one of the things I enjoy about attending them. It is, however, only part of the process. I have already met some people at this meeting whom I did not previously know. Making new friends is part of these gatherings as well. Each time I return in years to come there will be more people with whom I have met and served. Of course there will also be others whom I miss. Family reunions are like that. People come to the ends of their lives, they go through major life changes, they move to new places and those who we have known and loved move out of our everyday lives. One of the old friends with whom we were catching up yesterday was widowed earlier this year after more than six decades of marriage. Since we have known his entire family, we share a bit of his sense of loss and grief. We miss her along with him. That is the nature of our human relationships. Our web of friends is constantly changing. As we meet in this Conference we are aware that there are others who will meet in other conferences whom we will miss. We served in South Dakota for 25 years. There are a lot of people back there who are our friends and who we miss seeing on a regular basis. Our church family is constantly changing.

Yesterday’s meeting included a reception for a person who had served as our Interim Conference Minister who is now moving on to another place of service. Even though we did not know this person and yesterday was our first time of meeting with her face to face, the farewell reception was a familiar experience. Saying farewell has been a part of a lot of meetings over the span of our careers.

Of course there are also times of saying hello, of reconnecting with old friends, and of meeting new friends. Sadly, this phase of the church’s story usually involves more times of saying farewell than of meeting new folks. Our church family is shrinking. It is smaller than it was earlier in our lives. That is true of other families as well. I used to have six brothers and sisters. Only three are still living. Growing older is a time of saying goodbye to many loved ones.

So we treasure these times of gathering in part because we know that it will be our last meeting with some of these precious people. May we be truly present for them and truly grateful for the gift of their presence in our lives.