Reinvigorating Partner Church Relationships
TJMC is one of nearly 200 American UU churches with “Partner Church” relationships with Unitarian or UU churches in Transylvania (now part of Romania), Hungary, The Czech Republic, Poland, the Khasi Hills of India, or the Philippines. While various ‘sister church’ relationships between American congregations and churches in Transylvania can be traced back as far as the mid 1800’s, the current Partner Church program was started twenty years ago. The program is coordinated, encouraged, and supported by the UU Partner Church Council (UUPCC, uupc.org), a non-profit, independent affiliate of the UUA.
The TJMC Partner Church Committee has been rather quiescent in recent years. However, now there are specific plans to re-invigorate our long-standing relationships with our two Partner Churches (in Transylvania, the Unitarian Church of Oltheviz, Romania; in the Khasi Hills of India (the Unitarian Church in Nongkrem). The intent of this article is to alert the TJMC community about the planned resurgence of our own Partner Church Committee work, to provide some information about other area Partner Church activities, and to recruit additional members to our TJMC Partner Church Committee.
Current plans include:
- Expansion of the Partner Church Committee;
- A Sunday luncheon meeting at TJMC in late spring to assure that interested TJMCers, new and old, have up-to-date information about the very vibrant Partner Church activities in other UU congregations, and an opportunity to discuss possible directions for our congregation’s activities;
- A dinner meeting with Rev. Derrick Pariat and his wife Dani on Monday, June 20, at TJMC. Rev. Pariat is the president of the Unitarian Union of North East India (UUNEI), the region of our Indian Partner Church. The Pariats will be in the DC/Charlottesville area from June 12–21, meeting with various Virginia, Maryland, and DC churches before leaving for General Assembly in Charlotte, NC. Their presentation and discussion will focus on the Partner Church relationships and activities of American and Canadian congregations with their Indian partner congregations.
- Informational articles in the TJMC newsletter about the many social action, cultural exchange, and educational projects thriving under the auspices of the Partner Church Council (UUPCC);
- Plans to sponsor a visit of the minister of the Unitarian Church of Oltheviz, Romania, the Reverend Istvan Torok and his wife Melinda, to Charlottesville within the next twenty-four months.
Several UU churches in Northern Virginia have vibrant and active Partner Church relationships. Activities include international travel and cultural exchange opportunities, individual and congregational communication (including email, Skype, and other electronically mediated methods), academic scholarship programs, minister exchanges, and various cooperative social action programs to improve economic conditions. We have joined the informal association of these Virginia, DC, and Maryland churches and will continue meeting with them on a quarterly basis to share information and ideas.
If you are interested in joining the Partner Church Committee, please contact Jean Sorrells-Jones at 296-3631. We would love to have you help re-invigorate this fascinating program, and create opportunities for TJMCers to experience these international relationships.