Where they stand

Religion: Denominations deal with divisive issues at their summer conventions | Edward E. Plowman

Obama speaks at the UCC's General Synod

Summer is the season for denominations to hold the equivalent of ecclesiastical pep rallies and tend to housekeeping chores—like taking stands, or no stands, on issues dividing their member churches. Here is a roundup of highlights from some of this summer's periodic assemblies and conventions:

United Church of Christ. The biennial UCC General Synod celebrated in Hartford the 1.1-million-member denomination's 50th anniversary by spotlighting speakers such as Democratic presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a UCC member. Obama claimed religious conservatives had hijacked faith and divided the country over such issues as school prayer, abortion, and same-sex marriage.

The UCC at its previous synod in 2005 had become the first mainline denomination to endorse same-sex marriage. This year's synod chose not to revisit that action, declining even to discuss proposed resolutions to reverse the 2005 action or describe marriage as "a God-ordained relationship between one man and one woman." That second non-discussed resolution called on the UCC to "reaffirm the ultimate authority of Scripture" and acknowledge the "error" when the 2005 synod said "it is not possible to rely exclusively on Scripture for understanding marriage today."