UCHUG

UCHUG, short for United Church Computer Users Group, was the name of the online community of the United Church of Canada. UCHUG began on the Envoy 100 [Envoy 100 was a system setup by large telephone companies in Canada which provided an e-mail system, primarily for business users ] system in Canada on 31 October 1984.

David Lochhead, professor at the Vancouver School of Theology, was the inspiration for UCHUG, which was authorized by the Division of Communication of the United Church of Canada. On 2 October 1984, Lochhead gave a speech which was later viewed as seminal in the field of online computer communication. The speech, “Theology in a Digital World,” became the title of a book four years later, which included many of Lochhead’s subsequent speeches. ["Theology in a Digital World" (Toronto: United Church Publishing House, 1988), a collection of six essays: Theology in a Digital World; Theology about a Machine; Does God Love Computers? The New Electronic Church; The Tower of Babel Revisited; and Toward a Theology of Information.]

UCHUG's operating arm was the Small Computer Committee, which began in 1985. Its chairman was David Lochhead. UCHUG moved to the Unison system in Denver, Colorado [Unison, a small system privately owned by Fred Dudden] , in May 1985, when its members were joined by a number of participants from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. The two system operators for UCHUG were Dr. David Lochhead and the Rev. Gordon Laird.

In November 1986 the groups which had joined Unison moved to the NWI system, operated by NWI, Inc., a subsidiary of North American Holding Corp. Sherwin Levinson was the Manager of NWI.

UCHUG and several other church-based networks joined under the Ecunet heading. They included PRESBYNET, UCCHRISTNET, DISCIPLENET, UM CIRCUITWRITER, MENNONET, ABNET, FISHNET, NAESNET.

One of the highpoints for UCHUG was the 32nd General Council of the United Church of Canada meeting in Victoria, British Columbia in August 1988. The Small Computer Committee became a communication function of General Council. David Lochhead and others sent out a number of dispatches, later published in a book, "General Council Online" [Lochhead, David, editor, "General Council Online", Computer Communication at the 32nd General Council, Vancouver, British Columbia, Small Computers in the Church Committee, 1988] .

This General Council became widely known through the debates on the issue of the ordaining of homosexual ministers. See United Church of Canada, Liberal causes. The notes from General Council were spread widely throughout Ecunet. The Rev. Curt Ackley of the United Church of Christ became a “Council Observer” and reported through the auspices of SCC and UCHUG.

After 1989, funds from the United Church of Canada for UCHUG were reduced. In place of a funded committee with two system operators for Ecunet, UCHUG was administered by the Rev. David Shearman, who also became the representative to the board of Ecunet, Inc. From 1997 to 2000, Eunice Wonnacott was designated to represent the United Church of Canada on the board of Ecunet Inc.

In 2006 the David Lochhead Institute for Religion, Techonology and Culture Society (IRTC) [ [http://www.religion-research.org/irtc/ Institute for Religion, Technology and Culture (IRTC)] ] was reconstituted and was incorporated. In October 2006, IRTC sponsored the David Lochhead Symposium [ [http://www.religion-research.org/virtualtheology The David Lochhead Memorial Symposium: The Spirituality of Cyberspace] ] at the Vancouver School of Theology.

Also in 2006, the United Church of Canada started a program entitled “The Emerging Spirit” to encourage the interest of people in the 30-45 age range. They set up [http://www.wondercafe.ca WonderCafe] as a place for discussion of “all things spiritual.” WonderCafe invites anyone to set up personal blogs.

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External links

* [http://www.united-church.ca/ United Church of Canada]
* [http://wondercafe.ca/ WonderCafe] , new website/discussion from UCC