Who is the UCC?

The United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 with the union of two Protestant denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Churches and the Congregational Christian Churches. The history of the United Church of Christ has revealed certain polarities, which the founders tried to hold together or at the very least balance for the sake of unity in the new denomination. The UCC’s motto can be seen on its denominational symbol: “that they may all be one.” Indeed the founding of the UCC was very much an effort to heal divisions within the Church with an eye toward unity of all Christians.

A Brief History of the UCC

Roots in Europe

The United Church of Christ follows the “congregational” model for church organization. Congregationalism emphasizes the autonomy of the local church and the voluntary fellowship of such churches for counsel. It regards church authority as inherent in each group.

The United Church of Christ owes its earliest roots to the Reformation and those that brought it about. John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English in 1382 so that all people could have access to it. John Hus claimed that Christ, not the Pope, was the head of the church. In 1517 Martin Luther nailed 95 theses of protest against certain doctrines and practices of the Roman Church to the door of the Wittenberg cathedral (these included anger about the sale of indulgences, wherein sins were forgiven through financial payments). Lutheran reform spread throughout northern Europe. Another movement, called “German Reformed,” differed from Lutheran churches with its avoidance of Catholic use of imagery and interpretation of the sacraments.

The Church of England began dealing with both Lutheran and Reformed theology in the 1550s. Later, England welcomed dissenters from Europe who had become steeped in Reform theology. Still greater reforms of England’s church were led by the Puritans, critical of too much ceremony and lack of discipline among the clergy, whose trust toward independent thought and church autonomy laid the foundations for Congregationalism (as well as the Quaker and Baptist traditions.)

Development in America

In North America, Congregationalism came on the Mayflower, with those fleeing religious persecution in the Netherlands, and later with Puritans suffering from persecution in England.

By the 1700s in America, Jonathan Edwards was responsible, through the “Great Awakening” movement, for a broad synthesis of science, philosophy, and religion in Congregational theology. He integrated with Reformed theology the world view of Isaac Newton, John Locke’s emphasis upon human experience, and Augustine’s concepts of spiritual enlightenment. In the 1800s, many congregational groups continued liberal theological trends, spawning an American Missionary association that contributed greatly to the education of African-American people in the United States, particularly after the end of the Civil War in 1865.

The “Christian Church,” one of this country’s congregationalist traditions, was most uniquely American in origin and character. The first group was gathered in Virginia by James O’Kelley, a Revolutionary War soldier, in 1794. O’Kelley and others had left the Methodist church in a dispute with its bishops, which they considered too autocratic. They wanted the frontier churches to be freed to deal with the needs and concerns that were different from those of the more established churches.

Subsequently, a similar movement began in New England and a third in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. This last group took the name “Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).” Today, this group is closely related to the United Church of Christ in an ecumenical partnership.

Congregationalists discovered a remarkable affinity for emergent American nationalism. The Congregationalist sensibility that allowed for diversity appeared to be an ecclesiastical counterpart to the democratic tendencies of the Nation itself. This commitment to unity in diversity continued with the formalizing of the United Church of Christ itself.

20th Century Events

In 1931, the National Council of Congregational Churches merged with the smaller group known as the Christian Church, and the name of the new fellowship was changed to Congregational Christian Churches. In 1934 the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches voted to create the Council for Social Action, out of concern for “justice, security, and spiritual freedom and growth, aware of the urgent demand within our churches for action to match our gospel, and clearly persuaded that the gospel of Jesus can be the solvent of social as well as of all other problems.”

Subsequently, committees began to work towards rapprochement between the General Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (a Presbyterian body) and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches, which was finalized in 1957 with 2 million members in nearly 7,000 churches, who called themselves The United Church of Christ.

United Amid Diversity

For the sake of that unity, given such diversity within our churches, much effort has gone into trying to live with the tensions of these various poles rather than trying to rid the church of them.

Some of the poles found in the UCC can be outlined as below.

Separate or purify - This is the polarity between reforming from within and leaving to form something more compatible. The Congregational Church was created by both the Puritans and the Pilgrims, both representing the two sides of this polarity. The Puritans who came to the “New World” wanted to create a church that would reform the Anglican Church of England. The Pilgrims, on the other hand, wanted to create a church that was new and separate from the Anglican Church.

Grace or works - This is the polarity found in the pilgrim/puritan approach to covenant. While both Puritans and Pilgrims believed in forming the church around a basic covenant, membership within the church was judged in one case by faith and in the other by behavior.

Freedom or fellowship - This is the polarity that is found between church freedom and the connectionalism between churches. All UCC congregations have autonomy to interpret and live the faith as they see it. They even have power to call and fire their own ministers. However, all UCC congregations also live in covenant with each other in Association. Associations live in covenant with each other in Conference. and Conferences live within covenants with each other in the National Synod. Associations, Conferences, and Synod meetings do not speak for the local congregations, but to them.

Piety or reason - This is the polarity found in the Great Awakening Movements and the Unitarian break-off from the Congregational Church. This tension is felt between those who look to enlightenment in the faith through human reasoning and those who define the faith more along the lines of a mystical experience of God.

Mission or refugee - This polarity speaks to how the church understands its purpose. The German Reformed and German Evangelicals together came to the New World seeking refuge from the political and religious wars in Europe and space to build the church, as they understood it. The Puritans of New England came on an “errand in the wilderness” seeking to build the church that would establish God’s kingdom in the New World.

Confessional or non-creedal - This polarity speaks to where the church finds in grounding for its ministry, worship, and mission. Both the German Reformed Church and the German Evangelical Church looked to the insight of the Protestant Reformers for guidance and direction in how to be God’s people. These congregations grounded themselves in the church’s history and tradition when starting their church in the New World. The Heidelberg Catechism, for example, was a tool that the German Reformed Church used to prepare people for membership in the church. This connection to the ancient confessions of the church was an antidote to the inflated individualism and experimentalism of the Great Awakening movements in the Congregational Church.

Minister as enabler or minister as spiritual authority - The German Reformed Church believed that the church existed where the minister was preaching and offering the sacraments. Reformed Congregations gave the minister power and authority as the spiritual leader of the community. On the other hand, the Congregationalists believe the church existed where the people gathered and believed that the minister should enable and empower the people to accept the calling and responsibility to be God. s people. As a result, they were more ambivalent about the minister’s authority and sought to restrict his power within the congregation. Evangelicals had a more collegial model, but the minister was still the authority. The Christian Church took a more egalitarian approach t. their understanding of the relationship of the minister and the congregation. ̵

Individual or community - This polarity speaks to the fact that some UCC congregations elevate the concerns of the individual conscience and integrity above the needs for the community. This tension exists with the Christian Churches that sought to elevate individual faith expressions over and against denominational identity. German Evangelicals, with their pietism over reason, tend in this direction also, although their Christocentric orientation proved to be a check on unfettered individualism. On the other hand, the German Reformed Church believed that the concerns of the community expressed in Word and Sacrament should shape, reform, and transform the individualism of pietism. (The description of these various polarities are taken from and adapted from a handout created by Rev. Gordon Forbes, a retired UCC minister in the Potomac Association. Rev. Forbes teaches polity and doctrine for church communities and all candidates working toward ordination in the UCC.) “The Symbol of the United Church of Christ” The emblem of the UCC is based on the ancient Christian symbol known as the cross of Victory or the Cross Triumphant. Traditionally, this symbol — the cross surmounted by the crown and all of it atop the orb — signifies the kingship of the risen Christ over the entire world. The orb, representing the world, is divided into three parts to signify Jesus’ command to his disciples: “You shall be witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” For the UCC, this emblem, rich in the traditions of the past and alive with hope for the future, is particularly appropriate.

Polarities found at Hope Church

Hope United Church of Christ is a reflection of the history of the denomination in that it too is trying to hold together and/or balance the tensions of many of these same polarities as well. Hope Church is a community of much diversity. We risk that diversity by being open to different styles of worship, inviting all people to share their gifts and ideas publicly with the congregation, and encouraging all people to make the community and the faith their own. Such direct empowerment of the laity obviously creates some tension as the laity tries to embody that ownership of the community and faith in various ways. It is important to note that Hope Church is not trying to rid itself of these tensions, but rather live within them as faithfully as it can so that all may come to worship God freely and be as open in that worship as possible.

UCC Symbol, What does it symbolize?

ucc-symbol-colored The symbol of the United Church of Christ comprises a crown, cross and orb enclosed within a double oval bearing the name of the church and the prayer of Jesus, “That they may all be one” (John 17:21). It is based on an ancient Christian symbol called the “Cross of Victory” or the “Cross Triumphant.” The crown symbolizes the sovereignty of Christ. The cross recalls the suffering of Christ, his arms outstretched on the wood of the cross for the salvation of humanity. The orb, divided into three parts, reminds us of Jesus’ command to be his “witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The verse from Scripture reflects our historic commitment to the restoration of unity among the separated churches of Jesus Christ.

Characteristics of the UCC

The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 with the union of two Protestant denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. Each of these was, in turn, the result of a union of two earlier traditions.

The Congregational Churches were organized when the Pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation (1620) and the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629) acknowledged their essential unity in the Cambridge Platform of 1648.
The Reformed Church in the United States traced its beginnings to congregations of German settlers in Pennsylvania founded from 1725 on. Later, its ranks were swelled by Reformed immigrants from Switzerland, Hungary and other countries.
The Christian Churches sprang up in the late 1700s and early 1800s in reaction to the theological and organizational rigidity of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches of the time.
The Evangelical Synod of North America traced its beginnings to an association of German Evangelical pastors in Missouri. This association, founded in 1841, reflected the 1817 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in Germany.

Through the years, other groups such as American Indians, Afro-Christians, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Volga Germans, Armenians, and Hispanic Americans have joined with the four earlier groups. In recent years, Christians from other traditions, including the Roman Catholic Church, have found a home in the UCC, and so have gay and lesbian Christians who have not been welcome in other churches. Thus the United Church of Christ celebrates and continues a broad variety of traditions in its common life.

The characteristics of the United Church of Christ can be summarized in part by the key words in the names that formed our union: Christian, Reformed, Congregational, Evangelical.

Christian - By our very name, the United Church of Christ, we declare ourselves to be part of the Body of Christ, the Christian church. We continue the witness of the early disciples to the reality and power of the crucified and risen Christ, Jesus of Nazareth.
Reformed. All four denominations arose from the tradition of the Protestant Reformers: We confess the authority of one God. We affirm the primacy of the Scriptures, the doctrine of justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers, and the principle of Christian freedom. We celebrate two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper (also called Holy Communion or the Eucharist).
Congregational. The basic unit of the United Church of Christ is the congregation. Members of each congregation covenant with one another and with God as revealed in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. These congregations, in turn, exist in covenantal relationships with one another to form larger structures for more effective work. Our covenanting emphasizes trustful relationships rather than legal agreements.
Evangelical. The primary task of the church is the proclamation of the Gospel or (in Greek) evangel. The Gospel literally means the “Good News” of God’s love revealed with power in Jesus Christ. We proclaim this Gospel by word and deed to individual persons and to society. This proclamation is the heart of the leiturgia?in Greek, the “work of the people” in daily and Sunday worship. We gather for the worship of God, and through each week, we engage in the service of humankind.

What we believe

We can tell you more about the United Church of Christ with the help of seven phrases from Scripture and Tradition which express our commitments.

That they may all be one. [John 17:21] This motto of the United Church of Christ reflects the spirit of unity on which it is based and points toward future efforts to heal the divisions in the body of Christ. We are a uniting church as well as a united church.
In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity. The unity that we seek requires neither an uncritical acceptance of any point of view, nor rigid formulation of doctrine. It does require mutual understanding and agreement as to which aspects of the Christian faith and life are essential.
The unity of the church is not of its own making. It is a gift of God. But expressions of that unity are as diverse as there are individuals. The common thread that runs through all is love.
Testimonies of faith rather than tests of faith. Because faith can be expressed in many different ways, the United Church of Christ has no formula that is a test of faith. Down through the centuries, however, Christians have shared their faith with one another through creeds, confessions, catechisms and other statements of faith. Historic statements such as the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Evangelical Catechism, the Augsburg Confession, the Cambridge Platform and the Kansas City Statement of Faith are valued in our church as authentic testimonies of faith. [See Faith for the complete texts of some of these testimonies.] In 1959, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ adopted a Statement of Faith prepared especially for congregations of the United Church. Many of us use this statement as a common affirmation of faith in worship and as a basis for study.
There is yet more light and truth to break forth from God’s holy word. This affirmation by one of the founders of the Congregational tradition assumes the primacy of the Bible as a source for understanding the Good News and as a foundation for all statements of faith. It recognizes that the Bible, though written in specific historical times and places, still speaks to us in our present condition. It declares that the study of the scriptures is not limited by past interpretations, but it is pursued with the expectation of new insights and God’s help for living today.
The Priesthood of All Believers. All members of the United Church of Christ are called to minister to others and to participate as equals in the common worship of God, each with direct access to the mercies of God through personal prayer and devotion.

Recognition is given to those among us who have received special training in pastoral, priestly, educational and administrative functions, but these persons are regarded as servants, rather than as persons in authority. Their task is to guide, to instruct, to enable the ministry of all Christians rather than to do the work of ministry for us.

Responsible Freedom. As individual members of the Body of Christ, we are free to believe and act in accordance with our perception of God’s will for our lives. But we are called to live in a loving, covenantal relationship with one another, gathering in communities of faith, congregations of believers, local churches.

Each congregation or local church is free to act in accordance with the collective decision of its members, guided by the working of the Spirit in the light of the scriptures. But it also is called to live in a covenantal relationship with other congregations for the sharing of insights and for cooperative action under the authority of Christ.

Likewise, associations of churches, conferences, the General Synod and the church wide “covenanted ministries” of the United Church of Christ are free to act in their particular spheres of responsibility. Yet all are constrained by love to live in a covenantal relationship with one another and with the local churches in order to make manifest the unity of the body of Christ and thus to carry out God’s mission in the world more effectively.

The members, congregations, associations, conferences, General Synod, and covenanted ministries are free in relation to the world. We affirm that the authority of God as revealed in Jesus Christ and interpreted with the aid of the Holy Spirit stands above and judges all human culture, institutions and laws. But we recognize our calling both as individuals and as the church to live in the world:

To proclaim in word and action the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To work for reconciliation and the unity of the broken Body of Christ.
To seek justice and liberation for all.

This is the challenge of the United Church of Christ.

Preamble to the UCC Constitution

One of the more important documents of faith for the UCC is the preamble to the UCC Constitution. In article 2 below you see a synthesis of the beliefs of the four denominations that merged to form the UCC in 1957. This document is one of the few places where the UCC puts into words what it actually believes. This is somewhat unique because the UCC gives power to the local church to define its own theological beliefs more often than it imposes universal doctrine upon the local church.

PREAMBLE

1. The United Church of Christ, formed June 25, 1957, by the union of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches of the United States in order to express more fully the oneness in Christ of the churches composing it, to make more effective their common witness in Him, and to serve His kingdom in the world, hereby adopts this Constitution.

2. The United Church of Christ acknowledges as its sole Head, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior. It acknowledges as kindred in Christ all who share in this confession. It looks to the Word of God in the Scriptures, and to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, to prosper its creative and redemptive work in the world. It claims as its own the faith of the historic Church expressed in the ancient creeds and reclaimed in the basic insights of the Protestant Reformers. It affirms the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this faith its own in reality of worship, in honesty of thought and expression, and in purity of heart before God. In accordance with the teaching of our Lord and the practice prevailing among evangelical Christians, it recognizes two sacraments: Baptism and the Lords Supper or Holy Communion.

United Church of Christ Statement of Faith

Adapted by Robert V. Moss

We believe in God, the Eternal Spirit, who is made known to us in Jesus our brother, and to whose deeds we testify:

God calls the worlds into being, creates humankind in the divine image, and sets before us the ways of life and death.

God seeks in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin.

God judges all humanity and all nations by that will of righteousness declared through prophets and apostles.

In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord, God has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the whole creation to its Creator.

God bestows upon us the Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races.

God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be servants in the service of the whole human family, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table,to join him in his passion and victory.

God promises to all who trust in the gospel forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace,the presence of the Holy Spirit in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in that kingdom which has no end.

Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto God.

Amen.