The United Church of Christ (ucc.org) is a small group of churches, known as a denomination, of about 1.5 million members. The UCC began when, in 1957, the Congregational Church, Christian Church (Disciples), Evangelical and Reformed Churches combined to form the United Church of Christ.
The UCC comes out of the “Reformed” tradition. That refers to the movement that came from Martin Luther and others seeking to change the way the Church was doing things in their day. Many denominations today such as the Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian denominations, came out of this Reformed movement. Our way of believing is somewhat similar to these groups, yet our views tend to be quite a bit more liberal than most other churches.
We have been leaders in issues of peace and justice for many, many years. For example, in 1785 we ordained the first African American pastor, Lemuel Haynes; in 1839 we worked to free the victims of the Amistad disaster as a part of the abolitionist movement; in 1853 we ordained Antoinette Brown as the first known female pastor since New Testament Times; in 1972 we ordained the first openly gay pastor, William R. Johnson; we founded Yale and Harvard; and much, MUCH MORE.
To see more about our firsts in civil rights and peace and justice, go to the UCC Firsts section of the UCC home page OR come join us as we seek to be a part of doing what is right in this world at Creative Spirit, UCC!
