UCC_LOGO

The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 with the union of two Protestant churches or “denominations.” They were the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. (More about them a little lower down.)

The U.C.C. is a progessive body which is often among the first to make stands against social and moral injustices or to be accepting of all God’s children. Our earliest predecessors sailed to the new world to find the freedom to follow the Word of God. History knows them as the Pilgrims. In the 1600s, our Congregational ancestors provided an early example of democracy in their governing structure. The early church also took historic stands against slavery, including our own Union Church being a stop on the Underground Railroad. We count among our honors, the ordination of the first African American pastor, the first woman pastor, and the first openly gay minister.

“God is still speaking!” That’s the motto that carries the United Church of Christ forward.

More information about The United Church of Christ

Find out more about our Beliefs

The Four Formative Branches of the U.C.C.

  • Congregational Churches

    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.
  • Reformed Church

    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.
  • Christian Churches

    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.
  • Evangelical Church

    The Evangelical Synod of North America traced its beginnings to an association of German Evangelical pastors founded in 1841 in Missouri. The Synod reflected the values of a union in 1817 between Lutheran and Reformed churches in Germany.