 |
Welcome
to the United Church of Christ—a community of faith
that seeks to respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ in word
and deed. The UCC was founded in 1957 as the union of several
different Christian traditions: from the beginning of our
history, we were a church that affirmed the ideal that Christians
did not always have to agree to live together in communion.
Our motto —"that they may all be one"—
is Jesus' prayer for the unity of the church. The UCC is one
of the most diverse Christian churches in the United States.
"What does the Lord require of you but to do justice,
and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."
[Micah 6:8]
"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the
greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: You
shall love your neighbor as yourself." [Matthew 23: 37-39]
Two words are often used to describe the United Church of Christ:
freedom and responsibility. We have been described as "a
church that is independent and subject to no temporal authority;
but equally a church that is the servant of all and minister
to everyone."
In today's world, where many voices compete for attention, it
is difficult separate wheat from the chaff, to discern essential
truth from passing fancy. Such discernment is a daily challenge
for members of the United Church of Christ. The basis for addressing
that challenge is clearly stated in the Constitution of the
UCC:
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.
Freedom, responsibility, and covenant form the core of the UCC
Constitution. These traits also impact individual members of
the UCC. Each member has the freedom and responsibility, with
the leading of God's Spirit, the use of one's mind, the devotion
of one's heart, and the guidance of the historic traditions
of the universal church, to work out a faith that is meaninful
to her or him.
Local churches are the foundational communities in the organization
of the United Church of Christ. There are more than 6,000 such
congregations, and while they share a common bond, they evolved
from different traditions. Those traditions include New England
Congregationalists, German Evangelical and Reformed heritages,
white American and African American Christian Churches, and
ethnic churches organized by the American Missionary Association.
They all came together as the United Church of Christ in 1957.
The UCC was begun as a united and uniting church. It's motto,
"That they may all be one," guides its leadership
in ecumenical and interfaith relations throughout the nation.
In addition the UCC, along with the Christian Church (Disciples
of Christ), has developed formal relationships with over seventy
international partnership churches in Africa, Europe, East Asia
and the Pacific Islands, Latin America and the Caribbean, the
Middle East, and Southern Asia. It is perhaps because of these
diverse backgrounds and relationships that we have come to value
two basic qualities of organizational life: covenant and dialogue.
Covenant is an essential part of the Church's theological understanding.
Just as God initiated a compact of mutual promise and obligation
with Israel, and just as Christ is the promise and bond of obligation
for Christians, so the Church is organized as a community built
upon mutual promises and obligations among diverse people. Covenant
is also a way of describing relationships within the whole created
order between nature and humanity, nature and God. These covenants
are expressed sacramentally through Baptism and Holy Communion,
or the Lord's Supper.
Dialogue continually renews covenant. It is in dialogue with
one another and with God that we are able to comprehend our
constantly changing world. As the UCC Constitution makes clear,
each generation of the Church is responsible for making its
historic faith its own. This means that the Church is always
in dialogue -- among its members in a wide variety of meetings,
with God in worship and prayer, and with the wider community
within which it lives. A Church that is called to be the servant
of all finds its ministry in dialogue with all.
Some years ago, a UCC pastor wrote an article entitled, "The
United Church of Christ: An Exasperating and Heady Mix."
We are many voices, and harmonizing these voices can at times
be perplexing. At its best, however, the UCC enters the 21st
century in faith, hope, and love, seeking even wider diversity
and a deeper understanding of God's purpose.
|
|
