Who We Are
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 Lord's Supper or Holy Communion. -From the Preamble
to the Constitution of the United Church of Christ
Origins 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 denominations.
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 folk from Switzerland and other
countries.
The Christian Churches sprang up
in the late 1700's and early 1800's 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 beginning to an association of German Evangelical pastors in
Missouri.
This association, founded in 1840,
reflected the 1817 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in Germany.
Through the years, members of
other groups such as Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Volga
Germans, Armenians, Hungarians, and Hispanic Americans have joined with the four
earlier groups. Thus the United Church of Christ celebrates and continues a wide
variety of traditions in its common life.
Characteristics The characteristics of the United
Church of Christ can be summarized in part by the key words in the names of the
four denominations that formed our union: Christian, Reformed, Congregational,
Evangelical.
Christian: By our very
name, the United Church of Christ, we declare our self to be a 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 sixteenth-century 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 or Holy Communion.
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 evangel-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 liturgy, the work of the people. We gather each Sunday for the
worship of God, and through each week, we engage in the service of humankind.
