Learn About the United Church of Christ

A Brief History of the UCC

The UCC is a relatively new denomination, founded in 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio. The national headquarters are still there. It was created with the merger of the Evangelical & Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. Each of those churches had in turn been created with mergers of other churches: From the earliest times, the churches which have become the UCC has been a church of firsts:

– 1777: The Liberty Bell is hidden from the British under the floorboards of Zion Reformed Church in Philadelphia

– 1785: The first African American ordained by Protestant Demonation: Lemuel Haynes

– 1839: Abolitionists like Congregationalist Joshua Leavitt work to free the slaves who revolted on the ship Amistad.

– 1853: Antoinette Brown is the first woman ordained as a Christian minister,

– 1889: The Deaconess Society, Home, and Hospital are all founded in St. Louis

– 1943: Reinhold Niebuhr, from Wright City, MO, preaches a sermon containing what we now know as the Serenity Prayer

– 1959: Everett Parker, of the UCC’s Office of Communication wins a court case against TV stations repressing news

– 1972: Ordination of the first openly gay minister – Rev. William R. Johnson.

– 1985: The General Synod adopts a resolution for churches to actively welcome members of the LGBT community into the church,

– 1993: The UCC apologies to the Native Hawaiians for their actions taken during 1820-50.

– 1995: The first hymnal is published that honors both male and female images of God: The New Century Hymnal

– 2005: A Marriage Equality Resolution supporting same gender marriage is adopted at the General Synod

Source: The United Church of Christ’s Firsts

For more about the history of the United Church of Christ, click here.