United Church of Christ

The United Church of Christ ( United Church of Christ, UCC) is a church in the United States, 1957 through the merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church ( Evangelical Reformed Church ) Congregational Christian Churches and the ( Congregational Christian Churches ) was born. You will be counted in the United States to the mainline Churches.

According to the Yearbook of the UCC of 2006, the church has about 1.08 million church members and about 5,287 local congregations.

History

The origins of the Congregational Christian Churches extend to the Pilgrims, the Plymouth Colony established in 1620, and the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony back who came in 1629 and 1630 to America and founded the city of Boston. The organizing principle of both groups was the Congregationalism.

The other branch of the UCC was fed by two waves of emigration German Protestants and their church foundations: the Reformed Church in the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America, which was the American variety of the Evangelical Church in Prussia.

Thus, some of the oldest Protestant churches in the United States are affiliated with those whose traditions have arisen from other countries, and only got through the immigration in the 18th and 19th centuries to America in the UCC.

Self-understanding

The UCC describes herself with four tags: christian, reformed, Congregational and Evangelical. Under these headings the local communities enjoy great freedom in the design of worship, community life and religious rules.

The motto of the UCC is found in John 17, 21: "That they all may be one. " Principles of UCC are broad and emphasize the freedom of conscience and the autonomy of local communities. In their entirety, the UCC is regarded in the U.S. as a moderate or liberal Christian church. The 25th General Synod of the UCC spoke on 4 July 2005 in Atlanta by a large majority as the first major church in the United States in favor of the same-sex marriage should be allowed .. Then, the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Puerto Rico, since 1931, decided a Conference (Regional Synod ) of the Congregational Christian Churches and the UCC was a three-quarters majority of the leakage from the UCC.

Since the mid- 1990s, the church office is located in Cleveland, Ohio.

The theology of the UCC was influenced by Reinhold Niebuhr and Paul Tillich, the church members of the predecessor churches of the UCC and were in the UCC since 1957.

Ecumenical Relations

The UCC is a member of the World Council of Churches, the World Communion of Reformed Churches and the National Council of Churches of the United States. She is a founding member of the Churches Uniting in Christ.

Full communion was with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ( ELCA ), the Reformed Church in America and the agreed Presbyterian Church ( USA) in the Formula of Agreement. Corresponding agreements were also with the Union of Evangelical Churches ( ICE) in Germany and met Christian Church ( Disciples of Christ ) in the context of the ecumenical partnership. 2009 aims to UCC church fellowship with the German Evangelical Church.

With the Alliance of Baptists, a permanent dialogue is conducted.

Known members of the United Church of Christ

Theologians and activists

  • William Sloane Coffin, pastor and peace activist
  • Reinhold Niebuhr, theologian, philosopher and political scientist
  • Richard Niebuhr, theologian
  • Paul Tillich, theologian and philosopher of religion
  • Andrew Young, Civil Rights Activist
  • Bill Moyer († ), civil rights activist and writer
  • Graylan Hagler, pastor, peace and civil rights activist

Politician

  • Jon Corzine, Governor of New Jersey
  • Howard Dean, the party chairman of the U.S. Democrat and former governor of Vermont
  • Barack Obama, 44th President of the United States of America ( for making racist remarks of the pastor of his home church resigned )

Other

  • Bill Gates, entrepreneurs
  • Oprah Winfrey, TV host

Council for Higher Education

The UCC maintains a Council for Higher Education, which serves a liaison role between 46 universities and the UCC. Membership in the Council assumes one of two forms: Full members are denominational colleges that are committed to furthering the objectives of the UCC and the Christian faith; historical members recognize their membership to their historical connection to the UCC or any of its predecessor churches, but are usually denominational affiliations. Among the historical members include prominent liberal arts colleges such as Beloit College, Carleton College, Franklin and Marshall College and Grinnell College, as well as universities with a tradition that is particularly committed against African-Americans, such as Fisk University.

Union Evangelischer Kirchen Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Evangelical Church in Germany Walter Brueggemann
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