THE UNITED
CHURCH OF CHRIST - A RICH HERITAGE: It's only been fifty years since the United Church of Christ was formed by the merger of two traditions that trace their ancestry back to the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century. In its long history the UCC has been a pioneer of the faith, breaking new ground for mission and social justice. The UCC web site (www.ucc.org) details many of these "firsts." Seeking spiritual freedom, the Pilgrims arrived on the Mayflower and established the first colony in the new world based on democratic principles and a strong advocacy for freedom. The Rev. Samuel Sewell in the early 1700's led the first protests against slavery and laid the foundation for the abolitionist movement a century later. In 1773, Phillis Wheatly became the first African-American poet to be published, and in 1785 Lemuel Haynes was the first African-American ordained by a Protestant denomination. He became a world-renowned preacher and writer. In 1775, five thousand angry colonists gathered in the Old South Meeting House to demand repeal of an unjust tax on tea. Their protest inspired the first act of civil disobedience in U.S. historyCthe ABoston Tea Party." James O'Kelly gathered dissident congregations on the frontier who sought "liberty of conscience" and formed the "Christian churches" in opposition to authoritarian church government. Many leaders of the American Revolution were Congregationalists, including John Hancock, Paul Revere, the Adamses. So were eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence. Enslaved Africans seized control of the schooner Amistad in 1839 and fled to Connecticut where the ship's owners sued to have them returned as property. The case becomes a defining moment for the movement to abolish slavery. Congregationalists and other Christians organized a campaign to free the captives. Former president John Quincy Adams, a UCC forebear, tried the case before the Supreme Court which ruled the captives were not property, and the Africans regained their freedom. The first united church in American history came about when Reformed church people and Lutherans merged to become the Evangelical Church in 1840, while in Pennsylvania Philip Schaff and John Williamson Nevin started the Mercersburg movement to initiate a sacramental and liturgical revival in what was called a "Protestant Catholicism." In 1853, Antoinette Brown became the first woman since New Testament times to be ordained as a Christian minister. Today more than 60% of persons preparing for ministry in the UCC are women. The UCC has always demanded high standards of education and
has led the way with institutions of higher learning. Our ancestors
founded Harvard University in 1636 and Yale University in 1640,
Dartmouth in 1769 to provide education for Native Americans,
and Gallaudet, the first college for the hearing impaired. Today
there are forty-six colleges, universities, and theological seminaries
closely related to and founded by the United Church of Christ. Two of the theological giants of the 20th Century were Paul Tillich and Reinhold Niebuhr. Niebuhr is the author of the famous "Serenity Prayer:" "God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." Among other firsts for the UCC was the ordination of an openly gay man, William R. Johnson in 1973, and the first African-American leader of a racially integrated denomination, Joseph H. Evans. The United Church of Christ is committed to applying the teachings of Jesus in today's society and seeking social justice for all people.
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