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History: UCC History |
History of the United Church of Christ Congregations of the 17th century determined the politics and social organization of communities in New England. Only church members could vote at town meetings, and until 1630, one could become a church member only by the minister's endorsement. Puritanism was dominant. Biblical injunctions were specific guides for spiritual life and church organization; biblical law was common law. Puritans undertook a holy mission to demonstrate the "right way" to order church and society. John Cotton (1584-1652), a leading Puritan pastor, joined the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1633. His "True Constitution of a Particular Visible Church," describing Congregational life, organization and government, was read widely. As a result of reading Cotton's work, five members of the Presbyterian Westminster Assembly, "the Dissenting Brethren," would sign, in 1643, what was to become the manifesto of all Congregationalism, "An Apologetical Narration." While the independent Congregationalists had been struggling in New England to recover and maintain biblical faithfulness, a stream of German and Swiss settlers—farmers, laborers, trade and craftspeople, many "redemptioners" who had sold their future time and services to pay for passage—flowed into Pennsylvania and the Middle Atlantic region. Refugees from the waste of European wars, their concerns were pragmatic. They did not bring pastors with them. People of Reformed biblical faith, at first sustained only by family worship at home, they were informed by the Bible and the Heidelberg Catechism. Strong relationships developed between Lutheran and Reformed congregations; many union churches shared buildings. At first, there were no buildings and laymen often led worship. German immigrants had followed natural routes along rivers and mountain valleys, and Reformed congregations had emerged in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. The spiritual and financial health of these congregations were watched over by the Dutch Reformed Church in Holland, assisted by the German Reformed center at Heidelberg, Germany. A positive and vigorous reappraisal of Congregational history provided a rationale for denominational structures supported by the local congregation. In the democratic tendencies of their polity, Congregationalists discovered a remarkable affinity with emerging American nationalism. The polity that allowed for diversity appeared to be an ecclesiastical counterpart to the democratic polity of the nation itself. They rediscovered Cotton Mather's "unity in diversity" and by 1871 a new, corporate identity was asserted. Their unity lay in a commitment to the diversity produced and embraced by the polity itself—a commitment continued in the United Church of Christ today. An atmosphere of political and religious liberty created American denominationalism. Each denomination founded new institutions for education and mission. Before William Ellery Channing, a Congregational minister in Boston, had proclaimed his leadership of the Unitarian movement by preaching in 1819 his famous sermon, "Unitarian Christianity," the liberal professor of divinity at Harvard, Henry Ware, set off a controversy that sparked the establishment of the Congregational Andover Theological Seminary in 1808, a bulwark of Calvinist orthodoxy. This was the first of hundreds of new colleges and seminaries founded by Congregationalists in the 19th century. Of all the United Church of Christ traditions, the Christian Churches were most uniquely American in origin and character. In Virginia, Vermont and Kentucky, the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s motivated some of the members of different churches to return to the simplicity of early Christianity. This was the origin of the first churches founded in the United States—in other words, churches that were not imported from Europe to North America. These new churches were determined to overcome the confessional and ethnic barriers that divided the Protestant community into competing traditions: Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist, Anglican. So this was an early attempt to reunite the church, an "ecumenical" movement that preceded modern ecumenism by more than a century. They rejected denominational labels and simply called themselves "Christians." The first Christian congregations were gathered in 1794. They wanted frontier churches to be free to deal with problems that were different from those of older churches in the cities of the East. They declared that the Bible was their only guide and called for a simple faith free of the confessions and creeds. They believed in freedom of conscience subject only to the authority of Scripture. Far to the North, in Vermont, a Baptist named Abner Jones and his followers were independently coming to the same position. They organized the First Free Christian Church in Lyndon, Vermont. "Christian character" would be the only requirement for membership, and all were welcome to share in the Lord's Supper. Jones disagreed with his fellow Baptists that only those baptized by immersion could be invited to Communion. He was later joined by Baptist Elias Smith, who helped gather another Christian church in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and began publishing, in 1808, the Herald of Gospel Liberty. Smith's paper became a means of drawing the separate Christian movements together. With a minimum of organization, other churches of like mind were established and the movement became known as the "Christian Connection." The "Connection" had been organized in 1820 at the first United General Conference of Christians, during which six principles were unanimously affirmed: • Christ is the only head of the Church. • The Bible is sufficient rule of faith and practice. • Christian character is the only measurement for membership. • The right of private judgment, interpretation of scripture, and liberty of conscience. • The name "Christian" is worthy for Christ's followers. • Unity of all Christ's followers on behalf of the world. By 1845, a regional New England Convention was organized. Early in the 20th century, the Holy Spirit began to inspire a worldwide movement toward Christian unity. The United Church of Christ was, and is, only one part of this larger movement. The ecumenical movement calls the churches to restore their oneness in Christ either by uniting into larger bodies or by preserving their unique identities but linking with other churches in relationships of "full communion." Two world wars and religious sectarianism had made clear a need for the church to take seriously its responsibility as agents of God's healing, and in repentance, to acknowledge in its divisions a mutual need for Christ's redemption. The World Council of Churches—Protestant Anglican and Orthodox—met at Amsterdam in 1948 under the theme "Man's Disorder and God's Design." In 1961, it merged with the International Missionary Council. The Second Vatican Council at Rome, called by Pope John XXIII, met between 1962 and 1965 with a primary purpose of "peace and unity." At the end of the four-year council, Pope Paul VI prayed with non-Catholic Christian observers at an ecumenical service and resolved to "remove from memory" the events of A.D. 1054—the year of the Great Schism between the Western (Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) churches. A blend of autonomy and authority, the Evangelical and Reformed Church retained a Calvinist doctrine of the church as "the reality of a kingdom of grace," and the importance of order and discipline in its witness to the reign of God in the world. The Heidelberg Catechism. still at its heart, the new church would embody a synthesis of Calvin's inward sense of God's "calling" and Luther's experiential approach to faith. George W. Richards, the ecumenist first president of the new church, had expressed the insights of all Reformation streams by saying, "Without the Christ-like spirit, no constitution will ever be effective; with the spirit, one will need only a minimum of law for the administration of the affairs of the fellowship of men and women." In such a spirit the union proceeded without a constitution until one was adopted in 1938. The church's 655,000 members lived mainly in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Texas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri. Meanwhile, the practical act of consolidating Reformed and Evangelical programs, boards, organizations and publications went forward. The church addressed world-wide suffering during World War II with the War Emergency Relief Commission. The Hymnal (1941) and Book of Worship (1942) were published. Reformed missions in Japan, China, and Iraq were united under the Evangelical and Reformed Church Board of International Missions. New missions were undertaken through cooperative efforts in Ecuador, Ghana, and western Africa. The Messenger became the official church publication. Christian education resources soon followed. Organizations united. The Woman's Missionary Society united with the Evangelical Women's Union to become the Women's Guild. The union by the Congregational and Christian churches seemed the most natural in the world, yet most of their life together from 1931 to 1957 concerned the General Council with matters surrounding church union, first its own and then with the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Nevertheless, the work of the church continued. In 1934, the General Council, "stirred by the deep need of humanity for justice, security, and spiritual freedom and growth, aware of the urgent demand within our churches for action to match our gospel, and clearly persuaded that the gospel of Jesus can be the solvent of social as of all other problems," voted to create the Council for Social Action. The Council reflected the focus of continuing Christian concern for service, international relations, citizenship, the rights of Japanese-Americans, rural life, and political, industrial and cultural relations. The General Council had acted to simplify and economize at a national level the prolific and redundant independent actions by churches and conferences, while maintaining the inherent liberties of the local churches. State Conferences—led by "Superintendents" or "Conference Ministers"—responded to local church requests for pastors, published resources in Christian education, organized youth and adult conferences, and invited speakers on mission and social concerns. They received funds for mission, helped new churches and maintained ecumenical contacts. Printed literature and communication continued to be essential. In 1930, the Christian Church's The Herald of Gospel Liberty merged with The Congregationalist to become Advance. The Pilgrim Press, a division of the Board of Home Missions, continued to publish and distribute books, Christian education curriculum materials, monthly magazines and newspapers, hymnals, worship and devotional material, and resources for education and evangelism. Nationally, the Women's Fellowship connected the work initiated by women in the churches and the Pilgrim Fellowship provided a network of Christian youth. The Laymen's Fellowship enabled men to carry forward a cooperative ministry. On Tuesday, June 25, 1957, at the Uniting General Synod in Cleveland, Ohio, the Evangelical and Reformed Church, 23 years old, passionate in its impulse to unity, committed to "liberty of conscience inherent in the Gospel," and the Congregational Christian Churches, 26 years old, a fellowship of biblical people living under a covenant for responsible freedom in Christ, joined together as the United Church of Christ. The new church embodied the essence of both parents, a complement of freedom with order, of the English and European Reformations with the American Awakenings, of 17th-century separatism with 20th-century ecumenism, of Presbyterian with congregational polities, of neo-orthodox with liberal theologies. Two million members joined hands. In the church's first decade, racial and political unrest began to transform American society. The civil-rights movement came into its own led by men and women like the Rev. Andrew Young, a United Church of Christ pastor. The Vietnam War challenged America's confidence that its foreign and military policies were always guided by high moral purpose. These issues divided the United Church of Christ as they divided the entire country. But the tradition of social justice—with roots in the anti-slavery struggles of the mid-nineteenth century, and even earlier, in the Puritans' vision of a just community bound together by covenant—gave its members the courage they needed to face up to the changes that were transforming the world around them. In the 1970s and 80s, the nation's falling birthrate ended the church's postwar spurt of growth. The UCC's membership began to decline, and struggling congregations closed their doors. It was clear that the UCC, if it was to survive, needed to be more inclusive, more open, and more confident. Cultural, ethnic and racial traditions that were part of the UCC's "hidden history" claimed its attention. Members of the church began to realize how much they had to learn from the fervent evangelical spirit of its African American, Hispanic, Native American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, Asian and Hungarian congregations. Multiculturalism in the UCC was more than a confession of guilt for the sins of racism—although those sins were real enough; it was also an opportunity to see the face of Christ reflected in traditions that could breathe new life into the church. New traditions also began to find their voice. The first openly gay man called to the Christian ministry was ordained by the UCC's Golden Gate Association in San Francisco in 1972. The movement to open the church's doors to gay and lesbian Christians was as controversial in the United Church of Christ as it continues to be in other Christian denominations, and the controversy has by no means ended. But as more and more congregations became "open and affirming," and as predominantly lesbian and gay congregations were organized and received into the church, it became clear that yet another tradition was expanding our identity and enriching the life of our fellowship. Today, the identity of the United Church of Christ is not as clear-cut as it seemed to be in the 1950s. The theological debate in the church can no longer be labeled as "liberal versus neo-orthodox," a dichotomy that never was entirely accurate since conservative evangelicals, too, are part of our tradition. And what do the Reformation traditions of the church mean to the thousands of Roman Catholics who are joining our congregations? Certainly, our principle of freedom within covenant is a liberating experience for new members who find in our openness an alternative to the more authoritarian or hierarchical traditions they have left. But the gifts these "spiritual refugees" bring with them—the sacramental piety of the Roman Catholic tradition, for example, or the reverence for the Bible of the evangelical churches—can also deepen and broaden the faith of our community. We need them as much as they need us. The United Church of Christ is a blend of traditions that are as old as Judaism's proclamation of one God who is the creator and lover of earth and heaven. We are justifiably proud of this heritage, and want to hand it on to our children. But ours is a living tradition: God, in the words of the writer of the Book of Revelation, is a God who "is and who was and who is to come." When women and men from other Christian traditions—or those who have never before identified with any religious faith—join our churches, they are writing a new chapter in the history of the United Church of Christ. They are also the authors of our tradition, and so any book about the history of our church must necessarily remain unfinished until our Savior returns to establish for all time God's loving reign among the people God created. |
