UCC Story

For over 400 years, the United Church of Christ has been the church of firsts, weaving God’s message of hope and extravagant welcome with action for justice and peace. We are a church where Jesus the healer meets Jesus the revolutionary, and where together, we grow a just and peaceful world. In many ways, the story of the UCC parallels the story of the United States.

• We are the people of the Mayflower. More than 600 of our 5,700 congregations were formed before 1776.
• Eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence were members of UCC predecessor bodies.
• As early abolitionists, we came to the aid of the Amistad captives and founded hundreds of schools across the South after the Civil War.
• We were the first mainline church to ordain an African American (1785), a woman (1853), and an openly gay pastor (1972). We were also the first to form a foreign mission society (1810).
• Our multi-ethnic membership includes persons from every immigrant group, as well as native peoples and descendants of freed slaves.
• In the United Church of Christ, we believe that “God is still speaking.”