The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a Mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States. It is a United Protestant denomination that formed as the result of a merger of the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches, the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the Afro-Christian Convention, denominations which were themselves the result of earlier unions of churches in the Anabaptist, Congregational, Continental Reformed, Lutheran, and Restorationist traditions. The churches that came into the UCC through the General Council of Congregational Christian Churches can trace their historic roots back to the New England Puritans. Moreover, it also subsumed the third-largest Calvinist group in the country, the German Reformed.
The General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches, Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the Afro-Christian Convention, united on June 25, 1957, to form the UCC. The UCC has approximately 4,600 churches and 712,000 members.
The UCC maintains full communion with other Protestant denominations, and many of its congregations practice open communion. The denomination emphasizes participation in worldwide interfaith and ecumenical efforts. The national leadership and General Synod of the UCC have historically favored theologically liberal positions on issues such as gender, LGBTQ affirmation, and abortion. UCC congregations are independent in matters of doctrine and ministry and may not necessarily support the national body's theological or moral stances. Common theological traditions in the UCC include Liberal, Liberation, Progressive, Reformed, and Restorationist. The UCC self-describes as "an extremely pluralistic and diverse denomination", emphasizing Christian unity.
History
The United Church of Christ was formed when three Protestant churches, the Evangelical and Reformed Church, the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Afro-Christian Convention united on June 25, 1957. The vote on the resolution had no dissenting votes from the delegates gathered. This union adopted an earlier general statement of unity between the two denominations, the 1943 "Basis of Union". At the time, the UCC claimed about twomillion members.
On January 23, 1959, 30 theologians, pastors, and laymen finished writing the UCC's Statement of Faith. The UCC adopted its constitution and by-laws on July 4, 1961. The Constitution gives autonomy to local churches, and it provides for a representative-type of governance of regional and national church organizations. Prior to the vote, 3,669 of 4,036 Congregational churches voted to accept it. There were 367 Congregational Christian churches or about 9% that decided to stay out. Some of those churches challenged it in court, saying that it was contrary to traditional Congregational principles. Their court challenges were unsuccessful. The vote to adopt the Constitution and by-laws was unanimous among the delegates that met in Philadelphia on July 4, 1961.
The Afro-Christian Convention was a long-ignored "Fifth Stream" that had been neglected voice or visibility, resulting in an official apology from the denomination at the 2023 General Synod in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Beliefs
There is no UCC hierarchy or body that can impose any doctrine or form of worship onto the individual congregations within the UCC. While individual congregations are supposed to hold guidance from the General Synod "in the highest regard", the UCC's constitution requires that the "autonomy of the Local Church is inherent and modifiable only by its own action".
Within this locally focused structure, however, there are central beliefs common to the UCC. The UCC often uses four words to describe itself: "Christian, Reformed, Congregational and Evangelical". While the UCC refers to its Evangelical characteristics, it springs from (and is considered part of) mainline Protestantism as opposed to some doctrines in Evangelicalism. The word evangelical, in this case, more closely corresponds with the original Lutheran origins meaning "of the gospel" as opposed to the Evangelical use of the word. The UCC is generally theologically liberal, and the denomination notes that the "Bible, though written in specific historical times and places, still speaks to us in our present condition".
The motto of the United Church of Christ comes from John 17:21: "That they may all be one". The denomination's official literature uses broad doctrinal parameters, emphasizing freedom of individual conscience and local church autonomy.
Creeds and confessions The United Church of Christ does not make official use of any creeds or confessions of faith that are binding on its congregations or individual members. Despite its historic ties to Reformed Congregationalism, the UCC uses neither the Savoy Declaration nor the Cambridge Platform as governing or confessional documents. The UCC instead views creeds and confessions as "testimonies, but not tests of the faith".
The UCC does use its statement of faith written in 1959, however the denomination does not require congregations, ministers, or members to affirm its doctrines. The statement affirms belief in God the Father and Jesus Christ, creation of the world and of man by God, the desire of God to save all people from sin, that God's judgement and will is declared through prophets and apostles, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, the bestowment of the Holy Spirit, the church, baptism and the Lord's Supper, forgiveness of sins, and eternal life. However, the statement does not explicitly affirm Trinitarian doctrine, Jesus' virgin birth, belief in the Bible, or any Protestant distinctives. The denomination also uses a revised version written in 1976 by UCC president Robert V. Moss that made the statement's language more gender-inclusive by removing references to God as Father and removing exclusively masculine language to refer to God and humanity. It also changes the opening line from referring to Jesus as "our Lord Jesus Christ" to "Jesus our brother". Additionally, the denomination also uses a 1981 version of the statement written in the form of a doxology and a Spanish-language translation of the traditional version.
Marriage A 2005 resolution, "In support of equal marriage rights for all", was supported by an estimated 80 percent of delegates to the church's 2005 General Synod, which made the United Church of Christ the first major Christian deliberative body in the U.S. to endorse blessings of same-sex marriage. The resolution was one of 32 actions by the General Synod and other national bodies, beginning in 1969, to support civil rights for LGBTQ persons and urge their full inclusion in the life of the church.
On April 28, 2014, the UCC filed a lawsuit against North Carolina for not permitting same-sex marriage, the first faith-based challenge to same-sex marriage bans in the US. In the lawsuit, the church argued that prohibiting same-sex marriages violated the freedom of religion as the ban forced ministers supportive of same-sex marriage to not act on their beliefs.
Opponents included the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Puerto Rico (United Evangelical Church in Puerto Rico), three-fourths of which voted to withdraw from the UCC after the 2005 General Synod vote. The Biblical Witness Fellowship, a small conservative evangelical organization within the denomination, opposes the denomination's growing support for same-sex relationships.
Open and Affirming Coalition UCC brings together 1,743 churches and 8 seminaries in 2025 that support blessings of same-sex marriage.
Studies and surveys of beliefs In 2001, the Hartford Institute for Religion Research conducted a "Faith Communities Today" (FACT) study that included a survey of United Church of Christ beliefs. Among the results of this were findings that in the UCC, 5.6% of the churches responding to the survey described their members as "very liberal or progressive", 3.4% as "very conservative", 22.4% as "somewhat liberal or progressive", and 23.6% as "somewhat conservative". Those results suggested a nearly equal balance between liberal and conservative congregations. However, the self-described "moderate" group was the largest at 45%. Other statistics found by the Hartford Institute show that 53.2% of members say "the Bible" is the highest source of authority, 16.1% say the "Holy Spirit", 9.2% say "Reason", 6.3% say "Experience", and 6.1% say "Creeds".
David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, who has studied the United Church of Christ, said surveys show the national church's pronouncements are often more liberal than the views in the pews but that its governing structure is set up to allow such disagreements. Starting in 2003, a task force commissioned by General Synod 24 studied the diverse worship habits of UCC churches. The study can be found online and reflects statistics on attitudes toward worship, baptism, and communion, such as "Laity (70%) and clergy (90%) alike overwhelmingly describe worship 'as an encounter with God that leads to doing God's work in the world. "95 percent of our congregations use the Revised Common Lectionary in some way in planning or actual worship and preaching" and "96 percent always or almost always have a sermon, 86 percent have a time with children, 95 percent have a time of sharing joys and concerns, and 98 percent include the Prayer of Our Savior/Lord's Prayer." Clergy and laity were invited to select two meanings of baptism that they emphasize. They were also to suggest the meaning that they thought their entire church emphasized. Baptism as an "entry into the Church Universal" was the most frequent response. Clergy and laity were invited to identify two meanings of Holy Communion that they emphasize. While clergy emphasized Holy Communion as "a meal in which we encounter God's living presence", laity emphasized "a remembrance of Jesus' last supper, death, and resurrection".
Relationships with other denominations One of the UCC's central beliefs is that it is "called to be a united and uniting church". Because of this, the UCC is involved in Churches Uniting in Christ, an organization seeking to establish full communion among nine Protestant denominations in America. Currently, the UCC has entered into an ecumenical partnership with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and through A Formula of Agreement, signed in 1997, is in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Reformed Church in America. Internationally, the UCC has been in full communion with the Union Evangelischer Kirchen (Union of Evangelical Churches) in Germany since 1981. The UEK is an organization of 13 Reformed and United Landeskirchen (regional churches) within the federation of Protestant churches known as the Evangelical Church of Germany.
In 1982, the World Council of Churches (WCC) published "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry", a document that has served as a foundation for many ecumenical recognition agreements. As a WCC member church, the United Church of Christ issued a response as part of the process to work toward a statement of common theological perspectives.
On October 17, 2015, representatives of the United Church of Christ and the United Church of Canada came together in Niagara Falls, Ontario, to sign a historic full communion agreement. This agreement was approved at the 30th General Synod of the UCC and the 42nd General Council of the United Church of Canada in the summer of 2015 and signifies the mutual desire of both denominations to work in cooperation and openness in the areas of worship, mission, witness, ministry and the proclamation of a common faith. This agreement will allow the two denominations to recognize the validity of each other's sacraments and ordination of ministers and opens up the possibility of ministers being called to serve in congregations of either denomination.