The religious heritage of the First Congregational United Church of Christ stems from the great traditions of the Protestant Reformation: Lutheran, Calvinist and Congregational. The Congregational and the Christian churches, stressing congregational freedom and a continuing reformation, united in 1931 to form the Congregational Christian Churches in America. The Reformed Church of the United States and the Evangelical Synod of North America, stressing liberty of conscience, authority of scripture and their common liberal German Protestant heritage, united in 1934 to form the Evangelical and Reformed Church in America. In 1957, these churches united to form the United Church of Christ. This same year First Congregational Church voted to join the merger, becoming the First Congregational United Church of Christ.
The characteristics of the United Church of Christ can be summarized in part by the key words in the names of the four denominations that formed our union: Christian, Reformed, Congregational, Evangelical.
Christian. By our very name, the United Church of Christ, we declare our self to be part of the body of Christ – the Christian Church.
Reformed. All four denominations arose from the tradition of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformers. We confess the authority of one God. We celebrate two sacraments: baptism and the Lord’s Supper or Holy Communion.
Congregational. The basic unit of the United Church of Christ is the congregation. Members of each congregation covenant with one another and with God as revealed in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Evangelical. The primary task of the church is the proclamation of the gospel, or evangel – the good news of God’s love revealed with power in Jesus Christ. We proclaim this gospel by word and deed to individual persons and to society.
That they may all be one. This motto of the United Church of Christ reflects the spirit of unity on which the church is based and points toward future efforts to heal the divisions in the body of Christ. We are a uniting church as well as a united church.
The symbol of the United Church of Christ comprises a crown, cross and orb enclosed within a double oval bearing the name of the church and the prayer of Jesus, "That they may all be one" (John 17:21). It is based on an ancient Christian symbol called the "Cross of Victory" or the "Cross Triumphant." The crown symbolizes the sovereignty of Christ. The cross recalls the suffering of Christ his arms outstretched on the wood of the cross for the salvation of humanity. The orb, divided into three parts, reminds us of Jesus' command to be his "witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). The verse from Scripture reflects our historic commitment to the restoration of unity among the separated churches of Jesus Christ.
History of the United Church of Christ
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