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The Congregational churches trace their origins to the separatist "Pilgrims" who established Plymouth Colony in 1620, and to the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who landed in 1629 and 1630 and settled Boston, whose organizing principle is Congregationalism, and to two waves of German Protestantism: the Reformed Church and the Evangelical Synod , which itself was the American expression of a uniting Prussian church. The UCC therefore unites one of the earliest Protestant denominations in the United States with various other Reformed traditions that sprang up in the United States in the 1700s and 1800s.
The UCC uses four words to describe itself: Christian, Reformed, Congregational, and EvangelicalEvangelical has several distinct meanings: In its original sense, it means belonging or related to the Gospel (Greek: euangelion good news) of the New Testament. In the United States, it usually refers to adherents of Evangelicalism. In Europe, especially. This gives individual congregations a great deal of freedom in the areas of worship, congregational life, and doctrine.
The motto of the United Church of Christ comes from John 17:21: That they may all be one. The UCC uses broad doctrinal parameters, emphasizing instead freedom of individual conscience and local church autonomy. As a whole it is considered a liberal Christian denomination in the United States, although some individual UCC congregations can be very conservative.
The UCC is in partnership with the Disciples of ChristThe Disciples of Christ also known as the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ or simply as the Christian Church is a denomination of Christian Protestantism based on the teachings of Thomas Campbell and Alexander Campbell of Pennsylvania and Barton W. and the Alliance of BaptistsThe Alliance of Baptists is a fellowship of Baptist churches and individuals. The Alliance was formed in 1987, by congregations that separated from the Southern Baptist Convention during the 1980s fundamentalist/ modernist controversy. Emphasis is placed. It is also a founding member of Churches Uniting in ChristChurches Uniting in Christ (CUIC) brings together nine mainline American denominations (including both predominantly white and predominantly black churches), and was inaugurated on January 20, 2002. CUIC is the successor organization to the Consultation o. The UCC is in a full communionFull communion is a mutual recognition between Christian churches or denominations that the partner churches hold "the essentials of the Christian faith". It includes mutual recognition of members common celebration of the Lord's Supper/Holy Communion/Euc agreement with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in AmericaThe Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or ELCA is a mainline Protestant denomination headquarted in Chicago, Illinois. With more than 5 million members, it is the largest and most liberal of the three main Lutheran denominations in the US. The next tw (ELCA), the Reformed Church in AmericaThe Reformed Church in America is a Calvinist Protestant denomination that was formerly known as the Dutch Reformed Church . Its oldest group of congregations, known as the Collegiate Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, is the oldest Protestant church with, and the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA).
The United Church of Christ is an organizational member of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, which advocates gun control.