“Why I’m a Pastor in The United Church of Christ”
The UCC is not the faith tradition in which I was reared. I was originally a United Methodist. While both are Christian and mainline Protestant denominations that reflect a different value system than most evangelical or fundamentalist Christians, I felt that the UCC was a better fit for me personally.
The UCC is, I think rightly, regarded among all mainline Protestant denominations as the most progressive and liberal church in both its theology and its commitment to social justice issues. The UCC has roots in the USA all the way back to the origins of our country, but came into being as it is now from four different Christian denominations in 1957. We still consider ourselves a “uniting” denomination, and are open to joining other like-minded denominations in further unification of purpose and mission.
The UCC has a long legacy of firsts in the USA. Among those firsts are:
UCC Firsts
1620 | Pilgrims seek spiritual freedom
Seeking spiritual freedom, forebears of the United Church of Christ prepare to leave Europe for the New World. Later generations know them as the Pilgrims. Their pastor, John Robinson, urges them as they depart to keep their minds and hearts open to new ways.
1700 | An early stand against slavery
Congregationalists are among the first Americans to take a stand against slavery. The Rev. Samuel Sewall writes the first anti-slavery pamphlet in America, “The Selling of Joseph.” Sewall lays the foundation for the abolitionist movement that comes more than a century later.
1773 | First act of civil disobedience
Five thousand angry colonists gather in the Old South Meeting House to demand repeal of an unjust tax on tea. Their protest inspires the first act of civil disobedience in U.S. history—the “Boston Tea Party.”
1773 | First published African American poet
A young member of the Old South congregation, Phillis Wheatley, becomes the first published African American author. “Poems on Various Subjects” is a sensation, and Wheatley gains her freedom from slavery soon after. Modern African American poet Alice Walker says of her: “[She] kept alive, in so many of our ancestors, the notion of song.”
1785 | First ordained African American pastor
Lemuel Haynes is the first African American ordained by a Protestant denomination. In 1776, in the midst of the fight for liberty in which he enlists as a soldier, he writes a defense of the liberation of African Americans from slavery: “Liberty, Further Extended.”
1798 | ‘Christians’ seek liberty of conscience
Dissident preacher James O’Kelly is one of the early founders of a religious movement called simply the “Christians.” His aim is to restore the simplicity of the original Christian community. The Christians seek liberty of conscience and oppose authoritarian church government.
1810 | First foreign mission society
America’s first foreign mission society, the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM) is formed by Congregationalists in Massachusetts.
1817 | First school for the deaf
Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet introduces sign language to North America and co-founds the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. It’s the beginning of a movement that will transform the lives of millions of hearing-impaired persons.
1839 | A defining moment for the abolitionist movement in helping to free the “Amistad captives”
Enslaved Africans break their chains and seize control of the schooner Amistad. Their freedom is short-lived, and the ship’s owners sue to have them returned as property. The Supreme Court rules the captives are not property, and they regain their freedom.
1846 | First integrated anti-slavery society
The Amistad case is a spur to the conscience of Congregationalists and other Christians who believe no human being should be a slave. In 1846 Lewis Tappan, one of the Amistad organizers, organizes the American Missionary Association—the first anti-slavery society in the U.S. with multiracial leadership.
1853 | First woman pastor
Antoinette Brown is the first woman since New Testament times ordained as a Christian minister, and perhaps the first woman in history elected to serve a Christian congregation as pastor. At her ordination a friend, Methodist minister Luther Lee, defends “a woman’s right to preach the Gospel.”
1957 | Spiritual and ethnic traditions unite
The United Church of Christ is born when the Evangelical and Reformed Church unites with the Congregational Christian Churches. The new community embraces a rich variety of spiritual traditions and welcomes believers of African, Asian, Pacific Islander, Latin American, Native American and European descent.
1959 | Historic ruling that airwaves are public property
Southern television stations impose a news blackout on the growing civil rights movement, and Martin Luther King Jr. asks the UCC to intervene. Everett Parker of the UCC’s Office of Communication organizes churches and wins in Federal court a ruling that the airwaves are public property.
1972 | Ordination of first openly gay minister
The UCC’s Golden Gate Association ordains the first openly gay person as a minister in an historic Protestant denomination: the Rev. William R. Johnson. In the following three decades, the UCC’s General Synod urges equal rights for homosexual citizens.
1973 | Civil rights activists freed
The Wilmington Ten are charged with the arson of a white-owned grocery store in Wilmington, N.C. One of them is Benjamin Chavis, a UCC missionary and community organizer. Convinced the charges are false, the UCC’s General Synod raises more than $1 million to pay for bail.
1976 | First African American leader elected
General Synod elects the Rev. Joseph H. Evans president of the United Church of Christ. He becomes the first African American leader of a racially integrated mainline church in the United States.
2005 | Marriage equality
On July 4, the General Synod overwhelmingly passes a resolution supporting same-gender marriage equality. UCC General Minister and President John Thomas says that the Synod “has acted courageously to declare freedom, affirming marriage equality, affirming the civil rights of same gender couples…”
2023 | First woman and first woman of African descent elected as General Minister and President
General Synod elects the Rev. Dr. Karen Georgia A. Thompson as the General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. Rev. Thompson became the first woman and first woman of African descent to serve as leader of the denomination.
Beyond their individual instances of working for equality of all people, collectively these firsts of the UCC speak to the spirit of inclusion, commitment to justice, and promotion of peace and good will that many find affirming regardless of their religious heritage.
We are a non-creedal church, meaning that there is no litmus test or profession of faith you must assert in order to become a member of our church. We emphasize right actions and practices over right beliefs and doctrines, trusting that we are known more by our behavior than our profession of faith.
We are very diverse in theology: ranging from people who would call themselves atheists to those who are more comfortable with more conservative viewpoints. Some, like myself, reject hierarchical, sexist, racist, and speciesist language in our practices within the local church while affirming egalitarian and inclusive language, while other practice varying degrees of such less egalitarian and inclusive language. Some organize their services, as do I, in accordance with values-based thinking and philosophy, while others do so with more belief-based thinking and theology. Many, also like me, use mythopoetic and metaphorical ways of thinking to interpret sacred texts combined with the historical-critical methods of Biblical criticism, and fewer use more literalistic and historical approaches.
We represent a wide swath of thought about religious, ethical, spiritual, and political matters, but we are encouraged to respect people with differing perspectives – even if we can’t always respect the perspectives themselves. We largely believe that we are all created as beings with sacred worth and inherent dignity who are deserving of moral considerability by all, given that we are all siblings one another. Fewer, like myself, extend this reverence for life to other species; not just humans, and even to the earth itself.
We are diverse in our commitment to social and environmental justice issues as well. We stress the importance of each person living responsibly and accountably in accordance with their conscience as they best understand what it means to be a person of faith. But overall, our denomination has strongly sided with what most progressives and liberals would consider as “being on the right side of history.” Again, we emphasize our faith as a way of life, not merely a matter of beliefs. We strongly attest that we are to put our faith into action for the good of others and the world itself.
There is a deemphasis of hierarchy in the UCC, as well as an emphasis on personal ethics conjoined with covenantal relationship with others at every level of governance in the UCC – which starts with the individual, then to the local church, then from a regional Association of churches, then from a statewide or multi-state Conference of churches, and lastly from the nationwide and worldwide gathering known as a Synod that meets every other year and has delegates from the various Conferences. No part of the church can command any other part of the church to do as it pronounces – meaning that we strongly reject authoritarian practices. We believe that we are all to responsibly and accountably live by our consciences at each level of the church – from individual to Synod.
While predominantly White, we also have important parts of our denomination that are Black, Latino, Asian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous or 1st Nation peoples, and others. We seek to counteract colonialism and histories of oppression, and are becoming more antiracist as we learn more about the experiences of traditionally oppressed groups in our world. We strive to be more ecumenical and religiously pluralistic – seeing the value of other religious and nonreligious perspectives, engaging in dialogue with others, and seeking to understand the limitations of our own perspectives while learning how we can be better siblings of one another in this wonderfully diverse world.
Your questions are welcome.
Rev. Bret S. Myers
March 17, 2025