We are a merger of four denominations important to the history of the larger church and to the history of this nation.

We are the keepers of the spiritual heritage of: The German/Swiss Reformed Churches; the German Evangelical Churches; the Congregational Churches; and the Christian Churches.

Our parents of the faith were involved in their church and their world. They hosted the Boston Tea Party at the Old South Congregational Church in 1773; they hid the Liberty Bell beneath the floor in Zion Reformed Church in Allentown, PA when the British took Philadelphia in 1777.

Our founders established the first university in the New World when they founded Harvard in 1636. They began home missions work early. In 1653 a catechism book was printed in the language of the local Native Americans. In 1808 our church parents established the first regular religious publication in the world, the "Herald of Gospel Liberty". They were the first to enter into organized foreign missions with the founding of "The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions" in 1810. Not only was this the first foreign missions society in this country; it was also interdenominational.

We know for sure that they celebrated the first Thanksgiving (Pilgrims were the earliest Congregationalists) and we can only guess the influence our Reformed and Evangelical Churches had on the celebration of Christmas in this new land. At the end of the Civil War, when some were wondering what to do, our folks went out and founded over 500 schools and colleges for the newly freed slaves, now declared citizens.

We believe and teach: that Christians can think differently about matters of religious belief, and still worship and live harmoniously in a church fellowship.

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We welcome people of every race, color and culture in our membership. Our buildings come in many different architectural styles and our liturgies reflect our varied backgrounds. We are open and inclusive, in language and practice. In 1785 Lemuel Haynes would become the first African American person to be ordained to preach in a mainline Protestant denomination and the first to receive an honorary Master of Arts degree. Ordination of Antoinette Brown, the first woman ordained to ministry in the modern era, took place on September 15, 1853. The UCC ordained the Rev. William R. Johnson in June of 1972-the first openly gay person in history to become a Christian minister. Six years later, the first openly lesbian minister, the Rev. Anne Holmes, is ordained. From the 1970s on, General Synod supports equal rights for homosexual citizens, and calls on congregations to welcome lesbian, gay and bisexual members.

This means that as a church, we are not a melting pot where all become the same. Rather, we are more like vegetable soup, where each person brings to the pot that which he or she is, and contributes to it. The flavor comes from our differences.

In fact, we are a uniting church more than a united one. The United Church of Christ brings the great diversity and variety of local people and churches together in our common affirmation and worship of God in Jesus Christ.

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We of The United Church of Christ are united in our loyalty to Christ, and in our belief that this loyalty can be expressed in different ways, by different people.

To learn more about the many ways the United Church of Christ and its ancestors have lead social change, visit the extensive list of firsts on the national UCC website.