By Susan Wordal
I live in a house with historians. I don’t know what you all live with, but I learn quite a bit about the ancient history of things and the mythology of ancient times because my historians are students of those things. Anything after Christopher Columbus (whose name is “Mud” in our house!) is just not as interesting to my historians.
The curious thing is, when they went through confirmation class, I realized I knew more about the history of the United Church of Christ (UCC) than they did, and still do. But then I went to the national UCC website and started reading, and realized my knowledge is a rather overly condensed version of reality. But it’s fun to read about these things…
The UCC grew from followers of Jesus some centuries ago. (the website story says 20 centuries. That’s a LONG time, but since we began using “20XX” for the date, I guess it is 20 centuries ago! Time flies.) Our journey took us through the Reformation, teachings by Luther and Calvin that our salvation is a gift, not something we must work to “earn”, and the journey of the Pilgrims to the shores of North America.
I’ve always understood that our UCC origins were through the Puritans in North America. To read about them is to discover that this faction was named in 1563 because they sought to “purify” the church. They spent their time criticizing the Anglican church liturgy, ceremonies and the lack of discipline despite their rhetoric, particularly the clergy. (A case of do as I say not as I do??) Despite the Puritans’ criticisms, they remained part of the Church of England.
The “Congregational Way” was born in 1567, and they were known as “the Privye Church”. They began meeting in clandestine ways to avoid persecution. The first conspicuous advocate of Congregationalism in England was in 1581 through Robert Browne, an Anglican priest who espoused the conviction that “the only true church was a local body of believers who experienced together the Christian life, united to Christ and to one another by voluntary covenant.” [Any of this sounding familiar?]
A group often called Separatists traveled in a round-a-bout way from England to Holland to the New World aboard the Mayflower in 1620. (if you think I’m leaving a few details out, you’re correct, but if you’ve read this far, why not go a little farther?) They drew up and signed the Mayflower Compact forming a small colony or a “Civil Body Politic” for laws and regulations. Other factions of the Puritans or Separatists also traveled to the New World and extended to a new church in Salem “the right hand of fellowship”.
The Puritan hold on politics and membership in the church would be challenged in 1634 by Anne Hutchinson. Her influence and her “voluble tongue” influenced Congregational practice and theological thought, ultimately leading to a crack in the rigid righteous shell of Massachusetts Puritanism. Others would eventually create additional cracks in the Puritan foundation.
As you can see, as the teachings of Christianity, and the advocacy of equality before Jesus and God became increasingly taught and accepted, the hold by the Puritan Church began to weaken. Other bodies of faith have their own stories which are interwoven with those of the Congregationalists. In the 19th Century there was a movement to create denominations, a movement away from the unconcern for sectarian labels of the previous century. Congregationalists withdrew from the Presbyterian Synod in 1852 and united under a national organization for the first time.
The history is fascinating and reads like the history of the United States at times. The interrelated aspects of the many bodies which came to make up the United Church of Christ is at times inspirational and yet frustrating. For every step forward there were two steps back or sideways. There are glimpses of amazing courage and foresightedness. Women were accepted in ministerial roles in various factions of the precursors to what is now the UCC, as were people of color, and people who would later be identified as LGBTQ+. The UCC was “born” on Tuesday, June 25, 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio, when “…the Evangelical and Reformed Church, 23 years old, passionate in its impulse to unity, committed to “liberty of conscience inherent in the Gospel,” and the Congregational Christian Churches, 26 years old, a fellowship of biblical people under a mutual covenant for responsible freedom in Christ, joined together as the United Church of Christ.” https://www.ucc.org/who-we-are/about/history/
I’ve always said, the church I know was born from the death of the Puritan Church. Maybe that’s not quite accurate (and maybe a little biased, since they are more associated with the whole “witch-burning” thing with which I have a decided problem), but the history of the UCC is a history which, while having some not so stellar moments, is a history which should instill its members with no small amount of pride in the obstacles we have overcome and the forward thinking espoused by this denomination.
The history is a lesson in our ability to persevere and overcome. It’s a lesson we should draw upon given the current climate. We’ve been here, and we can weather this storm, too, with the help of God