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Outdoor Ministry Association, UCC

United Church of Christ
United Church of Christ emblem.svg
Classification Protestant
Orientation Reformed
Polity Covenantal
Associations Churches Uniting In Christ
National Council of Churches
World Communion of Reformed Churches
World Council of Churches
Region United States
Headquarters Cleveland, Ohio
Origin 1957
Merger of Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches
Congregations 5,000
Members 880,383 members in 5,000 congregations (2016)
Official website www.ucc.org
Logo United Church of Christ logo.svg

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination, with historical confessional roots in the Reformed, Congregational and evangelical Protestant traditions, and "with over 5,000 churches and nearly one million members". The United Church of Christ is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Puritanism. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Reformed group in the country, the German Reformed. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC. These two denominations, which were themselves the result of earlier unions, had their roots in Congregational, Christian, Evangelical, and Reformed denominations. At the end of 2014, the UCC's 5,116 congregations claimed 979,239 members, primarily in the United States. In 2015, Pew Research estimated that 0.4 percent, or 1 million adult adherents, of the U.S. population self-identify with the United Church of Christ.

The UCC maintains full communion with other mainline Protestant denominations. Many of its congregations choose to practice open communion. The denomination places high emphasis on participation in worldwide interfaith and ecumenical efforts. The national settings of the UCC have historically favored liberal views on social issues, such as civil rights, LGBT rights, women's rights, and abortion. However, United Church of Christ congregations are independent in matters of doctrine and ministry and may not necessarily support the national body's theological or moral stances. It is self-described as "an extremely pluralistic and diverse denomination".


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