“United is Our First Name”

June 17, 2007
By

The Reverend Doug Hodges

Someone who was there at the time remembers Tuesday, June 25 as a warm sunny day in Cleveland Ohio. Delegates from the Congregational Christian Church and Delegates from the Evangelical Reformed Church formed two lines facing each other. When the two line came to the pathway leading to the meeting place, the two long lines joined together to form one long line.

Inside the meeting place 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 responsive freedom in Christ joined together as the United Church of Christ.

That description was written by Norm Bucher, a delegate to that United General Synod that gave birth to the United Church of Christ. By the way, Norm’s wife was my first wife’s high school English teacher.

This morning we are continuing a series of sermons, “What is the United Church of Christ. In particular this morning I am going to talk about, “What does it mean to be “United,” because in the United Church of Christ, “United” is our first name.

The process of creating the United Church of Christ began as early as 1937 with what I believe was a Bible study group of Evangelical and Reformed Clergy and Congregational Christian clergy in the St. Louis area. As their fellowship proceeded, the clergy realized there were many common areas between these two recently formed denominations. In 1942, a formal proposal was made to the two national bodies. Then followed 7 years of discussions and 10 drafts of a document called the “Basis of Union.

The essential difference between the two denominations was the question of church government. The Evangelical and Reformed church was organized by Synods, which are groups of congregations like our present day Conferences. Bishops ruled over the Synods. The Synod owned the church property and no congregation could withdraw from the Synod without losing its property. On the other hand, the Congregational Christian Church practiced “self-government” or “congregational government.”

The agreement that was worked out provided for self governing congregations, with a national structure to offer support to, but not dictate to the local churches. I’ll say more about what this means in the United Church of Christ in a few minutes.

But let’s move the story of the union along. Every thing was set for a merger in 1950. Then several congregational churches brought law suits against the Congregational Christian church claiming they would lose their autonomy in the merger. Eventually the courts ruled that the union “would in no way change the historical and traditional patterns of individual Congregational Christian churches” and that none would be coerced into union (page 44 History and Program United Church of Christ)

In the Evangelical and Reformed Church a vote was taken on the proposed union by synods. All but one of the synods approved the merger and joined the new denomination. However, in the Congregational Christian Church the procedure was that each congregation voted on the merger. Some congregations representing about 100,000 members voted not to participate in merger. They became the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches.

Finally all obstacles were over come. On that warm sunny day in Cleveland, June 25, 1957, delegates from the Evangelical and Reformed Church stood side by side with delegates from the Congregational Christian Church and the United Church of Christ was born.

What was the point of all those meetings and even the law suits and the frustrations that went into the merger? Well some might point to the benefits of a larger organization. Some might say there were more things the two churches could do together than apart. But I think the real reason had to do with the basis question: What is the nature of the Church of Jesus Christ.

You see, my friends, the Church of Jesus Christ is body of Christ. The body may have different arms and legs and eyes and ears and heart. There is only one body, that is the body of Christ and we are all part of that body—working together.

The Church as only One Lord and that Lord is Jesus Christ. There is one faith, even though we may disagree about many of the particulars that faith.

There is also One baptism, even though we though we may practice different modes of baptism such as sprinkling or immersion and even though we may disagree as to where along one’s spiritual pilgrimage baptism should be administered—there is only one baptism and that is Christian baptism.

There is only one Holy meal, even though we may have different understandings of what take place when we receive the elements. It is still the Lord Supper or Holy Communion. And it is not around our table that we gather. It is the Lord’s Table.

Yes there is one church, which is the body of Christ, on faith, one baptism, and one Lord who prayed that, “They may all be one.”

That spirit of Oneness was very big in 1957. Indeed, as I understand the vision of those folk who created the United Church of Christ, their vision was not simply to merge two denominations, but to actually form a United Church in the United States that could bring together as many parts of Christ’s church as possible. Indeed the document which spells out how this merger would come about declared that its participants were ready to “die, if need be, as a denominations” for the sake of the oneness of the church. (United & Uniting page 7)

Many no doubt envision that the United Church of Christ would soon die to make way for a super united church that would bring together most of the mainline denominations.

But it didn’t happen that way. Too many problems. Too many denominational headquarters that would have to close. Too many traditions to overcome. Too many people not willing to let go of “their church?” Too many real differences. All this by the way was just among the denominations we call “mainline churches.” These are churches that more or less look like us and smell like us. What about churches in West Virginia, who have substituted an affirmation of faith with the handling of poisonous snakes. Why there are some of us, like my wife, who wouldn’t even want to invite a harmless black snake to church, much less a rattlesnake! So, for some reason, the ecumenical movement, even in its hay day—never got around to talks with snake handling churches.

Is the ecumenical movement dead? No. But I believe it has done some morphing. A large super church such as our founders envisioned is probably not going to be. But the movement has continued in other forms. Other denominations, such as the Methodists and Presbyterians and Lutherans have had mergers. The UCC and the Disciples of Christ talked about a merger in the 1980’s. The merger never came about. But we did develop a partnership agreement with the Disciples. This agreement means the two denominations merged their overseas missions and we automatically grant standing to clergy of one denomination in the other denomination.

So far we’ve talked about United. The United Church of Christ is a united Church.

But we are also a Church of Christ. Part of our understanding of what it means to be Church of Christ means that we are also a church that advocates individual freedom in Christ. We are also prophetic church that hears the voice of a still speaking God on issues of peace and social justice. Sometimes we welcome people that other churches would not welcome and accept. Sometimes we take stands that other Christians churches would take.

Does being united mean we quit being prophetic in order to be acceptable to other Christian Churches? Does being united mean we restrict our stand on individual freedom to accommodate the feelings of other churches or even the more conservative members of our own denomination? I will say more about the UCC as a prophetic church and a church that advocates individual freedom next week. But so there is no misunderstanding, let me say my answer to these questions is an emphatic No! We are the United Church of Christ. But being united does not mean we sacrifice the voice of our still speaking God for the sake of unity.

There is something else I need to say about being a United Church. Being united does not destroy the role of the congregation. I mentioned the nature of our church government a few minutes ago. But let me elaborate.

The United Church of Christ has national offices that support the work of the congregations and a General Synod which meets every two years and considers matters of concern to the whole church like the resolution on marriage equality passed by the last General Synod. But the General Synod has no authority to order local churches to do anything. We also have conferences like the Central Atlantic Conference which have staff to help local congregations to do things that would be hard for a local congregation to do by itself. And we have Associations, like the Potomac Associations. Associations usually do not have paid staff. They are served by conference staff—such Kauma Osei Reed and by officers and committees elected from the congregations. One of the primary functions of an association is to examine and ordain clergy.

But important as the General Synod, the national offices, the conference, and the association are to the United Church of Christ—nothing is more important to the United Church of Christ, than the local congregation. The local congregation is the foundation of the United Church of Christ. The local congregation owns its own property, chooses its own name, hires its own clergy, decides how to spend its money including how much it will spend to support the wider church, and the local congregation can also choose to leave the United Church of Christ, taking its property with it. About the only infringement the conference might have on a local congregation would be a case where the conference loaned congregation money for a church property.

Now, before closing, I would like to say just a little bit about our name. In the past few years our denomination has put a lot of money into “branding” our name. You will frequently note the United Church of Christ is written with UNITED CHURCH in all caps and of Christ written in smaller letters under United Church. Usually the color is red or black.

Another part of our “branding” has been a national advertising campaign identified the United Church of Christ as a tolerant and open group of people. The fact that ABC, NBC, and CBS banned one of ads brought us immense and positive publicity—much more publicity than we could ever have afforded in paid advertising.

Long ago our Lord Jesus Christ gathered is disciples together in prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. Many things were on his mind as he prepared to leave his disciples. He knew something about human nature. He knew that sometimes his disciples did not always get along with each other. And he knew that in the future, his followers would not always see eye to eye. Yet he had a prayer. A simple prayer. A powerful prayer.

I ask not only on behalf of these—that is the disciples—but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word—that is us. “May they all be one,”

If these words sound familiar to you, there is a reason. Look on the cover of your bulletin.

We are the United Church of Christ. United is our first name.

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