St. Paul's United Church Of Christ
Who We Are
 |
 |
 |
We Are
We are people of God’s extravagant welcome.
We, following the example of Jesus, do not turn people away.
We are a uniting as well as a united church.
We come from many faiths and backgrounds.
We are a variety of ages, ethnicities, and sexual orientations.
We are strivers for justice and peace as were Jesus and the Old Testament prophets.
We Believe
God is still speaking.
God didn’t stop speaking at the end of the Bible.
God speaks through other people, nature, music, art, science, and the Bible.
Our faith is over 2,000 years old, our thinking is not.
We have the freedom and responsibility to engage the Bible with our experiences, questions and ideas.
Christ is the head of our church.
Our Mission
To create a nourishing Christian community where God’s love is expressed to each other, to our surrounding communities, to our nation and to the world
Our History
St. Paul’s founded in 1973 is part of a spiritual tradition which began in 1600’s with the Pilgrims who, seeking religious freedom, left Europe for the New World. Their Pastor, John Robinson, urged them to keep their minds and hearts open to new ways. God, he said “has yet more light and truth to break forth out of his holy Word.” The Congregational churches founded by the Pilgrims along with three other traditions – Christian, Evangelical and Reformed blended in 1957 to form The United Church of Christ. The Congregationalists advocated self governing congregations which elected their own ministers and promoted democracy. They were among the first to take a stand against slavery and organized the first anti-slavery society in the U.S. with multiracial leadership.
These antecedents of the UCC had many other firsts and notable accomplishments among them are –
1773: First published African American poet – Phillis Wheatley
1777: A Reformed congregation saved the Liberty Bell
1785: The first African American pastor was ordained
1839: Congregationalists organized the campaign which went to the Supreme
Court and freed Africans who broke their chains and seized the schooner Amistad. It was a defining moment for the abolitionist movement.
1840: The Lutheran and Reformed traditions unite becoming the first united
church in US history – the Evangelical Synod
1853: Antoinette Brown was the first woman to be ordained as a Christian
minister and pastor of a Christian congregation. She was perhaps the first so elected since New Testament times.
1943: Evangelical and Reformed Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr introduces the
world famous Serenity Prayer.
1952: Evangelical and Reformed Theologian Paul Tillich published “The
Courage to Be”- One of the best books of the 20th Century.
1957: The United Church of Christ is born when the Evangelical and Reformed
Church unites with the Congregational Christian Church. The new
community embraces rich spiritual traditions and embraces believers
from all ethnic groups and nationalities.
1972: The United Church of Christ ordains the first openly gay minister in a
mainline Protestant denomination. In the years to follow, UCC General
Synod urges equal right for homosexual citizens and calls on
congregations to welcome gay, lesbian and bisexual members.
1976: Rev Joseph H. Evans becomes the first African American leader of an
integrated mainline church in the United States.
1995: The UCC publishes “The New Century Hymnal” – the only hymnal
released by a Christian church that honors in equal measure both male
and female images of God. Although its poetry is contemporary, its
theology is traditional.