United Church of Christ

The religious heritage of the United Church of Christ stems from the great traditions of the Protestant Reformation - Lutheran, Calvinist and Congregational. The denomination came into being in 1957 with the union of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. Each of these was, in turn, the result of a union of the two earlier denominations.

The Evangelical and Reformed Church - stressing liberty of conscience, authority of Scriptures and a common liberal German Protestant heritage - was formed in 1934 by the union of the Reformed Church and the

Doing Justice, seeking peace and building community are central to the identity of the United Church of Christ.

Evangelical Synod. The Reformed Church in the United Stated traced its beginnings to congregations of Germans and other settlers from 1725 on. The Evangelical Synod of North America traced its beginning to an association of German pastors founded in 1840, which reflected the 1817 union of Lutheran and Reformed churches in Germany.

The Congregational Christian Churches - stressing congregational freedom and a continuing reformation - came together as a denomination in 1931 from Congregational Churches and Christian Churches. The Congregational Churches were organized when the pilgrims of Plymouth Plantation (1620) and the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1629) acknowledged their essential unity in 1648. The Christian churches sprang up in the late 1700s and early 1800s in reaction to the theological and organizational rigidity of the Methodist, Presbyterian and Baptist churches of the time.

The characteristics of the United Church of Christ can be summarized in part by the key words in the names of the four denominations that formed our Union.

Christian: By our very name, The United Church of Christ, we declare ourselves to be part of the body of Christ, the Christian church. We continue the witness of the early disciples to the reality and power of the crucified and risen Christ Jesus.

Reformed: All four denominations arose from the tradition of the 16th century Protestant Reformation: We confess the authority of one God.

We affirm the primacy of the Scriptures, the doctrine of justification by faith, the priesthood of all believers, and the principle of Christian freedom. We celebrate two sacraments: Baptism and Holy Communion.

Congregational: The basic unit of the church is the congregation. Members of a congregation covenant with one another and with God as revealed in Jesus Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Congregations, in turn, exist in covenantal relationships with one another to form larger structures for more effective work. Our convenanting emphasizes trustful relationships rather than legal agreements. The Congregational Church of Pinehurst is a covenantal member of the Eastern North Carolina Association of the Southern Conference of the United Church of Christ.

Evangelical: The primary task of the church is the proclamation of the gospel or evangel - the good news of God's love revealed with power in Jesus Christ. We proclaim this gospel by word and deed to individuals and to society.