Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the United Church of Christ?
A: The United Church of Christ came into being in 1957 with the
union of two Protestant denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed
Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. Each of these was,
in turn, the result of a union of two earlier traditions.
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 the Cambridge Platform of 1648.
The Reformed Church in the United States traced its beginnings to
congregations of German settlers in Pennsylvania founded from 1725
on. Later, its ranks were swelled by Reformed immigrants from
Switzerland, Hungary and other countries.
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 Evangelical Synod of North America traced its beginnings
to an association of German Evangelical pastors in Missouri. This
association, founded in 1841, reflected the 1817 union of Lutheran
and Reformed churches in Germany.
Through the years, other groups such as American Indians,
Afro-Christians, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, Volga Germans,
Armenians, and Hispanic Americans have joined with the four earlier
groups. In recent years, Christians from other traditions, including
the Roman Catholic Church, have found a home in the UCC, and so have
gay and lesbian Christians who have not been welcome in other
churches. Thus the United Church of Christ celebrates and continues
a broad variety of traditions in its common life.
Q: What is the Southeast Association?
A: The Wisconsin Conference is divided into four geographical areas, or Associations; the
Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, and Southwest. We are the
Southeast Association, and we address the needs of the UCC churches
in the part of Wisconsin from the Illinois-Wisconsin border on the
south, to Fond du Lac and Sheboygan on the north; from Lake Michigan
on the east, to Watertown on the west.
Additional Resources
The United Church of Christ believes that God is still speaking, to each of us, every day. Our national UCC organization has built a whole advertising campaign around our belief that God continues to speak to us. For additional information, please click on the logo above, or go to the Still Speaking website.
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