United Church of Christ New York Metropolitan and Suffolk Associations
      History and Polity of the UCC
 
   

Polity - Introduction

Freedom in Community

Lectures and Readings on the History and Polity of the United Church of Christ

Introduction

Freedom in Community, five lectures on the history and polity of the United Church of Christ, is part of a course sponsored by the New York Metropolitan Association, United Church of Christ. This two-semester course is available at New York Theological Seminary through classroom and distant learning options and is taught by The Revs. Paul Bradley, Jan Powell and Elizabeth Wheeler.

For more information about the course, contact the Metro Association at metropolity@uccmetrosuffolk.org, call The Registrar at New York Theological Seminary at 212-870-1233 or e-mail the Seminar Registrar at SKang@NYTS.edu .

The Metropolitan Association offers these lectures online to:

  • Church and Ministry Committees who are preparing students for authorized ministry or reviewing candidates for privilege of call
  • Adult Education Committees who are interested in where the UCC fits into American religious history and why the UCC is so important today
  • Individuals who are seeking a church home or ministerial standing in the UCC


Synopsis

The five lectures tell the story of the United Church of Christ within the context of the myths America lives by.
  • Lecture I on Myth and History asks why myths are true, how they are different from history and why they are a religious language UCC people need to know.


  • Lecture II on the Myth of the Chosen People asks how this foundational American myth was shaped by the UCC English Puritan and German reform antecedents and how the myth shaped the UCC.

  • Lecture III on the Myth of the Redeemer Nation reminds readers of the UCC's great evangelical heritage and the contributions of the Christian Connection and the German Evangelical churches to liberal evangelicalism.

  • Lecture IV on the Myth of the New World (Order) follows the UCC antecedents into the international and ecumenical vision grounded in their roots and reflects upon the successes and failures of liberal Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries.

  • Lecture V on the New Reformation brings the UCC into the 21st century of religious frenzy and reconsiders the wisdoms of the Reformation and the UCC for the tasks ahead.



Additional Readings

Church and Ministry Committees should be aware that these lectures are not a complete UCC history and polity course. They do not cover UCC organization and structure, practice and programs or the nature of and steps toward ministry in the UCC. Candidates for ordination or standing cannot, therefore, say that having read these reflections they have completed a polity course and been certified by the New York Metropolitan Association.

Individuals and Church study groups will get the most out of these lectures if they read them in sequence and supplement them with the following resources:

Hughes, Richard T. Myths America Lives By . Chicago : University of Illinois Press. 2005

Noll, Mark A. The Old Religion in the New World . Grand Rapids MI : William B. Eerdmans 2002

Johnson, Daniel L. and Charles Hambrick-Stowe eds. Theology and Identity . Cleveland OH : United Church Press, 1990

Shinn, Roger. Confessing our Faith . Cleveland OH : United Church Press 1990

Gunnemann, Louis. The Shaping of the United Church of Christ . Cleveland OH : United Church Press 1977.


Resources on www.ucc.org are:

Home Page, About Us Tab
Click on the “About Us” tab at the top of the ucc.org home page. The following readings are listed on the menu on the left side of the About Us page:

Short Course at www.ucc.org/aboutus/shortcourse/index.html

Hidden Histories at www.ucc.org/aboutus/histories/index.html

Constitution at www.ucc.org/aboutus/constitution.htm

Ecumenical Partners

These can be found at on the ucc.org site at www.ucc.org/ecumenical .

Testimonies

Click on the “Faith” tab at the top of the ucc.org home page . Along the right hand side are links to “Historic Testimonies”

Beyond Historical Orthodoxy .

This can be found on the ucc.org site at www.ucc.org/aboutus/histories/intro.htm .

Authorization

The New York Metropolitan Association and the course instructors invite readers to reproduce and distribute this resource as they see fit. But they would appreciate users attaching the following citation whenever they do:

This resource was created for
New York Theological Seminary and
sponsored by the New York Metropolitan Association,
New York Conference, United Church of Christ