What are the differences between Unitarian Churches and United Church Of

[Roxy66]

Christ? I really like the message of the United Church of Christ from their web-site and the new commercials on T.V....I saw it on Aaron Brown tonight.

[alphafemale]

1. I think UCof C is still Christian based. UU's draw from many sources.

I think the basic outlook of both religions is very similar though.

I'm UU so I'm guessing.
Here's our site.

http://uua.org/

[Old and In the Way]

2. UU's are pretty liberal in their interpretation of God.....more like

deists, I think. More value on spiritual less on doctrinaire rituals.
UCC are a more formalized Protestant denomination that is enlightened socially.

At least that's my impression. Kinda on shakey ground here.

[Maat]

3. Well, for one thing, the Unitarians do not consider themselves..

to be Christians, generally, although Unitarians think its fine if some members consider themselves to be such.

My Unitarian friends, here, please correct me. When I recently attended a Unitarian service, the do not explicitly mention God or prayer. They had a moment of silence, during which you were free to do whatever you wished quietly.

This is similar to my church, the Church of Religious Science, which believes in 'all paths to God,' meaning that our members are free to consider themselves to be Christian, even though most do not. We focus on affirmations/creative visualization as our form of prayer, but believe that God/the Great Spirit/Divinity is within all of us. Ours is kind of like what is described in Conversations with God (the book).

I recommend that a person seeking spirituality, but sick of traditional fundamentalist dogma, try out what I call the progressive churches .. 1) Unitarian, 2) Church of Religious Science (science and spirituality are compatible), 3) United Church of Christ, 4) Metropolitan Community Churches, 4) Quakers, 5) and the more progressive congregations within the mainstream religions.

[Maat]

4. Also..

our faith is taken from all of the faiths/great spiritual teachings equally. A Hindu influence, etc.

I've looked at all of the websites of the churches talked about here ... and encourage every DUer to take a look at the Frequently-asked questions sections of each website. Good stuff. And I've tried the various services. Enjoyed each, but like the RS the best.

[HomerRamone]

5. she said unit

I am a Unitarian and also somewhere in the agnostic-to-atheist continuum, as are many (NOT all) Unitarians. Don't know if that's true for these other denominations...

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. Some Sufi Orders

are also universalist in their outlook, especially those that have come from the teachings of Haz. Inayat Khan, who was inspired to create the Universal Worship Service, in which all spiritual paths are recognized. You can find out more at several websites. The one I remember the url to is: http://www.churchofall.us It has links to the Sufi Order International, which has more information about the Universal Worship service and the Ten Sufi Thoughts.

[bobbieinok]

6. my understanding....Unitarian and UCC were originally one church

the protestant church in New England that grew from the pilgrims

the 'christian' party became the Congrational Church, which later merged with some others to become the UCC

the 'non-christian' party became the Unitarian Church, which later merged with and/or incorporated other spiritual traditions

I think the Congregational-Unitarian split happened before 1860

[hvn_nbr_2]

7. I've gone to both churches fairly often

I grew up in the UCC, and during my adult years have frequently attended UU churches, so I think I have some accurate knowledge here.

UCC is a pretty mainstream Protestant Christian church. It's the result of a number of mergers during the ecumenical era centered around the 1950s. Some of the denominations that merged include the Evangelicals, Reformeds, and Congregationalists. These were mostly conservative denominations, meaning conservative in the sense of conservative, not in the sense of fire-breathing hate-filled demons. Somehow, each merger of conservative denominations resulted in a more liberal denomination. I never quite grokked how that happened. However, in general, congregations often are not as liberal as the larger denomination's central structure. Some even are quite conservative, again conservative in the sense of conservative.

I would characterize UCC as perhaps on the somewhat leftward side of center relative to Protestant denominations, with many congregations much less so. I haven't been in one for years, so my impression may be outdated.

Unitarian-Universalists (UUs, merger of Unitarians and Universalists) are, on the other, quite liberal by any definition. Both of those (Us and Us) were originally Christian denominations, but UUs today don't specifically identify as a Christian denomination although many UU people are Christians. At a UU church you can expect to be surrounded by Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus, agnostics, pagans, humanists, and even atheists. Many UU churches display symbols of multiple world religions, such as Taoist ying-yang, star of David, and various others in their sanctuaries. You'll find few, if any, UCC churches with such displays because they are very specifically Christian.

I would venture to say that you'd probably find very few Republicans in UU churches anywhere, and you probably would find disproportionately many Greens and maybe even Libertarians there, compared to the overall population. At UCC churches, I would expect to find political affiliations approximately matching that of the area where you are.

Today as a very eclectic more-pagan-than-anything-else person, I feel completely at home in a UU church. I would not feel comfortable in a UCC church because of all the He-God and "savior" talk; I don't think that I need to have God save me from Himself. But the people there are definitely not the hate-filled wackos of the Falwellian theocracy; they actually try to practice Jesus's teachings about loving your neighbor.

One final point--United Church of Christ (UCC) is something entirely different from Church of Christ. I don't really know anything about Church of Christ, but I've seen a couple posts that seem to confuse the two.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Further elaboration:

Unitarians are called that because they reject the doctrine of the Trinity, the idea that God has three aspects, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That was their original difference from Christians. Over the years, they have evolved into a very eclectic religion, with different congregations having different atmospheres, but largely made up of people who used to practice other religions. (One of my friends called herself a "Jewnitarian.")

Universalists are another New England denomination that was distinguished by its belief in universal salvation, the idea that no one goes to hell.

The two denominations merged a couple of decades ago.

The UCC and the Church of Christ (aka Campbellites) are VERY different. The Church of Christ is an evangelical denomination that has as its motto, "We speak where the Bible speak and are silent where the Bible is silent." (I dated someone who grew up in that denomination, and he pointed out several areas in which this was not true.) When his parents came to visit, we attended a service at the local Church of Christ congregation. The distinguishing feature of their worship is that they ban instrumental music (even though the Bible says "praise him with the cymbal and harp." Go figure.) Anyway, because of this ban, they sing all their hymns in four-part harmony, which makes for an interesting service.

[TreasonousBastard]

9. Yet further elaboration....

in that denying the Trinity is not an un-Christian belief.

In the early days of Christianity all sorts of beliefs popped up, many of which survive today. The early church spent much of its time stamping out Gnostics, Albergensians, and others who didn't stick to the dogma the church was developing. The Trinity, salvation through grace, and the other trappings of modern mainstream Christian churches were all pretty much settled then.

So, many of us don't see anything un-Christian about refusing to believe in the Trinity or to believe in universalism, but it could be argued that modern UUs generally aren't Christian by current standards. Not that it makes much difference.

The UCC, on the other hand, is quite traditional in its belief structure. It also has a healthy scholarly contingent and has been the leader in several Bible translations. The Martian would have to look pretty hard to find the few significant differences between them and Lutherans, Methodists or other Protestants.

As always, if you're looking for a church, it's far more important to find an individual church that fits than to look for a denomination.

[T_i_B]

11. Sounds like we are getting towards Arianism here

Well we are talking about denial of the Trinity! And that is commonly associated with Arianism. Although it would be nigh on impossible to pin the Unitarian church down to dogmatic Arianism as I'm sure you are all aware.

The Catholic Encylopedia is of help here, and indeed is a great reference for a huge range of Christian matters.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01707c.htm

[Nikia]

12. There are instrumental Church of Christ

I joined a Church of Christ as a teenager. They used instrumental in their church services. Although they tend to be "Fundamentalist" each church is independent so there are differences in churches depending upon the pastor, the elders, and congregation in general.

[doni_georgia]

13. What is the Church of Christ?

The Church of Christ, though is a fundamentalist denomination. They do not believe in any instruments in worship (they say there are no references to instruments in the New Testament, and they base their beliefs on New Testament teachings). The Church of Christ is part of the Stone/Campbell movement as are Christian Churches (independent) and Disciples of Christ. Church of Christ is the most conservative in this movement, with Independent Christian Churches falling on the conservative side of the middle and Disciples being the liberal denomination.

The UCC, on the otherhand came from mergers of different groups as was previously posted - the Pilgrims of Massachusetts evolved into the Congregational Church. The Congregational Church merged with the Reformed Church of the US, and the Evangelica Synod of North America. These came together to form the United Church of Christ. It is not part of the Stone/Campbell movement.

Today the UCC and Disciples of Christ are in full fellowship with one another (which means they accept each other's clergy within their denominations, so our church could hire a UCC minister). They also share the saying "In essentials unity, in non-essentials diversity, in all things charity" (although Disciples say "in all things love").