Trinity United Church of Christ is a predominantly African-American church with more than 8,500 members, located on the southwest side of Chicago.^[1] It is the largest church affiliated with the United Church of Christ, a predominantly white Christian denomination with roots in Congregationalism, which branched from American Puritanism.^[2]

In early 2008, as part of their presidential election coverage, news media outlets and political commentators brought Trinity to national attention when controversial excerpts of sermons by the church's 36-year pastor Jeremiah Wright were broadcast to highlight Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's relationship with Wright and the church. Obama responded with a speech, A More Perfect Union, which addressed the criticisms.^[3]

The church's early history coincided with the American civil rights movement, subsequent death of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the turmoil that entered the movement after his death. During that tumultuous period, an influx of radical black Muslim groups had begun to headquarter in Chicago, and Trinity sought to recontextualize Christianity through black liberation theology in order to counter the influence of radical black Muslim leaders, who taught that it was impossible to be both Black and Christian. Trinity is best known today for its social programs on behalf of the disadvantaged, both nationally and internationally, although in its earliest days such outreach did not even figure in its mission.^[4][5][6]

Background and history[link]

Social and religious context[link]

Pattern of migration among both blacks and whites are an important part of the social context in which Trinity was founded. Another is the threat that radical Black nationalism and Black Islam posed to Christianity's influence among Chicago blacks, as well as to blacks nationwide. As these movements gained ground among Chicago blacks, Trinity sought to turn the attention of blacks back to Christianity.

1910 through 1940s[link]

Beginning around 1910, The Great Migration of African Americans occurred as many thousands of blacks migrated northward from the south. A great many settled on Chicago's southside. When they arrived, they brought with them the forms of Christianity they had practiced in the South. As elsewhere in the United States, Chicago blacks of the time faced serious discrimination in typically every area of their existence.

In the early 1930s, Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad moved his embroiled religion's headquarters from Detroit to Chicago. Mixing elements of the Bible and the Qur'an, Elijah Muhammad taught that Africans were the Earth's first and most important people. He prophesied that a time was coming when African Americans would be fully vindicated, released from their various oppressions, and brought into full freedom within their own geographical state. For this to actualize, however, Elijah Muhammad taught that blacks had to radically separate from all whites. In addition, he proclaimed that blacks needed to live a moral life.

By the 1940s, the Nation of Islam's radical message had drawn in thousands of Chicago's blacks, many who had converted from one of the forms of Christianity their forebearers brought northward to Chicago (see Trinity in comparative perspective, below, for a discussion of the various forms).^[7]

1950s through 1960[link]

Another of the contextual backdrops of Trinity is a pattern of migration that occurred in Chicago during the 1950s and 60s, when middle-class whites began vacating urban areas for surrounding suburbs. As whites in southern Chicago migrated in large numbers to suburbs, upwardly mobile blacks from the "Black Belt" of Chicago's South Side migrated in, while non-mobile blacks remained in the South Side.^[8][9][10]

Meanwhile, by 1960, the Nation of Islam national spokesperson Malcolm X had founded Mr. Muhammad Speaks in Chicago to help the continued spread of the Nation of Islam message. The newspaper achieved a circulation of over 600,000, making it one of the most prominent black American newspapers of the time. By this time, Nation of Islam ideology held a quite significant sway over Chicago blacks.^[7][11][12]

1961 through 1966: under Kenneth B. Smith[link]

Trinity marks its beginning on December 3, 1961, when twelve middle-class black families, most of whom were descendants of migrants to Chicago during The Great Migration of African Americans, met for worship in a Chicago elementary school gymnasium. Prior to the recent migration of whites to the suburbs, blacks had found it extremely difficult to move into middle-class surroundings in Chicago due to segregated housing patterns and homeownership discrimination (also see Racial steering). At the time of the 3 December meeting, Chicago's Halsted Street marked "the color line".^[8][9][13]

Trinity's first pastor, Kenneth B. Smith, had been appointed by the Chicago Congregational Christian Association of the United Church of Christ (formed only in 1957) to expand the denomination toward southern Chicago, where blacks had recently begun to migrate from the "Black Belt" of Chicago's South Side to the more southerly urban areas whites had recently abandoned for the suburbs. The expressed vision of the Association was to raise up a church for middle-class blacks, who would later merge with a congregation of suburban whites and have white and black co-pastors; in other words, an explicitly integrationist aim.^[18] Two successful African-American Congregational churches, Good Shepherd and Park Manor, had been started earlier in the 20th century some distance to the north in the older South Side neighborhoods, so officials were probably expecting Trinity to emulate those previous developments. Smith came to the new church project, in fact, from an associate pastorate at Park Manor.

Although the vision was bold for the time, and although a similar vision had been followed by other pockets of blacks both inside and outside of Chicago, it at the same time produced apprehension within Trinity's upwardly mobile blacks, since some blacks in Chicago had had their homes burned for transgressing the color line. Moreover, the vision failed to address the many blacks who were still unable to reach upward mobility—those still on the South Side, those in the projects on the other side of Halsted Street, blacks who did not figure into the Association's vision because they were not considered "the right kind of black people". Considerably later, the first African American conference minister of the United Church of Christ, the Rev. Dr. W. Sterling Cary, discussed the Association's disinterest in more detail. He explained, "Historically, the Association made special efforts to seek out 'high potential' churches within the black community," which he said were understood as groups of blacks likely willing to be culturally assimilated into the forms and functions of worship of the Chicago Congregational Christian Association, with its strong Puritan heritage. American religion historian Julia Speller summarizes, "It was this racial reality that informed the planting of Trinity on the South Side of Chicago."^[18][19]

With the church's vision still maturing, Kenneth B. Smith remained as pastor and led the still growing congregation, while noting two things. Firstly, he said the church's affiliation with a white denomination provided his congregants with a sense of unity and purpose within the mainline religious tradition of America (see Origins of the United Church of Christ). Secondly, the congregation began to find a kindred spirit with the denomination's commitment to justice and equality, as congregant activism began to emerge. Smith pointed to the march from Montgomery to Selma in 1965 under Martin Luther King, Jr. as an event that fueled that activism, noting how his congregants made picket signs and joined a Chicago area march in symbolic solidarity with southern blacks. However, Speller notes that the congregation's concern for the voting rights of southern blacks "stood in stark contrast to their obvious blind spot of the Association's position on church growth among African Americans in Chicago—one that supported only middle-class churches".^[20]

This period of the church culminated when plans to merge with a white congregation fell through—"whites were not much interested in integration" at the time, as Jason Byassee^[21] notes—and the black congregation moved into its first church building in 1966. Seating two-hundred, it was located among the growing community of southern Chicago's middle-class blacks, east of the color line. Meanwhile, the Association continued its push for the church to focus ministry toward middle-class blacks.^[17][20][22]

After leaving Trinity, Smith would go on to become pastor of Good Shepherd Church (above) and president of Chicago Theological Seminary.

1966 to 1971: under Willie J. Jamerson[link]

Trinity's second pastor arrived a short time later, just as the U.S civil rights movement reached its peak. The Rev. Willie J. Jamerson, who came from Howard Congregational Church (UCC) in Nashville, Tennessee (a church founded by the American Missionary Association), brought "a desire to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable", while "perhaps being more drawn to the role of prophet than that of priest", as he said, although Jamerson wound up doing much more comforting as a priest than afflicting as a prophet. As Jamerson recounted, the church continued its decline in membership, due to the constriction of vision that resulted from what he described as the church's continued major purpose to affirm the middle-class Congregationalism of its members. According to Speller, this foundational focus experienced another significant crack when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, which subsequently brought many changes within black communities—another of Trinity's contextual backdrops.^[22]

As Speller explains, "The failure of the civil rights movement to usher in an era of genuine integration and harmony between the races turned into a search for an alternative experience of purpose and belonging for many African Americans."^[22] Corresponding with this search, a small rift began to form among Trinity's congregants, one that was also occurring in other predominantly black churches in the U.S. at the time. As the influence of the civil rights movement began to diminish in wake of King's assassination, the Black Power movement rushed in to fill the void, and some blacks, including a few at Trinity, became attracted to the validation the movement gave to their life and religious experiences. Other blacks, however, including most at Trinity, felt that a strategy of gradualism would eventuate in an America that honored achievements regardless of race. According to Speller, the majority of Trinity's congregants sided with gradualist notions, and "held tenaciously to their Congregational tradition, finding unity in their connection to American Protestantism and purpose in the lifestyle of black 'middle-classness'."^[6]

By 1972, however, Trinity's membership had dwindled from its peak of 341 (in 1968-69) down to 259 members (perhaps 100 of them active),^[24] and no one could pinpoint the cause. Jamerson soon resigned to take a position as a schoolteacher, and Trinity was faced with possibly closing its doors. ^[25]

1971 to 1972: under Reuben A. Sheares II[link]

The church instead opted to bring on the Rev. Reuben A. Sheares II as interim pastor.^[26] According to Speller, Sheares's brief tenure with Trinity marked an important shift in the congregation's sense of purpose. Together with Trinity's remaining leaders, Sheares sought to discover the reasons behind Trinity's dramatic decline in membership and then work a remedy. As recounted by a key Trinity lay leader at the time, Vallmer E. Jordan, the small core of leaders concluded that "for years we had prided ourselves on being a middle-class congregation within a mainline denomination, but suddenly the values within the black community had shifted. Aspirations for integration and assimilation were being replaced by those of black pride and separation."^[25] Byassee fills in details by pointing out that Chicago had long since become an organizing center for militant black religious groups like The Nation of Islam and The Black Hebrew Israelites, who strenuously argued that "black" and "Christian" were contradictory terms. Many blacks had been leaving Christianity as a result.^[17]

Trinity's leaders had thus discovered the reasons for its decline in membership. As a congregation, Trinity would thus need to inaugurate a "shift" in how it viewed both itself and its mission—they needed to let blacks know, both those inside and outside its walls, that Christianity was not at all just a religion for whites. To begin this change, Sheares coined the motto "Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian".^[9][27] Contextualizing the motto, Speller, herself black, informs that shame about being black has been "part and parcel of the black experience in America", and that blacks have historically hid their shame behind a variety of coping strategies and behaviors.^[28] Martin E. Marty, an emeritus professor of religious history, further explains, "For Trinity, being 'unashamedly black' does not mean being 'anti-white.' [...] Think of the concept of 'unashamedly': tucked into it is the word 'shame'." Underlying the idea, according to Marty, is a diagnosis "of 'shame', 'being shamed', and 'being ashamed' as debilitating legacies of slavery and segregation in society and church." Marty also explains that the Afrocentrism contained in the statement "should not be more offensive than that synagogues should be 'Judeo-centric' or that Chicago's Irish parishes be 'Celtic-centric'."^[29] Speller informs that the motto "has remained as a reminder of not only who [Trinitarians] are but Whose they are, continuing to emphasize both meaning and belonging".^[17][27]

In addition to Sheares's new motto, Jordan crafted a new mission statement that encapsulated the church's new vision to be

a source of spiritual sustenance, security, and inspiration; that those participating in our spiritual-social process [may] be strengthened in their commitment...to serve as instruments of God and church in our communities and the world, confronting, transforming and eliminating those things in our culture that lead to the dehumanization of persons and tend to perpetuate their psychological enslavement.

As Trinity sought a new pastor to lead growth, they gave the mission statement to each applicant.^[30]

1972 to early 2008: under Jeremiah Wright[link]

Jeremiah Wright, the son of a long-tenured Philadelphia Baptist minister, interviewed for the Trinity pastorate on December 31, 1971. Jordan recalls that Wright exuded excitement and vision for the church's new mission statement, and that Wright's response to the question "How do you see the role of the Black Church in the black struggle?" indicated he was the only possible candidate for Trinity. With the church also impressed with Wright's educational credentials—Wright held graduate degrees in English studies and Divinity and was studying for a doctorate in religious history—he was shortly confirmed as the new pastor.^[31]

Context and challenges[link]

Speller points out that Wright's arrival at Trinity coincided with the height of the U.S. Black Consciousness Revolution (also see South African Black Consciousness Movement) and additionally contends that Wright was keenly aware of the challenges that this deeply racialized context presented to Trinity.^[13][32] During graduate school Wright, as Bayassee notes, argued strenuously against radical black Islamic groups who had been drawing blacks away from Christianity by asserting that the religion was inherently racist and only for whites.^[17] To recontextualize the Christian message for the new context and time in which Wright perceived the church itself in, Wright, the author claims, anticipated that he would need to co-opt the positive elements of the Black Power message, while rejecting its philosophies of separation and black superiority—an idea around which a larger Christian theological movement had been forming, as evidenced by a full-page New York Times ad entitled "Black Power" run in November 1967 by the National Committee of Negro Churchmen, and Black Theology and Black Power published in 1969 by James H. Cone.^[33][34][35]

Youth choir[link]

The first change occurred in late 1972 when Trinity's youth lobbied for a greater role in the church. Under a dynamic new choir director the youth brought in, they led musical worship using gospel music (also see Urban contemporary gospel) for the first time, while incorporating dramatic visual props. As Speller describes it, the youth choir "ushered in a new day at Trinity Church, and through their music they ignited the flame that would burn off the dross of black shame to reveal the refined gem of self-love." However, with call and response increasing and the Pilgrim Hymnal no longer in favor, some of Trinity's congregants left because of what Wright described as "fear of change—change in the style of worship but, more importantly, change in the kind of members that would desire to join our church."^[36][37]

From social enhancement to God-consciousness[link]

As Wright philosophized of this period some thirty years later, 'Having a witness among the poor and having a ministry to the poor is one thing, but making the poor folks members of your congregation is something else altogether." Wright further explained, "Failure to have the black poor at the table with you as equals means you are doing missionary work," while having "poor black folks" who "sit down at the table as equals" means you are "serious about talking or doing [...] black theology."^[38] As Speller explains, Trinity's congregants "began to slowly move away from the concept of church as a place to enhance and validate their social position to one that appreciated the church as a place for spiritual formation." In sum, Trinity began to more fully move away from its earlier purpose surrounding "middle-classness" to one where devotion to God and the poor took much greater prominence.^[39]

God has smiled on us and freed us up to be God's people—unshackled by stereotypes and the barriers of assimilation, unshackled by the fear of joining in the struggle for liberation, and unshackled by the stigmas, defeats, or victories of the past. [God has freed us to be the Church in the world—[God's] Children! Black, Christian and proud of being created in [God's] image and being called by [God's] name.

Speller asserts that the statement indicates that Trinity had journeyed "from assimilation and fear to liberation and courage", and argues how the freedom expressed concerns a freedom to be black as a matter of cultural identity (also see Ethnic identity), and to be Christian as a matter of purpose and belonging to God.^[40]

From 1972 to early 2008, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was pastor of Trinity UCC.^[41][42][43] In February 2008, Wright retired, and the Rev. Otis Moss III became Trinity's pastor.^[1][44][45]

Weekly broadcasts of the church's Sunday service are carried across the US on TV One^[46] on Sundays at 7:30 a.m. EST.

Trinity and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright were profiled by correspondent Roger Wilkins in Sherry Jones' documentary "Keeping the Faith" broadcast as the June 16, 1987 episode of the PBS series Frontline with Judy Woodruff.^[47]

Trinity in comparative perspective[link]

Byassee argues that "African Americans have generated distinctly black forms of Christianity since they arrived on these [American] shores" and asserts that "the significance of these forms has been appreciated in mainline seminaries and churches for at least two generations."^[17] Speller has discussed the major interpretive frameworks into which black churches have been historically categorized by scholars, as well as several later ones. She does this to place Trinity within a broader understanding of the black church, and all Christian churches, and to trace Trinity's history of movement within several of the frameworks, while also discussing numerous of Trinity's ongoing struggles.^[48] Byassee asserts that Trinity is well within the mainstream of the black church, and is remarkable in the mainline world only for its size and influence."^[17]

Speller summarizes three interpretive models of black churches that have predominated in scholarly literature from especially prior the 1960s: "The Assimilation Model", "The Isolation Model", and "The Compensatory Model".

The Assimilation Model[link]

Black churches that have been explained as within The Assimilation Model are those primarily composed of middle-class blacks motivated by a racially integrated society and who are willing to disassociate themselves from their ethnic identity to achieve this, as well as to avoid the stereotyped labels sometimes assigned to blacks by whites. This model has been described as the "demise of the black church for the public good of blacks."^[49]

The Isolation Model[link]

The Isolation Model category has been assigned to those black churches composed of primarily lower-class blacks who lack the optimism of middle-class blacks about societal integration between the races. Churches described as within this model hold to theologies that emphasize "other worldliness" and deemphasize social action within "this world."^[49]

The Compensatory Model[link]

The Compensatory Model has been a designation of black churches where congregants find acceptance, appreciation, and applause often denied them within dominant society. Motivation stems from a promise of achieving personal empowerment and recognition, i.e., congregants are "compensated" with improved self-esteem as their peers affirm their successes.^[49]

The Ethnic Community-prophetic Model[link]

Speller, following the research of Nelson and Nelson in the 1970s, notes how each of the above three models placed black churches within a reactive rather than a proactive mode. Finding that problematic, and unsatisfied that previous interpretive models accurately depicted black churches that emerged in the 1960s, Nelson and Nelson developed a fourth model, The Ethnic Community-prophetic Model. Black churches that have been categorized as such are those that have been marked by blacks who spoke out and undertook activism against economic and political injustices from a heightened awareness of black pride and power.^[49]

The Dialectical Model[link]

In her discussion about Trinity, Speller argues for an additional model of the black church, The Dialectical Model, developed by the late Duke University sociologist C. Eric Lincoln to explain certain black churches. Corrective to the earlier models by which black churches were susceptible to being rigidly stereotyped, and that barred them from being seen as societal change agents, Lincoln and Mamiya describe the model as holding in "dialectical tension" "the priestly and the prophetic; other-worldly versus this-worldly; universalism and particularism; communalism and privatism; the charismatic versus the bureaucratic and resistance versus accommodation."^[50] Speller additionally argues that The Dialectical Model is mirrored in W. E. B. Du Bois's concept of "double consciousness".^[51] Du Bois explained this dichotomy:

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa; he does not wish to bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he believes that Negro blood has yet a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without losing the opportunity of self-development.^[52]

The evolution of Trinity[link]

Speller asserts that Trinity in its history has evolved from the Assimilation Model under its pastors Kenneth B. Smith and Willie J. Jamerson, to the Compensatory Model under Reuben A. Sheares II and during the early years of Jeremiah Wright's tenure, and into the Ethnic Community-prophetic Model under Wright to embrace the Dialectical Model also under Wright. She states, however, that the church continues to struggle in varying degrees to balance the dialectic polarities described by Lincoln and Mamiya (see The Dialectical Model, just above), and that the church's greatest challenge has been "mediating the tension between being black and Christian."^[16]

References[link]

External links[link]

	Chicago portal
	African American portal

• Official website
• Official YouTube channel

Notes[link]

This article is based on the article "Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago, the Real Story—Without all the Bias and Political Hype" by Stephen Ewen, available at http://knol.google.com/k/stephen-ewen/trinity-united-church-of-christ-chicago/, and is licensed under the Creative Common Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported and GNU Free Documentation License. Attribution on face of article is required. Coordinates: 41°43′19″N 87°38′03″W / 41.721928°N 87.634227°W / 41.721928; -87.634227

The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination primarily in the Reformed tradition but also historically influenced by Lutheranism.^[1][2] The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957 to form the UCC. These two denominations, which were themselves the result of earlier unions, had their roots in Congregational, Evangelical, and Reformed denominations. The UCC's 5,287 congregations claim 1,080,199 members, primarily in the United States.^[3]

The UCC maintains full communion with other mainline Protestant denominations, while many congregations choose to practice open communion.^[4] The denomination places high emphasis on participation in worldwide interfaith and ecumenical efforts.^[5][6] The national settings of the UCC have historically favored liberal views on social issues, such as civil rights, gay rights, women's rights and abortion rights. However, United Church of Christ congregations are independent in matters of doctrine and ministry and may not necessarily support the national body's theological or moral stances. It is self-described as "an extremely pluralistic and diverse denomination".^[7]

History[link]

This section requires expansion.

The United Church of Christ was formed when two Protestant churches, the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957.^[8][9] This union adopted an earlier general statement of unity between the two denominations, the 1943 "Basis of Union".^[10] At this time, the UCC claimed about two million members.^[9] In 1959, in its General Synod, the UCC adopted a broad "Statement of Faith".^[11] The UCC adopted its constitution and by-laws in 1961.^[9]

Beliefs[link]

There is no UCC hierarchy or body that can impose any doctrine or worship format onto the individual congregations within the UCC.^[12] While individual congregations are supposed to hold guidance from the general synod "in the highest regard", the UCC's constitution requires that the "autonomy of the Local Church is inherent and modifiable only by its own action".^[13]

Within this locally-focused structure, however, there are central beliefs common to the UCC. The UCC often uses four words to describe itself: "Christian, Reformed, Congregational and Evangelical".^[14] While the UCC refers to its evangelical characteristics, it springs from (and is considered part of) mainline Protestantism as opposed to Evangelicalism. The UCC is generally theologically liberal, and the denomination notes that the "Bible, though written in specific historical times and places, still speaks to us in our present condition".^[14]

The motto of the United Church of Christ comes from John 17:21: "That they may all be one". The denomination's official literature uses broad doctrinal parameters, emphasizing freedom of individual conscience and local church autonomy.

Historic confessions[link]

In the United Church of Christ, creeds, confessions, and affirmations of faith function as "testimonies of faith" around which the church gathers rather than as "tests of faith" rigidly prescribing required doctrinal consent. As expressed in the United Church of Christ constitution:

The United Church of Christ acknowledges as its sole Head, Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior. It acknowledges as kindred in Christ all who share in this confession. It looks to the Word of God in the Scriptures, and to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, to prosper its creative and redemptive work in the world. It claims as its own the faith of the historic Church expressed in the ancient creeds and reclaimed in the basic insights of the Protestant Reformers. It affirms the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this faith its own in reality of worship, in honesty of thought and expression, and in purity of heart before God. In accordance with the teaching of our Lord and the practice prevailing among evangelical Christians, it recognizes two sacraments: Baptism and the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion.^[13]

The denomination, therefore, looks to a number of historic confessions as expressing the common faith around which the church gathers, including:

• The Apostles' Creed,
• The Nicene Creed,
• The Heidelberg Catechism (inherited from both the German Reformed and German Evangelical heritages),
• Luther's Small Catechism (inherited from the German Evangelical heritage),
• The Kansas City Statement of Faith (a 1913 statement in the Congregationalist tradition),
• The Evangelical Catechism (a 1927 catechism in the German Evangelical tradition), and
• The Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ (written at the founding of the denomination).

Studies and surveys of beliefs[link]

In 2001, Hartford Institute for Religion Research did a "Faith Communities Today" (FACT) study^[15] that included a survey of United Church of Christ beliefs. Among the results of this were findings that in the UCC, 5.6% of the churches responding to the survey described their members as "very liberal or progressive," 3.4% as "very conservative," 22.4% as "somewhat liberal or progressive," and 23.6% as "somewhat conservative." Those results suggested a nearly equal balance between liberal and conservative congregations. The self-described "moderate" group, however, was the largest at 45%. Other statistics found by the Hartford Institute show that 53.2% of members say "the Bible" is the highest source of authority, 16.1% say the "Holy Spirit," 9.2% say "Reason," 6.3% say "Experience," and 6.1% say "Creeds."

David Roozen, director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research who has studied the United Church of Christ, said surveys show the national church's pronouncements are often more liberal than the views in the pews but that its governing structure is set up to allow such disagreements.^[16] Starting in 2003, a task force commissioned by General Synod 24 studied the diverse worship habits of UCC churches. The study can be found online^[17] and reflects statistics on attitudes toward worship, baptism, and communion, such as "Laity (70%) and clergy (90%) alike overwhelmingly describe worship 'as an encounter with God that leads to doing God’s work in the world.'" "95 percent of our congregations use the Revised Common Lectionary in some way in planning or actual worship and preaching" and "96 percent always or almost always have a sermon, 86 percent have a time with children, 95 percent have a time of sharing joys and concerns, and 98 percent include the Prayer of Our Savior/Lord’s Prayer." Clergy and laity were invited to select two meanings of baptism that they emphasize. They were also to suggest the meaning that they thought their entire church emphasized. Baptism as an “entry into the Church Universal” was the most frequent response. Clergy and laity were invited to identify two meanings of Holy Communion that they emphasize. While clergy emphasized Holy Communion as “a meal in which we encounter God’s living presence,” laity emphasized “a remembrance of Jesus’ last supper, death, and resurrection.”

Relationships with other denominations[link]

One of the UCC's central beliefs is that it is "called to be a united and uniting church."^[18] Because of this, the UCC is involved in Churches Uniting in Christ, an organization seeking to establish full communion among nine Protestant denominations in America.^[19] Currently, the UCC has entered into an ecumenical partnership with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and is in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), and the Reformed Church in America.^[19]

In 1982 the World Council of Churches published "Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry",^[20] a document that has served as a foundation for many ecumenical recognition agreements. As a WCC member church, the United Church of Christ issued a response as part of the process to work toward a statement of common theological perspectives.^[21]

Relationships with other religions[link]

The United Church of Christ facilitates bilateral dialogues with many faith groups, including members of the Jewish and Muslim communities. This includes membership in the National Muslim-Christian Initiative.^[22]

Structure[link]

Quoting the United Church of Christ Constitution, "The basic unit of the life and organization of the United Church of Christ is the local church." An interplay of wider interdependence with local autonomy characterizes the organization of the UCC. Each "setting" of the United Church of Christ relates covenantally with other settings, their actions speaking "to but not for" each other.

The ethos of United Church of Christ organization is considered "covenantal." The structure of UCC organization is a mixture of the congregational and presbyterian polities of its predecessor denominations. With ultimate authority on most matters given to the local church, many see United Church of Christ polity as closer to congregationalism; however, with ordination and pastoral oversight conducted by Associations, and General Synod representation given to Conferences instead of congregational delegates, certain presbyterian similarities are also visible.

Local churches[link]

First Congregational Church[3] of Long Beach, California, a local church of the United Church of Christ.

The basic unit of the United Church of Christ is the local church (also often called the congregation). Local churches have the freedom to govern themselves, establishing their own internal organizational structures and theological positions. Thus, local church governance varies widely throughout the denomination. Some congregations, mainly of Congregational or Christian origin, have numerous relatively-independent "boards" that oversee different aspects of church life, with annual or more frequent meetings (often conducted after a worship service on a Sunday afternoon) of the entire congregation to elect officers, approve budgets and set congregational policy. Other churches, mainly of Evangelical and Reformed descent, have one central "church council" or "consistory" that handles most or all affairs in a manner somewhat akin to a Presbyterian session, while still holding an annual congregational meeting for the purpose of electing officers and/or ratifying annual budgets. Still others, probably those congregations started after the 1957 merger, have structures incorporating aspects of both, or other alternative organizational structures entirely.

In almost all cases, though, the selection of a minister for the congregation is, in keeping with the Reformed tradition of the "priesthood of all believers," vested in a congregational meeting, held usually after a special ad hoc committee searches on the congregation's behalf for a candidate. Members of the congregation vote for or against the committee's recommended candidate for the pastorate, usually immediately after the candidate has preached a "trial sermon;" candidates are usually presented one at a time and not as a field of several to be selected from. Typically the candidate must secure anywhere from 60 to 90 percent affirmative votes from the membership before the congregation issues a formal call to the candidate; this depends on the provisions in the congregation's particular constitution and/or by-laws. Local churches have, in addition to the freedom to hire ministers and lay staff, the sole power to dismiss them also. However, unlike purely congregational polities, the association has the main authority to ordain clergy and grant standing to clergy coming to a church from another association or another denomination (this authority is exercised "in cooperation with" the person being ordained/called and the local church that is calling them). Such standing, among other things, permits a minister to participate in the UCC clergy pension and insurance plans. Local churches are usually aided in searching for and calling ordained clergy through a denominationally-coordinated "search-and-call" system, usually facilitated by staff at the conference level. However, the local church may, for various reasons, opt not to avail itself of the conference placement system, and is free to do so without fear of retaliation, which would likely occur in synodical or presbyterian polities. Participation in the process, though, is usually a sign of the congregation's loyalty to the larger denomination and its work.

At the end of 2008, 5,320 churches were reported to be within the UCC, averaging 210 members. Sixteen churches were reported to have over 2,000 members, but 64% had fewer than 200 members.^[23] The latter statistic probably indicates where most of the denomination's declining membership has occurred, in formerly mid-sized congregations between 200 and 500 members or so. The reduction in a typical church's size has also meant that, increasingly, many congregations are no longer able, as they once were, to afford a full-time, seminary-educated pastor, and that some of them have to rely on alternatives such as one of their members serving the church under a license, the use of recently retired clergy on a short-term basis, or ordained ministers serving the church on a half-time (or less) basis while earning their primary income from chaplaincies or other occupations. While this has been occurring to a lesser degree in other mainline denominations as well, the UCC's congregational polity allows for churches to adopt such approaches without ecclesiological restraint, as might happen in a more hierarchical denominational structure.

Larger organizations[link]

Associations[link]

Local churches are typically gathered together in regional bodies called Associations. Local churches often give financial support to the association to support its activities. The official delegates of an association are all ordained clergy within the bounds of the association together with lay delegates sent from each local church. The association's main ecclesiastical function is to provide primary oversight and authorization of ordained and other authorized ministers; it also is the ecclesiastical link between the local congregation and the larger UCC. The association ordains new ministers, holds ministers' standing in covenant with local churches, and is responsible for disciplinary action; typically a specific ministerial committee handles these duties. Also, an association, again with the assistance of the ministerial committee, admits and removes local congregations from membership in the UCC.

Associations meet at least once annually to elect officers and board members and set budgets for the association's work; fellowship and informational workshops are often conducted during those meetings, which may take place more frequently according to local custom. In a few instances where there is only one association within a conference, or where the associations within a conference have agreed to dissolve, the Conference (below) assumes the association's functions.

Conferences[link]

Local churches also are members of larger Conferences, of which there are 38 in the United Church of Christ. A conference typically contains multiple associations; if no associations exist within its boundaries, the conference exercises the functions of the association as well. Conferences are supported financially through local churches' contribution to "Our Church's Wider Mission" (formerly "Our Christian World Mission"), the United Church of Christ's denominational support system; unlike most associations, they usually have permanent headquarters and professional staff. The primary ecclesiastical function of a conference is to provide the primary support for the search-and-call process by which churches select ordained leadership; the conference minister and/or his or her associates perform this task in coordination with the congregation's pulpit search committee (see above) and the association to which the congregation belongs (particularly its ministerial committee). Conferences also provide significant programming resources for their constituent churches, such as Christian education resources and support, interpretation of the larger UCC's mission work, and church extension within their bounds (the latter usually conducted in conjunction with the national Local Church Ministries division).

Conferences, like associations, are congregationally representative bodies, with each local church sending ordained and lay delegates. Most current UCC conferences were formed in the several years following the consummation of the national merger in 1961, and in some instances were the unions of former Congregational Christian conferences (led by superintendents) and Evangelical and Reformed synods (led by presidents, some of whom served only on a part-time basis). A few have had territorial adjustments since then; only one conference, the Calvin Synod, composed of Hungarian-heritage Reformed congregations, received exemption from the geographical alignments, with its churches scattered from Connecticut westward to California and southward to Florida. Only one conference has ever withdrawn completely from the denomination: Puerto Rico, expressing disapproval of national UCC tolerance of homosexuality (as well as that of a large number of mainland congregations), departed the denomination in 2006, taking all of its churches.

General Synod[link]

The denomination's churchwide deliberative body is the General Synod, which meets every two years. The General Synod consists of delegates elected from the Conferences (distributed proportionally by conference size) together with the boards of directors of each of the four covenanted ministries (see below, under National Offices).

While General Synod provides the most visible voice of the "stance of the denomination" on any particular issue, the covenantal polity of the denomination means that General Synod speaks to local churches, associations, and conferences, but not for them. Thus, the other settings of the church are allowed to hold differing views and practices on all non-constitutional matters.

General Synod considers three kinds of resolutions:

• Pronouncements: A Pronouncement is a statement of Christian conviction on a matter of moral or social principle and has been adopted by a two-thirds vote of a General Synod.
• Proposals for Action: A Proposal for Action is a recommendation for specific directional statements and goals implementing a Pronouncement. A Proposal for Action normally accompanies a Pronouncement. (See link above regarding Pronouncements.)
• Resolutions and Other Formal Motions Which may consist of the following three types:
  • Resolutions of Witness: A Resolution of Witness is an expression of the General Synod concerning a moral, ethical, or religious matter confronting the church, the nation, or the world, adopted for the guidance of the officers, Associated, or Affiliated Ministries, or other bodies as defined in Article VI of the Bylaws of the United Church of Christ; the consideration of local churches, Associations, Conferences, and other bodies related to the United Church of Christ; and for a Christian witness to the world. It represents agreement by at least two-thirds of the delegates voting that the view expressed is based on Christian conviction and is a part of their witness to Jesus Christ.
  • Prudential Resolutions: A Prudential Resolution establishes policy, institutes or revises structure or procedures, authorizes programs, approves directions, or requests actions by a majority vote.
  • Other Formal Motions

National offices: covenanted, affiliated, and associated ministries[link]

As agents of the General Synod, the denomination maintains national offices comprising four "covenanted ministries", one "associated ministry", and one "affiliated ministry". The current system of national governance was adopted in 1999 as a restructure of the national setting, consolidating numerous agencies, boards, and "instrumentalities" that the UCC, in the main, had inherited from the Congregational Christian Churches at the time of merger, along with several created during the denomination's earlier years.

Covenanted ministries[link]

These structures carry out the work of the General Synod and support the local churches, associations, and conferences. The head executives of these ministries comprise the five member Collegium of Officers, which are the non-hierarchical official officers of the denomination. (The Office of General Ministries is represented by both the General Minister, who serves as President of the denomination, and the Associate General minister). According the UCC office of communication press release at the time of restructure, "In the new executive arrangement, the five will work together in a Collegium of Officers, meeting as peers. This setting is designed to provide an opportunity for mutual responsibility and reporting, as well as ongoing assessment of UCC programs." The main offices of the Covenanted ministries are at the "Church House", the United Church of Christ national headquarters at 700 Prospect Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.

• The Office of General Ministries (OGM) is responsible for administration, common services (technology, physical plant, etc.), covenantal relations (ecumenical relations, formal relations to other settings of the church), financial development, and "proclamation, identity and communication". The current General Minister and President is the Rev. Dr. Geoffrey Black and the current Associate General Minister is Mr. W. Mark Clark.
• Local Church Ministries (LCM) is responsible for evangelism, stewardship and church finance, worship and education, Pilgrim Press and United Church Resources (the publishing house of the United Church of Christ), and parish life and leadership (authorization, clergy development, seminary relations, parish leadership, etc.). The current Executive Minister of Local Church Ministries is the Rev. J. Bennett Guess.
• Wider Church Ministries (WCM) is responsible for partner relations* (relations with churches around the world, missionary work, etc.), local church relations* (as relates to world ministries and missions), global sharing of resources, health and wholeness ministry, and global education and advocacy*. The starred '*' ministries are carried out through the Common Global Ministries Board, a joint instrumentality of the United Church of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), based in Indianapolis, Indiana. The current Executive Minister for Wider Church Ministries is the Rev. Rev. Jim Moos.
• Justice and Witness Ministries (JWM) is responsible for ministries related to economic justice, human rights, justice for women and transformation, public life and social policy, and racial justice. In addition to its offices in Cleveland, JWM also maintains an office on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. The current Executive Minister for Justice and Witness Ministries is Rev. M. Linda Jaramillo. JWM also maintains an office called "Minister for Children, Families and Human Sexuality Advocacy" that promotes the Our Whole Lives sex education curriculum.

Affiliated ministry[link]

The Pension Boards of the United Church of Christ (PB-UCC) operates the employee benefits systems for all settings of the United Church of Christ, including health, dental, and optical insurance, retirement annuity/pension systems, disability and life insurance, and ministerial assistance programs. The Pension Boards offices are located in New York City, where the headquarters of all UCC national bodies had been located prior to their move to Ohio in the early 1990s.

Associated ministry[link]

United Church Funds (UCF), formerly known as The United Church Foundation, provides low cost, socially responsible, professionally managed Common Investment Funds (CIFs) and other trustee services to any setting of the United Church of Christ. United Church Funds' offices are also located in New York City.

Other related ministry[link]

The Insurance Board is a nonprofit corporation collectively "owned" by the Conferences of the United Church of Christ. It is run by a president/CEO and a 19-member Board, with the full corporate board consisting of participating Conference ministers. The IB administers a property insurance, liability insurance, and risk management program serving the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church USA, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) churches and related entities.^[24]

Activities[link]

Social activism[link]

The UCC national body has been active in numerous traditionally-liberal social causes, including support for abortion rights,^[25] the United Farm Workers, and the Wilmington Ten.^[9]

Same-sex marriage[link]

Churches in the UCC can sanctify same-sex unions.^[26] The resolution "In support of equal marriage rights for all", supported by an estimated 80% of the UCC's 2005 general synod delegates, made the United Church of Christ the first major Christian deliberative body in the U.S. to make a statement of support for "equal marriage rights for all people, regardless of gender," and is hitherto the largest Christian denominational entity in the U.S. supporting same-sex marriage.^[27] This resolution (and the sanctification of same-sex marriages), however, is not supported by some congregations.^[27] Of particular note, the Iglesia Evangelica Unida de Puerto Rico, a long-standing congregation in the UCC, voted by a 3–1 margin to withdraw its affiliation with the UCC over the same-sex marriage issue.^[28]

Apology Resolution[link]

United Church of Christ was recognized in the Apology Resolution to Native Hawaiians. In the Resolution, Congress recognized the reconciliation made by the UCC in the Eighteenth General Synod for their actions in overthrowing the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Statement on the relationship between Israel and Palestinians[link]

United Church of Christ General Synod XXV also passed two resolutions concerning the conflict between Israel and Palestinians in the Middle East. One calls for the use of economic leverage to promote peace in the Middle East, which can include measures such as government lobbying, selective investment, shareholder lobbying, and selective divestment from companies which profit from the continuing Israel-Palestine conflict. The other resolution, named "Tear Down the Wall", calls upon Israel to remove the separation barrier between Israel and the West Bank. Opponents of the "Tear Down the Wall" resolution have noted that the wall's purpose is to prevent terrorist attacks, and that the resolution does not call for a stop to these attacks. The Simon Wiesenthal Center stated that the July 2005 UCC resolutions on divestment from Israel were "functionally anti-Semitic".^[29] The Anti-Defamation League stated that those same resolutions are "disappointing and disturbing" and "deeply troubling".^[30] In addition to the concerns raised about the merits of the "economic leverage" resolution, additional concerns were raised about the process in which the General Synod approved the resolution. Michael Downs of the United Church of Christ Pension Boards (who would be charged with implementing any divestment of the UCC's Pension Board investments) wrote a letter^[31] to UCC President John H. Thomas expressing concern "with the precedent-setting implications of voted actions, integrity of process and trust."

Sex Education[link]

The United Church of Christ, along with the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations created several sexual education classes designed for many different age groups. Called Our Whole Lives, or OWL, these courses aim to provide scientific and unbiased information regarding sexuality, birth control and condoms, and physical biology.

"God Is Still Speaking" banner on a UCC church in Rochester, Minnesota.

"God Is Still Speaking," identity campaign[link]

At the 2003 General Synod, the United Church of Christ began a campaign with "emphasis on expanding the UCC's name-brand identity through modern advertising and marketing."^[32] that was formally launched Advent 2004. The campaign included coordinated program of evangelism and hospitality training for congregations paired with national and local television "brand" advertising, known as the "God is Still Speaking" campaign or "The Stillspeaking Initiative." The initiative was themed around the quotation "Never place a period where God has placed a comma," and campaign materials, including print and broadcast advertising as well as merchandise, featured the quote and a large "comma," with a visual theme in red and black. United Church of Christ congregations were asked to "opt in" to the campaign, signifying their support as well as their willingness to receive training on hospitality and evangelism. An evangelism event was held in Atlanta in August 2005 to promote the campaign.^[33] Several renewal groups panned the ad campaign for its efforts to create an ONA/progressive perception of the UCC identity despite its actual majority in centrist/moderate viewpoints.^[34][35] According to John Evans, associate professor of sociology at University of California, San Diego, "The UCC is clearly going after a certain niche in American society who are very progressive and have a particular religious vision that includes inclusiveness... They are becoming the religious brand that is known for this."^[36]

Criticism[link]

The church's diversity and adherence to covenantal polity (rather than government by regional elders or bishops) give individual congregations a great deal of freedom in the areas of worship, congregational life, and doctrine. Nonetheless, some critics, mainly social and theological conservatives, are vocal about the UCC's theology, political identity, and cultural milieu.

Theological criticism[link]

More conservative members of the UCC have complained that the UCC has lost members because of its "theological surrender to the moral and spiritual confusion of contemporary culture."^[37] This movement has focused its complaints on the "often radically liberal political agenda" of the UCC.^[37]

Social criticism[link]

Conservatives have complained that UCC members are "probably the most left-leaning of all major U.S. denominations."^[38] These critics have complained that the UCC attempts to control "how liberal Christians should think in politically correct terms about climate controversies, socialized medicine, the U.S. presence in Iraq, immigration and the Welfare State."^[38]

Criticism over same-sex marriage[link]

The UCC has been severely criticized for its stand on same-sex marriage. In fact, citing differences over "the membership and ministry of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Christians", the UCC's Puerto Rico Conference left the church in 2006.^[39]

Criticism of sex education[link]

Critics have complained that the UCC's focus on sex education, including the distribution of condoms, does not provide appropriate moral context for sex and has failed in "reinforcing the traditional Christian ethic reserving sex for marriage."^[40]

Sources of criticism[link]

The Institute on Religion and Democracy has been consistently critical of the UCC, complaining that the denomination "is stuck in the liberal theology and politics of the 1960s" and makes conservatives feel unwelcome.^[41]

Internal critics have also complained that the UCC has "set on a course of dishonest political activism" without the knowledge of the local congregations.^[42]

Outcries have been so strong among conservative congregations that they have ended their affiliations with the denomination, in many cases terminating decades of association with one of the UCC's four major traditions. This became especially pronounced in the months following the decision of General Synod 25 to endorse same-sex marriage. Three denominations have in particular been beneficiaries of their decisions: the National Association of Congregational Christian Churches (founded in the late 1950s in opposition to the UCC merger), the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference (founded in the 1940s as a more conservative alternative), and the Evangelical Association of Reformed and Congregational Christian Churches (founded in the 1990s, mostly by E&R-heritage churches). However, quite a number of withdrawing congregations have decided to operate independently, influenced perhaps by the recent growth and success of non-denominational fellowships throughout the U.S.

Still other congregations have decided to remain in the denomination but withhold financial support for "Our Church's Wider Mission" (OCWM). They say their goal is to avoid funding conference and national programs and policies they find objectionable. Many of those churches are openly affiliated with two conservative "renewal" organizations, the Biblical Witness Fellowship and the North Carolina-based Faithful and Welcoming group, both of which have tried, largely unsuccessfully, to lobby the General Synod (and some conferences) to renounce politically and theologically liberal stances on a number of issues.

However, some individuals and families have deserted those congregations remaining loyal to the UCC, in favor of more theologically and politically moderate mainline churches or conservative evangelical congregations. Even so, it was reported at General Synod 2011 that 175 new churches joined the UCC in the two previous years, which amounts to more than any similar time period in the last 40 years. The new churches represent new church starts as well as existing churches who were either previously associated with other denominations, or even independent. It remains to be seen whether these new congregations will help the denomination arrest its gradual numerical decline in membership.

Barack Obama and the UCC[link]

A controversy arose over Obama speaking at UCC gatherings, but the IRS found that the UCC had adhered to the prohibition against churches campaigning for political candidates.

In 2007, US Presidential candidate and longtime UCC member Barack Obama spoke at the UCC's Iowa Conference meeting and at the General Synod 26.^[43] A complaint filed with the Internal Revenue Service alleged that the UCC promoted Obama's candidacy by having him speak at those meetings.^[44]

Barry Lynn, an ordained UCC minister and the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, stated that although he personally would not have invited a Presidential candidate to speak at the meetings, he believed "the Internal Revenue Service permits this to happen."^[45] The church had consulted lawyers prior to the event to make sure they were following the law and had instructed those in attendance that no Obama campaign material would be allowed in the meeting. Nevertheless, in February 2008, the IRS sent a letter to the church stating that it was launching an inquiry into the matter.^[46]

On February 27, 2008, in an open letter to UCC members, Rev. John H. Thomas announced the creation of The UCC Legal Fund, to aid in the denomination's defense against the IRS.^[47] While the denomination expected legal expenses to surpass six figures, it halted donations after raising $59,564 in less than a week.

In May 2008, the IRS issued a letter which states that the UCC had taken appropriate steps and that the denomination's tax status was not in jeopardy. ^[48]

Membership[link]

At the time of its formation, the UCC had over 2 million members in nearly 7,000 churches.^[49] The denomination has suffered a 44 percent loss in membership since the mid-1960s.^[50] By 1980, membership was at about 1.7 million and by the turn of the century had dropped to 1.3 million.^[49] In 2006, the UCC had roughly 1.2 million members in 5,452 churches.^[49] According to its 2008 annual report, the United Church of Christ has about 1.1 million members in about 5,300 local congregations.^[51] However the 2010 report confirms that there has been a decline of 31 thousand members and a loss of 33 congregations since then. However, positive trends like the large number of new congregations mentioned above could well stop the continual decline, and possibly bring about an increase for the first time in nearly a half-century.

Membership is concentrated primarily in the Northeast and Midwest, the two regions of the U.S. where population has declined the strongest since the denomination's inception (in many cases, people departing those regions moved to areas where the denomination was not ready available, such as much of the South and Southwest, and had to affiliate, out of necessity, with other mainline traditions). Pennsylvania, a bastion of the German Reformed tradition, has the largest number of members and churches. As of 2000, the state had over 700 congregations and over 200,000 members.^[52] The highest membership rates are in the states of Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, situated in the heartland of the American Congregationalist movement.^[52]

United Church of Christ institutions[link]

Officially related educational institutions[link]

Seminaries[link]

• Andover Newton Theological School (Newton Centre, Massachusetts)
• Bangor Theological Seminary (Bangor, Maine)
• Chicago Theological Seminary (Chicago, Illinois)
• Eden Theological Seminary (Webster Groves and St. Louis, MO)
• Lancaster Theological Seminary (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
• Pacific School of Religion (Berkeley, California)
• United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities (New Brighton, Minnesota)

Colleges and universities[link]

These 18 schools have affirmed the purposes of the United Church of Christ Council for Higher Education by official action and are full members of the Council.

• Catawba College (Salisbury, North Carolina)
• Chapman University (Orange, California)
• Defiance College (Defiance, Ohio)
• Dillard University (New Orleans, Louisiana)
• Doane College (Crete, Nebraska)
• Drury University (Springfield, Missouri)
• Elmhurst College (Elmhurst, Illinois)
• Elon University (Elon, North Carolina)
• Heidelberg University_(Ohio) (Tiffin, Ohio)
• Huston-Tillotson University (Austin, Texas)
• Illinois College (Jacksonville, Illinois)
• Lakeland College (Sheboygan, Wisconsin)
• LeMoyne-Owen College (Memphis, Tennessee)
• Northland College (Ashland, Wisconsin)
• Olivet College (Olivet, Michigan)
• Pacific University (Forest Grove, Oregon)
• Piedmont College (Demorest, Georgia)
• Rocky Mountain College (Billings, Montana)
• Talladega College (Talladega, Alabama)
• Tougaloo College (Tougaloo, Mississippi)

Secondary academies[link]

• The Massanutten Academy (Woodstock, Virginia)
• The Mercersburg Academy (Mercersburg, Pennsylvania)

Historically related educational institutions[link]

Historically related seminaries[link]

• Hartford Seminary (Hartford, Connecticut)
• Harvard Divinity School (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
• Howard University School of Divinity (Washington, DC)
• Interdenominational Theological Center (Atlanta, Georgia)
• Seminario Evangélico de Puerto Rico (San Juan, Puerto Rico)
• Union Theological Seminary (New York, New York)
• Vanderbilt University Divinity School (Nashville, Tennessee)
• Yale Divinity School (New Haven, Connecticut)

Historically related colleges and universities (Council for Higher Education)[link]

"These colleges continue to relate to the United Church of Christ through the Council for Higher Education, but chose not to affirm the purposes of the Council. Though in many respects similar to the colleges and universities that have full membership in the Council, these institutions tend to be less intentional about their relationships with the United Church of Christ." (from the United Church of Christ website)

• Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin)
• Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota)
• Cedar Crest College (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
• Fisk University (Nashville, Tennessee)
• Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
• Grinnell College (Grinnell, Iowa)
• Hood College (Frederick, Maryland)
• Ripon College (Ripon, Wisconsin)
• Ursinus College (Collegeville, Pennsylvania)
• Westminster College of Salt Lake City (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Other colleges and universities (historically related, currently unrelated)[link]

These colleges and universities were founded by or are otherwise related historically to the denomination or its predecessors, but no longer maintain any direct relationship.

• Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire)
• Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) — was founded by Congregationalists, but sided with the Unitarians in their 1825 breakaway.
• Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut) - was founded by Congregational ministers in 1701 and its chapel was officially affiliated with the UCC in 1961, but discontinued the affiliation in 2005 to be more welcoming to other faiths^[53]
• Chamberlain College of Nursing, formerly Deaconess College of Nursing (St. Louis, Missouri)
• Rollins College (Winter Park, Florida)
• New College Florida (Sarasota, Florida)^[54]
• Oberlin College (Oberlin, Ohio)
• Pomona College (Claremont, California)
• Tohoku Gakuin University (Sendai, Japan)
• Whitman College (Walla Walla, Washington) — briefly associated with the Congregational Church in the early 1900s.

List of prominent UCC churches[link]

• Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago - a predominantly black church located in south Chicago. With upwards of 10,000 members, it is the largest church affiliated with UCC. It was pastored by Rev. Jeremiah Wright until early 2008. It is now pastored by The Rev. Otis Moss III.
• Cathedral of Hope (Dallas) - Largest church in the United States with a primary outreach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Local membership exceeds 4,000 people though the church claims over 52,000 worldwide constituents.

List of famous UCC members[link]

This section lists notable people known to have been past or present members or raised in the United Church of Christ or its predecessor denominations.

Politicians[link]

• Daniel Akaka — U.S. Senator from Hawaii (Democrat)
• Max Baucus — U.S. Senator from Montana (Democrat)
• Jon Corzine — Former Governor of New Jersey (Democrat)
• Howard Dean — Former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, former Governor of Vermont (Democrat)
• Jim Douglas - Former Governor of Vermont (Republican)
• Mark Fernald — Former New Hampshire State senator^[55]
• Mills Godwin — Former Governor of Virginia
• Bob Graham — Former U.S. Senator from Florida (Democrat)
• Judd Gregg — U.S. Senator from New Hampshire (Republican)
• Hubert Humphrey — Former Vice President of the United States
• Jim Jeffords — Former U.S. Senator from Vermont (Independent)
• Mark Kirk - U.S. Senator from Illinois (Republican)
• Barack Obama — President of the United States of America (2009- )
• Robert Orr — Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations
• Sally Pederson — Former Lieutenant Governor of Iowa (Democrat)
• William Proxmire — Former U.S. Senator from Wisconsin (Democrat)
• Kwame Raoul — Senator in Illinois State Senate (Democrat)
• George Smathers — Democratic Senator from Florida

Others[link]

• Julian Bond — Chair NAACP (2004–2008)
• Walter Brueggemann — contemporary theologian, poet, and UCC minister, retired professor at Columbia Theological Seminary
• William Sloane Coffin — Late Presbyterian/UCC minister and activist; 'pastor, prophet, poet'; former Chaplain at Yale University and Senior Pastor of Riverside Church, New York City
• Common — Rapper, recording artist, member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
• Donald Hall — United States US Poet Laureate^[56]
• George Heartwell - Mayor of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• Roger Johnson - CEO of Western Digital and head of the General Services Administration under President Bill Clinton
• Dean Koontz — American writer and author. Raised UCC, now is Catholic.^[57]
• William "Bill" McKinney — President of Pacific School of Religion, since 1996
• Bill Moyers - Journalist and host of PBS current affairs program Bill Moyers' Journal
• John Williamson Nevin — notable 19th-century theologian
• H. Richard Niebuhr — notable 20th-century theologian
• Reinhold Niebuhr — notable 20th-century theologian
• Leonard Pitts — Nationally syndicated Pulitzer prize–winning (2004) columnist
• Marilynne Robinson — Pulitzer prize-winning (2005) author of the novel Gilead
• Alex Ross - Comic book writer and artist. Son of UCC minister Clark Norman Ross.
• Philip Schaff — notable 19th-century theologian
• Max L. Stackhouse — public theologian and professor at Princeton Theological Seminary
• Jeri Kehn Thompson - wife of Law & Order star and former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Fred Thompson
• Paul Tillich — notable 20th-century theologian
• Andrew Young — Civil rights leader, ordained UCC pastor, and former member of Congress, UN ambassador, and mayor of Atlanta, Georgia

See also[link]

Religion portal

• Associations of the United Church of Christ
• Churches Uniting in Christ
• Conferences of the United Church of Christ
• Congregational Library
• United and uniting churches

References[link]

External links[link]

Membership Data:

• Statistical Profile of United Church of Christ at the Association of Religion Data Archives

The term Church of Christ may refer to:

• One of several New Testament designations for a local band of people following the teachings of Jesus, whom they believed to be the Christ; only the plural form is found in the NT (e.g., Romans 16:16)
• the entire body of Christians throughout the world, regardless of denomination or tradition, i.e. the Christian Church or Christendom
• a body of Christians who continue to use only the New Testament as the source for Christian doctrine and practice and who consider themselves to be part of the original church (in contrast to Orthodox Christianity, Catholic Christianity, or Protestant Christianity.)
• the Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic churches (primarily used by members of these churches)
• Church bodies influenced by the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement:
  • Restoration Movement groups originating in Scotland and the U.S.
    • Churches of Christ
      • Churches of Christ and Sponsoring church (Churches of Christ)
      • The churches of Christ (non-institutional), an identifiable subgroup within the churches of Christ
      • International Churches of Christ, an offshoot of the Churches of Christ
    • Christian churches and churches of Christ
    • Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
  • Non-US Restoration Movement groups
    • Churches of Christ in Australia
    • Evangelical Christian Church in Canada
  • Other historically related groups
    • Christian Connexion
    • Christadelphians
    • Churches of Christ in Christian Union
• Denominations with a shared heritage in the Latter Day Saint movement, which include:
  • Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints), the original name of the first Latter Day Saint church, founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, Jr.
  • Church of Christ (Temple Lot), a Latter Day Saint denomination based in Independence, Missouri
  • Church of Christ with the Elijah Message, which broke away from the Temple Lot church in 1929
  • Church of Christ at Halley's Bluff, which broke away from the Temple Lot church in 1932
  • Church of Christ (Whitmerite), an extinct Latter Day Saint denomination
  • Church of Christ (Brewsterite), an extinct Latter Day Saint denomination
  • Church of Christ (Parrishite), an extinct Latter Day Saint denomination
  • Latter Day Church of Christ, a Mormon fundamentalist denomination based in Utah
  • And other denominations called the Church of Jesus Christ

• United Church of Christ, a mainline Protestant denomination in the United States amalgamated from four congregationalist groups in 1957 (See also Christian Connexion.)
• United Church of Christ – Congregational in the Marshall Islands, the largest religious group in the Marshall Islands
• Church of Christ, Scientist, also known as Christian Science
• Church of Christ in Congo, the administrative and spiritual union of denominations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Iglesia ni Cristo (Filipino translation for "Church of Christ"), an independent church originating in the Philippines
• Church of Christ, Instrumental, also known as the Kelleyites, a Baptist denomination in Arkansas
• United Church of Christ in the Philippines, the largest Protestant group in the Philippines
• Church of Christ in Thailand, the largest Protestant Church in Thailand.

See also[link]

• Church of Christ (disambiguation) for individual buildings/congregations
• First Church of Christ (disambiguation)
• Churches of God General Conference (Winebrenner)
• Church of Jesus Christ (disambiguation)

This article includes a list of related items that share the same name (or similar names). If an internal link incorrectly led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Otis Moss III is an African American pastor of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ who espouses black liberation theology and emphasizes reaching inner city black youth.^[1][2] He is married and has two children.^[3]

Youth and Education[link]

His father, Otis Moss Jr. was an affiliate of Martin Luther King, Jr. working together in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference^[4] and serving in 1971 as co-pastor with his father Martin Luther King, Sr. at Ebenezer Baptist Church.^[5]

After growing up in the affluent Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, Ohio, graduating from Shaker Heights High School, Moss attended Morehouse College as an undergraduate, initially majoring in political science and film with the intent of becoming a filmmaker.^[1][3] He was a runner and named by the NCAA as an All-American Track and Field athlete.^[5] After hearing his call to the ministry during track practice, he changed majors to religion and philosophy and graduated with honors in 1992.^[1][3]

He then attended Yale University, receiving in 1995 a Master of Divinity degree with a concentration in ethics and theology. During his time at Yale he became enamored of the Black liberation theology of James Hal Cone. He was also ordained as a Baptist minister by his father in 1995.^[3][6]

After this, Moss moved to Denver to study for a Ph. D. in religion and social change from a joint program of the University of Denver and the Iliff School of Theology, a Methodist seminary.^[5][7] While in Denver, he became the Minister of Youth Programs at the New Hope Baptist Church.^[5] A sermon tape from a youth rally was given to the retiring pastor of Tabernacle Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia, leading to his call there.^[3]

Tabernacle Baptist years[link]

In 1997, Moss moved to Augusta, Georgia to take up the pastorate at Tabernacle Baptist Church, originally founded in 1885 as Beulah Baptist Church. During the Civil Rights Movement the church served as a local base for that movement.^[8]

At the time Moss took over the church, it had 125 members, growing to 2,100 members by the time he left it in 2006, reportedly mostly through the inclusion of formerly unchurched young people.^[2][3] During his tenure, the church also undertook a major renovation of their historic building.^[8]

In 2000, he published a sermon collection entitled Redemption in a Red Light District - Messages of Hope, Healing and Empowerment, consisting of sermons from his first year of ministry.^[9] He also periodically swapped pulpits with the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Augusta, where the Southern Baptist Convention was originally organized in support of slavery.^[10]

In 2002, he was the first recipient of a prize, carrying a $25,000 stipend, for exemplary community service, evangelism and preaching. He had been nominated by the historian of the Chautauqua Institution in New York who considered him one of the best to have preached there. The prize is jointly awarded by three Presbyterian organizations; the Columbia Theological Seminary, the Presbyterian College, and the Peachtree Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, Georgia.^[5][11]

During this period, Moss was a member of the Progressive National Baptist Convention as well as state and local Baptist organizations. Politically, he was a member of the NAACP and the Georgia branch of the Rainbow/Push Coalition founded by Jesse Jackson. He also served on the boards of the local United Way chapter and Augusta's black history museum, which is named after Lucy Craft Laney.^[5][12]

Trinity United Church of Christ[link]

Moss received two job offers. One was to come to the Olivet Institutional Baptist Church in Cleveland, Ohio to succeed his father as pastor, the other to move to Chicago's Trinity United Church, a United Church of Christ church pastored by Reverend Jeremiah Wright, to become Wright's successor at the roughly 8,500-member megachurch. Moss says that after prayer and fasting, he felt God's call was for him to go to Chicago, and did so in 2006, initially as Wright's assistant.^[3][6]

Early in 2007, Moss was one of four additional contributors to the book The Gospel Remix: Reaching the Hip Hop Generation by Professor Ralph C. Watkins of the Fuller Theological Seminary.^[13] That summer, Moss was one of several black ministers who gave eulogies at a mock funeral the NAACP put on for the word "nigger", where he described it as "the greatest child that racism ever birthed".^[14]

Wright gave his last sermons as pastor on February 10, 2008. After some guest sermons, Moss took the pulpit on March 9.^[3] Senator Barack Obama and family were members of Trinity United, and on March 13, during his 2008 presidential campaign a controversy broke out over racially and politically charged sermons by retiring pastor Wright.^[15] While Obama's candidacy had brought attention to the church, this brought even more attention to it.^[1][3]

Time magazine claimed that Wright was holding on to power and preventing Moss from fully taking over as pastor, citing unnamed sources within the church.^[6] The following week, Moss and Wright told the congregation that the accurate title for him is indeed "senior pastor elect" because has not yet met UCC requirements for being installed pastor of a UCC church, and is expected to meet those requirements in the fall of 2008.^[16][17] A UCC spokesperson had told Time that "it was hard to imagine that Moss wouldn't successfully complete the ordination process."^[6] In May 2009 Moss was installed as the senior pastor of Trinity.^[18][19]

Moss has also recently become a board member of The Christian Century.^[20]

References[link]

Jeremiah Wright
White House Prayer Breakfast, 1998
Born	Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr. (1941-09-22) September 22, 1941 (age 70) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Jeremiah Alvesta Wright, Jr., (born September 22, 1941) is Pastor Emeritus of Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), in Chicago with a congregation exceeding 6,000.^[1] In early 2008, Wright retired after 36 years as the Senior Pastor and no longer has daily responsibilities at the church.^[2][3]

Following retirement, Wright's beliefs and preaching were scrutinized when segments of his sermons were publicized in connection with the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, including his contention that the [[attacks of September 11, 2001, were proof that "America's chickens are coming home to roost" and such statements as "...not God Bless America. God damn America."^[4] Obama responded to the Wright controversy in a speech entitled "A More Perfect Union."^[5]

On April 27, 2008, Wright defended his record in a speech before the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), saying he was not "divisive" but "descriptive" and that the black church experience, like black culture, was "different" but not "deficient".^[6]

Early years[link]

Wright was born and raised in a racially mixed section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania called Germantown.^[7] His parents are The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Sr. (1909–2001), a Baptist minister who pastored Grace Baptist Church in Germantown, Philadelphia, from 1938 to 1980,^[8] and Dr. Mary Elizabeth Henderson Wright, a school teacher who was the first black person to teach an academic subject at Roosevelt Junior High. She went on to be the first black person to teach at Germantown High and Girls High, where she became the school's first black vice principal.

Wright graduated from the Central High School of Philadelphia in 1959, among the best schools in the area at the time.^[7] At the time, the school was around 90 percent white.^[9] The 211th class yearbook described Wright as a respected member of the class. "Always ready with a kind word, Jerry is one of the most congenial members of the 211," the yearbook said. "His record in Central is a model for lower class [younger] members to emulate."^[7]

Education and military service[link]

Jeremiah Wright (second from right, behind I.V. pole), in 1966, as a U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman. He is tending to President Lyndon Johnson, standing behind him is Bill Moyers.^[10] (A letter of thanks on behalf of the President is superimposed on photo).

From 1959 to 1961, Wright attended Virginia Union University,^[2] in Richmond and is a member of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, Zeta chapter. In 1961 Wright left college and joined the United States Marine Corps and became part of the 2nd Marine Division attaining the rank of private first class. In 1963, after two years of service, Wright joined the United States Navy and entered the Corpsman School at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center.^[11][12] Wright was then trained as a cardiopulmonary technician at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Wright was assigned as part of the medical team charged with care of President Lyndon B. Johnson (see photo of Wright caring for Johnson after his 1966 surgery). Before leaving the position in 1967, the White House Physician, Vice Admiral Burkley, personally wrote Wright a letter of thanks on behalf of the United States President.^[13][14][15]

In 1967 Wright enrolled at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1968 and a master's degree in English in 1969. He also earned a master's degree from the University of Chicago Divinity School.^[11] Wright holds a Doctor of Ministry degree (1990) from the United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, where he studied under Samuel DeWitt Proctor, a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr.^[16]

His wife is Ramah Reed Wright, and he has four daughters, Janet Marie Moore, Jeri Lynne Wright, Nikol D. Reed and Jamila Nandi Wright, and one son, Nathan D. Reed.^[11]

Career as minister[link]

Jeremiah Wright (center left), in 1998, greeting President Bill Clinton during a prayer breakfast at the White House.

Wright became pastor of the Trinity United Church of Christ, Chicago on March 1, 1972; it had some 250 members on its rolls, but only about 90 or so were actually attending worship by that time.^[17] By March 2008 Trinity United Church of Christ had become the largest church in the mostly white^[18] United Church of Christ denomination. The President and General Minister of the United Church of Christ, John H. Thomas, has stated: "It is critical that all of us express our gratitude and support to this remarkable congregation, to Jeremiah A. Wright for his leadership over 36 years."^[19] Thomas, who is a member of the Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ in Cleveland, has also preached^[20] and worshipped at Trinity United Church of Christ (most recently on March 2, 2008).^[19]

Trinity and Wright were profiled by correspondent Roger Wilkins in Sherry Jones's documentary "Keeping the Faith" broadcast as the June 16, 1987 episode of the PBS series Frontline with Judy Woodruff.^[21] In 1995, Wright was asked to deliver a prayer during an afternoon session of speeches at the Million Man March in Washington, D.C.^[22]

Wright, who began the "Ministers in Training" ("M.I.T.") program at Trinity United Church of Christ, has been a national leader in promoting theological education and the preparation of seminarians for the African-American church.^[23] The church's mission statement is based upon systematized Black liberation theology that started with the works of James Hal Cone.^[24][25]

Wright has been a professor at Chicago Theological Seminary, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and other educational institutions. Wright has served on the Board of Trustees of Virginia Union University, Chicago Theological Seminary and City Colleges of Chicago. He has also served on the Board Directors of Evangelical Health Systems, the Black Theology Project, the Center for New Horizons and the Malcolm X School of Nursing, and on boards and committees of other religious and civic organizations.^[11]

Wright attended a lecture by Dr Frederick G. Sampson in Richmond, Virginia, in the late 1980s, on the GF Watts painting Hope, which inspired him to give a sermon in 1990 based on the subject of the painting - "with her clothes in rags, her body scarred and bruised and bleeding, her harp all but destroyed and with only one string left, she had the audacity to make music and praise God ... To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope ... that's the real word God will have us hear from this passage and from Watt's painting."^[26] Having attended Wright's sermon, Barack Obama later adapted Wright's phrase "audacity to hope" to "audacity of hope" which became the title for his 2004 Democratic National Convention keynote address, and the title of his second book.

Controversies[link]

Wright, who was Barack Obama's former pastor, gained national attention in March 2008 when ABC News, after reviewing dozens of Wright's sermons,^[27] excerpted parts which were subject to intense media scrutiny, including Wright's contention that the Attacks of September 11, 2001 were proof that "America's chickens are coming home to roost" and "...not God Bless America. God damn America."^{[4][28][29][30]} Obama denounced the statements in question, but after critics continued to press the issue of his relationship with Wright he gave a speech titled "A More Perfect Union", in which he denounced Wright's remarks, but did not disown him as a person. The controversy began to fade, but was renewed in late April when Wright made a series of media appearances, including an interview on Bill Moyers Journal, a speech at the NAACP and a speech at the National Press Club.^[31] After the last of these, Obama spoke more forcefully against his former pastor, saying that he was "outraged" and "saddened" by his behavior, and in May he resigned his membership in the church.^[32]

On June 9, 2009, in an interview with the Daily Press of Newport News, Wright indicated that he hadn't had contact with Obama up to that point because "Them Jews aren't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter, that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office." Wright also suggested that Obama did not send a delegation to the Durban Review Conference in Geneva on racism because of Zionist pressure saying: "[T]he Jewish vote, the A-I-P-A-C vote, that's controlling him, that would not let him send representation to the Darfur Review Conference, that's talking this craziness on this trip, cause they’re Zionists, they would not let him talk to someone who calls a spade what it is."^[33] Writing for The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates characterized Wright's remarks as "crude conspiratorial antisemitism."^[34] On June 11, 2009, Wright amended his remarks during an interview with Mark Thompson on his radio program, Make it Plain. "Let me say like Hillary, I misspoke. Let me just say: Zionists... I’m not talking about all Jews, all people of the Jewish faith, I’m talking about Zionists."^[35]

Wright wrote on his Facebook page apologizing for his remarks on June 12, 2009. He wrote, "I mis-spoke and I sincerely meant no harm or ill-will to the American Jewish community or the Obama administration... I have great respect for the Jewish faith and the foundational (and central) part of our Judeo-Christian tradition."^[36] "In other words", another Atlantic writer, Jeffrey Goldberg, alleged, "[H]e regrets speaking plainly instead of deploying a euphemism."^[37] The Anti Defamation League released a statement condemning Wright's remarks as "inflammatory and false. The notions of Jewish control of the White House in Reverend Wright's statement express classic anti-Semitism in its most vile form."^[38]

In June 2011, in a speech at Empowerment Temple in Baltimore City, Wright called the State of Israel "illegal" and "genocidal" and insisted, "To equate Judaism with the state of Israel is to equate Christianity with [rapper] Flavor Flav."^[39]

Retirement[link]

Wright retired as pastor from Trinity United Church of Christ in early 2008. Over the course of his tenure, he brought the Church's membership from 87 in 1972 to over 8,000 parishioners.^[40] Trinity United purchased a lot in Tinley Park, a predominantly white Chicago suburb, and built Wright a 10,340-square-foot (961 m²) home valued at $1.6 million dollars.^[41][42]

Honors[link]

Wright has received a Rockefeller Fellowship and seven honorary doctorate degrees, including from Colgate University, Lincoln University of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Valparaiso University, United Theological Seminary, Chicago Theological Seminary, and Starr King School for the Ministry.^[11] Wright was named one of Ebony magazine's top 15 preachers.^[14] He was also awarded the first Carver Medal by Simpson College in January 2008, to recognize Wright as "an outstanding individual whose life exemplifies the commitment and vision of the service of George Washington Carver".^[43][44] On May 1, 2008, Northwestern University withdrew its invitation for him to receive an honorary doctorate in light of the controversy over his recent remarks.^[45]

Works[link]

• Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., "Music as Cultural Expression in Black Church Theology and Worship", Journal of Black Sacred Music 3, 1 (1) (Spring 1989).
• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. and Jini Kilgore Ross, What Makes You So Strong?: Sermons of Joy and Strength from Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., Judson Press, November 1993, ISBN 978-0-8170-1198-7
• Jawanza Kunjufu and Rev. Dr. Jeremiah Wright, Jr., Adam! Where Are You?: Why Most Black Men Don't Go to Church, African American Images, June 1997, ISBN 978-0-913543-43-6 (also African American Images, 1994, ISBN B000T6LXPQ)
• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. and Colleen Birchett, Africans Who Shaped Our Faith (Student Guide), Urban Ministries, Inc., May 1995, ISBN 978-0-940955-29-5
• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr. and Jini Kilgore Ross, Good News!: Sermons of Hope for Today's Families, Judson Press, December 1995, ISBN 978-0-8170-1236-6
• William J. Key, Robert Johnson Smith, Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. and Robert Johnson-Smith, From One Brother to Another: Voices of African American Men, Judson Press, October 1996, ISBN 978-0-8170-1250-2
• Frank Madison Reid, III, Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Colleen Birchett, When Black Men Stand Up for God: Reflections on the Million Man March, African American Images, December 1997, ISBN 978-0-913543-48-1
• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr., What Can Happen When We Pray: A Daily Devotional, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, June 2002, ISBN 978-0-8066-3406-7
• Wright, Jeremiah A. Jr., From One Brother To Another, Volume 2: Voices of African American Men , Judson Press, January 2003, ISBN 978-0-8170-1362-2
• Wright, Jeremiah A, Jr. (2004), "Doing black theology in the black church", p 13-23, 213-214. In Linda E. Thomas (Ed.), Living Stones in the Household of God: The Legacy and Future of Black Theology, Minneapolis: Fortress. ISBN 0-8006-3627-9
• Wright, Jeremiah. "Here I am, send me". In Awakened to a calling: reflections on the vocation of ministry, Ann M. Svennungsen and Melissa Wiginton (Eds.), Nashville: Abingdon Press, c2005. ISBN 0-687-05390-0
• Wright, Jeremiah. "In the Lord's house, on the Lord's day". In Awakened to a calling: reflections on the vocation of ministry, Ann M. Svennungsen and Melissa Wiginton (Eds.), Nashville: Abingdon Press, c2005. ISBN 0-687-05390-0
• Iva E. Carruthers (Editor), Frederick D. Haynes III (Editor), Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. (Editor), Blow the Trumpet in Zion!: Global Vision and Action for the 21st Century Black Church, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, January 2005, ISBN 978-0-8006-3712-5
• Ernest R. Flores and Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Tempted to Leave the Cross: Renewing the Call to Discipleship, Judson Press, November 2007, ISBN 978-0-8170-1524-4

Wright has written several books and is featured on Wynton Marsalis's album The Majesty of the Blues, where he recites a spoken word piece written by Stanley Crouch, and on the Odyssey Channel series Great Preachers.^[46][47]

See also[link]

	Chicago portal
	Biography portal
	United States Marine Corps portal
	United States Navy portal
	African American portal

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jeremiah Wright

• Biography at Answers.com
• Appearances on C-SPAN
• Jeremiah Wright collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Works by or about Jeremiah Wright in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Jeremiah Wright at the Internet Movie Database
• Illinois legislature resolution congratulating Reverend Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. on his retirement
• Von Hoene Jr., William A. "Rev. Wright in a different light". Chicago Tribune, 26 March 2008.
• Bill Moyers Journal - "Reverend Jeremiah Wright" PBS, April 25, 2008, interview
• Black Liberation Theology and Rev. Jeremiah Wright, interview with Dr. Dwight Hopkins, professor of theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, BeliefNet, May 2008
• Jeremiah Wright's Service to 3 Presidents photographs and newspaper articles
• Wright's blog at RH Reality Check (one post, February 7, 2008, on HIV/AIDS)

Sermons

• Wright sermons at the official channel of Trinity United Church of Christ on YouTube
• Audio of complete sermon by Wright from which the soundbite on 9/11 was excerpted.
• Audio of complete sermon by Wright from which soundbite "God damn America" was excerpted.
• The Audacity to Hope sermon from which the title of Barack Obama's book, The Audacity of Hope, is derived.
• Transcript Of A Jeremiah Wright Sermon given on January 27, 2008 Archived.
• Full video of Wright's 28 April 2008 speech on the Black church at the National Press club. Requires RealPlayer or Real Alternative