Welcome
to the Massachusetts Conference, United Church of Christ
We are a gathering of 411 churches with over 90,000 members, making
us the largest Protestant denomination in Massachusetts. Our
roots go back to the Puritans and Pilgrims who founded this
country, making us the Commonwealth’s oldest denomination.
The Massachusetts Conference is one of 39 regional bodies
of the United Church of Christ (UCC), which has 6,100 churches
and 1.4 million members.
The motto of the UCC is “That They May All Be One.” This
is from the prayer of Jesus (Holy Bible, John 17:11) for the
unity of the church. Members of the United Church have been
leaders in the movement to heal the divisions in the Christian
church, and local congregations welcome into membership people
from a diversity of religious backgrounds. Today, approximately
two-thirds of our members have come to the UCC from other denominations,
or from no denomination.
Our churches are large and small, urban, suburban and rural.
As a Conference, we support one another in spreading the Word
and doing the work of Jesus Christ.
On any given weekend in our churches, you may hear traditional
hymns or something more contemporary. You may meet people whose
families have been in America for generations, or those who
still speak the languages of their homelands in Asia, Central
and South America. You may find a church hall that houses a
soup kitchen or one that houses a coffee house for local performers.
You may find a church that has declared itself Open and Affirming
to gay and lesbian people, or you may find a congregation that
is theologically more conservative.
We hope you will consider visiting one of our congregations.
To find one near you, see our Directory of Churches.
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