UCC Series: We Play Well With Others
One of the things that attracted me most to the UCC was its diversity of thought within the denomination, and its deep and abiding partnership with other traditions both inside and outside the Christian faith.
In other countries like ours, the 20th Century included a number of united and uniting church movements. The United Church in Canada included the vast majority of Presbyterian, Methodist and Congregational churches in that country — and there was even talk and preparation for the Anglicans to join in. The Uniting Church in Australia has a similar story. The United States, though, never fully realized the movement. That’s OK. We’ve still got room in the UCC even for those who cling to their own labels and definitions.
Some challenge us because we have no prerequisite acquiescence to a set theology or creed. But how wonderful it is to join together with those who do! We are able to teach and learn from each other as we are on the great pilgrimage of faith. On Sunday mornings, one is bound to find as many theological outlooks as there are individuals in the pews. But we are not a group of individuals, instead we join together to fully engage and employ our God-given intelligence to attempt to understand God better, to more fully be about God’s work in our lives and in the life of the world around us through our discipleship. In a community like ours, how can we help ourselves from reaching out across sectarian lines?
So, yeah. We play well with others. Its a really neat thing.
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Daniel Ross-Jones serves as Minister for Youth & Young Adults at First Congregational Church of Palo Alto, United Church of Christ. Living in the San Francisco Bay Area for a time still measured in months, he is frequently getting lost and discovering treasures of a landscape very different from his Upper Midwestern roots. Green Jello Hotdish is a blog exploring the intersections of his days. 
