Courageous Actions of FCCB and the UCC

Our denomination, the United Church of Christ, and our church have taken a number of important stands throughout recent history.

The United Church of Christ* was the first:

• mainline church to take a stand against slavery (1700)
• to ordain an African-American person (1785)
• to to ordain a woman (1853)
• to ordain openly gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered persons (1972)

First Congregational Church of Berkeley

• was instrumental in the founding of UC Berkeley (1860s)
• recommended for ordination a gay man (1980s)
• founded Alzheimer’s services for the East Bay (1988)
• voted to be open and affirming (1995)
• sent a team to build houses in Mexico (1998)
• brought faith-based community organizing to Berkeley (BOCA-1999)