Posted on 07/12/2011 6:49:43 AM PDT by Cronos
Delegates at the most recent national meeting of the United Church of Christ (UCC) agreed overwhelmingly July 4 to strike the term “heavenly Father” from the denomination’s constitutional definition of the local church. By a vote of 613 to 161, the delegates voted to change language in Article V of the church’s bylaws (see page 3) from describing a local church as composed of persons who believe in “God as heavenly Father” to those who believe in “the triune God” — thereby relieving UCC members of the responsibility of acknowledging God as masculine.
Explaining the change, which reflects a trend toward gender-neutralizing (and in some cases feminizing) God that has been in vogue throughout the denomination for years, UCC spokesperson Barb Powell told World Net Daily: “In the UCC, our language for God, Christ and the Holy Spirit ... is preferred to be more open for different expressions of the Trinity. Heavenly Father is just one vision.”
Noting that the denomination wants the language it uses to be “inclusive,” Powell told WND’s Bob Unruh that “therefore we will tend to change language that is more traditional to be more inclusive.” She noted, for example, that some UCC pastors and congregations refer to God as “Creator” or “Father and Mother,” rather than maintain a masculine designation. “There are a lot of people who decided, if God still is speaking to us, there is more light and truth to break forth,” she said.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
Though there is a group within trying to fight (read the article) that points out that
The website notes that the UCC has had a net loss in membership and congregations in every year since 1965. “Since 1990 the UCC has lost more than 250,000 members and 500 congregations,” the website explains. “We contend that those who have left represent some of our most spiritually mature and committed lay leadership as well as some of our most capable pastors.”
“Our Triune God, who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name.”
So the UCC’s answer to declining membership is to take it further into apostasy. Riiiight! Can you say “whitewashed tomb”?
The correct prayer in the UCC is "Our something something who art in somewhere, hallowed be thy name, whatever that may be"
There is a UCC “church” near my home. It is up for sale.
I guess its congregation vanished?
irving baxter http://www.endtime.com/
has a series on one world religion and
a new 4 part series on biometrics and the international i.d.
on channel 377 the church channel or tcc.
with mark lerner of the http://www.constitutionalalliance.org/.
“I guess its congregation vanished?”
Gee, I didn’t know the Rapture Of The Apostates had already occurred.
I went to a wedding at a UCC last summer. On a table in the foyer were stacks of church info on classes and upcoming events and such. One of the church offered classes was Transcendental Meditation. Just jaw dropping. I also noticed the lack of crosses and other Christian symbols in the church.
I think Baphomet the hermaphroditic Goat of Mendes is a more inclusive “god” to worship. Oops, we don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves.
"The United Church of Christ (UCC) is an American Protestant denomination with a long history of fighting discrimination based on race, gender, and now sexual orientation and gender identity. Being from the liberal wing of Christianity, they have tended to tackle matters of bigotry and discrimination long before many other denominations."
"In 2005, the UCC became the first major Christian denomination in the U.S. to promote same-sex marriage. They confirmed this position in 2007.
In other words, they went Liberal (not orthodox) years ago.
One word on this: FLEE
“There are a lot of people who decided, if God still is speaking to us, .....”
I think the problem rests in “lack of belief.”
So you’ve got what’s left after all the good people leave making the rules. Actually, you got all the Rev. Wright’s of the country out there preaching hate, preaching homosexism, preaching anti-semitism. That’s a false church my friend. A false church.
if they didn't have crosses, let me guess, they had a lot of other modern symbols, right?
its a non-church, a place where some liberals have interpreted the bible the way they want to interpret it
I grieve for their heresy, but I honestly think that, as a denomination, this reveals the judgement of God.
“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made.
So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” - Romans 1
God knows the heart. And there are times where, if a man rejects God, God rejects him - while still in this life.
There comes a point in a denomination where, if it rejects God, God rejects them. Then any remaining there need to come away, and separate themselves as Noah was separated from an evil world.
yet, this is a recent denomination — formed in 1957 as a result of the merger between the “Evangelical and Reformed Church” and the “Congregational Christian Churches”
While I don’t have an issue with the actual language change, their reason for doing it is quite silly. It really doesn’t accomplish what they were hoping, since we know quite clearly that Jesus, God in the flesh, was very much a male.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.