Welcome to the Conference!
Rooted in the grace of God, the mission of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ is to nurture local church vitality and the covenant among our churches to make God’s love and justice real.
As the largest Protestant denomination in Massachusetts (370 churches and 70,000 members), we are also the Commonwealth’s oldest denomination, with roots going back to the Puritans and Pilgrims.
The Massachusetts Conference is one of 38 regional bodies of the
United Church of Christ (UCC), which has 5,100 churches and 1.1 million members.
We follow a “still speaking” God whose revelation continues in our time. We seek to listen to God’s voice as we engage with pressing challenges of today, including
climate change and the call fo full inclusion of
lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered persons in our churches and society. Our churches offer
an extravagant welcome, proclaiming, “No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.” And we believe the church’s mission is to change lives – a mission we express by saying, “Never place a period where God has placed a comma.”
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The leaders of the Conference are guided by a
vision statement that centers on depth, courage and bridge-building. We seek and encourage a deep connection with Jesus, believing that this will inspire bold, courageous and joyful efforts to help build God’s realm of Shalom. Bridge-building is important both within our churches and beyond - approximately two-thirds of our members have come to the UCC from other denominations, or from no denomination. And we talk openly about initiating the trans-denominational church movement.
We seek excellence – not only in our nationally recognized
Pastoral Excellence Program – but in countless other ways. Perhaps that’s why over half of all the UCC clergy under 40 years of age serve in the Massachusetts Conference.
We gather as a Conference twice each year for
“Super Saturday" to offer over 30 workshops to nurture vitality and make God’s love and justice real, and we offer numerous special programs to enhance worship, expand vision, inspire generosity, promote growth, and support education.