We are...
Trinity Community Church,
United Church of Christ,
We are a self-governing church in covenant with the broader United Church of Christ, a mainline Protestant denomination that values a personal relationship with God as understood and lived out through all of life, including the autonomous network of churches across the United States who define themselves as United Church of Christ. As such, our membership works together in covenant with one another to examine, understand, and experience how God is working in and through each other. As might be expected from our name, Trinity Community - we believe that in some fashion God, Son (Jesus), and Spirit is important for life's journey and somehow represents a community, one could say a family. How it actually works - what it actually means - what one actually calls it - is an individual lived experience that needs to be voiced and lived, we believe, throughout life and in all communities - including participating in a church community (hopefully Trinity Community). There is no one definition or understanding of God, Son, or Spirit that is more important or more valid than the one that each of us brings to the table to share - whatever that may be.
When you come to visit - be aware we are proud of our past history and the architectural details left by our ancestors. We are proud to be part of the historic Christian church starting with the earliest disciples. We are proud that our community started as a Lutheran mission church serving German immigrants on the near west side of Chicago, the Evangelical Synod of North America - and that heritage is still reflected in the structure of our building. But that was 1884, today we are truly United Church of Christ - we know that God, Son, and Spirit are much bigger and broader than our history suggested - we know that God works through each of us and we need to listen - for God is still speaking. Join us as we try to understand exactly what that means here and now for all of God's people.
The history of Trinity Community Church is interwoven with the history of the United Church of Christ (UCC). In 1957 the Evangelical and Reformed Church (which Trinity was at that time) united with the Congregational Christian Church to form the new United Church of Christ. The forebears of the UCC understood that their response to Jesus often meant being at odds with society – requiring resistance, daring and decisive action as they wrestled with issues facing their generation. When the Pilgrims set sail for the new world in 1620, their pastor, John Robinson, told them: “God has more light and truth to break forth from God’s holy word.” Our forebears took this to heart and, even though our history has had some misdirected efforts, we can look back at a number of significant “firsts.”
* Forebears of the UCC were the first mainline church to take a public stand against slavery, in the year 1700.
* We were the first predominately Euro-American church to ordain an African American as a minister – Lemuel Haynes in 1785.
* In 1810, we organized the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the first foreign missionary agency in North America.
* We were the church that initiated the defense of the Amistad captives in 1839, and supported their case to the Supreme Court, which eventually led to their freedom.
* We ordained the first woman to ministry, Antoinette Brown, in 1853.
* We were among the first to establish homes for orphaned children – like Bethany Children’s Home and Hoffman Home, both in Pennsylvania, which now are places for troubled young people and their families – and Bensenville, Illinois which is now LifeLink serving young and old alike.
* We founded some of America’s premier colleges (Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Oberlin, Elon, UC Berkeley, and Elmhurst); hundreds of schools to educate freed slaves after the Civil War; and African-American colleges (Fisk, Taledega, Huston-Tillotson).
* Noted theologian and pastor Reinhold Niebuhr, from Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois, composed the Serenity Prayer: “God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.”
* As a denomination, we were on the front lines of racial desegregation and, in 1959, we challenged the Federal Communications Commission to allow people of color to have access to and be seen on the televised airwaves.
* We ordained the first openly gay person, William Johnson, in 1972.
We often have been referred to as the “early” church, because we have been early in addressing the important issues facing our society and taking uncomfortable positions that sometimes go against cultural acceptability. Why? Because we love Jesus and we love people.
(Edited from the 2003 Annual Report of the United Church of Christ)
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