United Church Of Christ

The United Church of Christ has encouraged member congregations toward greater inclusiveness in worship and related ministries, toward expanded social concern, and toward openness to visitors and new worshipers. The following entry describes how one local church has tried to realize these goals in relation to its worship service. The worship life of any local congregation reveals far more about that fellowship than one might surmise at first glance. Embedded in the various elements of a standard Sunday morning hour of worship are not only the obvious current approaches to music, prayer, and Scripture, but also the elements which reflect the history, theology, and wide range of expressions of the ministry of that local church and that denomination. Euclid Avenue Congregational Church in Cleveland, Ohio, serves as a representative example in the United Church of Christ because its long history shapes its present in so many ways and because the diversity of its membership reflects the…