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Article: Others unlikely to follow UCC lead on gay marriage.(News)(United Church of Christ)
- Article from:
- The Christian Century
- Article date:
- July 26, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 The Christian Century Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Members of the United Church of Christ, like their freedom-loving forebears in New England, cherish their local sovereignty and penchant for independent thinking.
Their ancestors, for example, were among the first to work against slavery, and in 1773 they helped spark the Boston Tea Party. They were the first white U.S. denomination to ordain a black man (1785). They also were first to ordain a woman (1853) and an openly gay man (1972).
So when UCC delegates in Atlanta voted on Independence Day to become the first mainline Protestant church to support civil marriage for gay couples, some might have wondered if it was something like the "shot heard 'round ...