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Who We Are
Visiting a Church for the first time can be a frightening experience. You might drive by a church for years and wonder what goes on in there. Sometimes your curiosity will get the best of you and you make the decision to attend. We know it can be scary walking through those big wooden doors, so we want to answer some of your questions. Then, when you come to visit you will feel more comfortable. We assure you though, that the hard part is making up your mind to visit. Once you are here you will find a haven of hospitality, beauty, and inspiring worship.
Mission Statement
To provide a spiritual home for a diverse and inclusive congregation actively seeking to spread God’s love.
Vision Statement
We are all on a journey of hope. As a diverse community of friends, we seek the inclusiveness of God’s love. We embrace the challenge to believe and to act, striving for social justice and caring stewardship. Convinced that love and laughter are God’s gifts, we celebrate a sense of wonder for all creation through the arts and worship. Inspired by our heritage, we continue our journey as an historic church whose greatest days are today and tomorrow.
The church was founded in 1923 and is the oldest established building and organization in Coral Gables. George Merrick, the architect and developer of Coral Gables, was the son of a Congregational Minister. To honor his father he built this church, which has continued to be not only an historic site but a significant force in this community. Known for its inspiring worship, outstanding music and arts program, a top notch early childhood center, and a bold and prophetic outreach program, the church has been a place of solace, sanctuary, and spiritual growth for many over the years.
Ultimately, the congregation decides all matters in public meetings by voting. The biggest such meeting is the annual congregational meeting, which occurs in January. In practice, it is very much like an old-fashioned town meeting. For the rest of the year, regular business is delegated to various boards and committees, whose members are elected by the congregation at the annual meeting.
We are both “Congregational” and “United Church of Christ” which makes for an interesting history. The UCC came into being in 1957 with the union of two Protestant denominations: the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches. Each of these was, in turn, the result of a union of two earlier traditions. So in a real sense, our roots are in the great Reformation movement as well as with the Pilgrims searching for religious freedom. Through the years, other groups such as Native Americans, Afro-Christians, Asian Americans, Volga Germans, Armenians, Hungarians, and Hispanic Americans have joined with the four earlier groups. Coral Gables Congregational Church is historically a Congregational Church but we proudly claim a home within the United Church of Christ.
We in the UCC cherish not only our rich and profound history but also our dynamic and vibrant ministry and mission yet today. The UCC has about 1.5 million members nationwide in over 6,000 congregations. The UCC is a church of many “firsts.” You could say we’ve always been an “act up” people. While it’s not always easy being first, it’s usually worth the risk. Among our many firsts, we were the first mainline church to take a stand against slavery (1700), the first to ordain an African American person (1785), the first to ordain a woman (1853), the first in foreign missions (1810), and the first to ordain openly gay lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons (1972). We value education for all people. We founded Harvard and Yale, as well as many historically black colleges, six of which remain affiliated with the UCC to this day.
This is always a bit of a challenge to answer, as the UCC has no magisterium, or overarching governing body that determines the specifics of faith and practice. This means that there is a great deal of theological diversity within the UCC and within Coral Gables Congregational Church. Perhaps the best way to tell you about the UCC is with the help of seven phrases from Scripture and tradition which express our commitments.
They are like the people of this diverse, culturally rich, and intriguing community we call South Florida. They come from as close as down the street and as far away as Sarasota to attend worship. They are young and old, economically fortunate and economically struggling; they are Hispanic and African-American, fair skinned and berry brown, gay and straight; they are native Miamians and transplants from around the globe. A common misconception is that Church goers, especially those of a traditional Church, are stuffy and standoffish people who don’t like newcomers. Nothing is farther from the truth here. We want YOU to experience our fellowship and closeness firsthand. We want you to feel comfortable and to enjoy worship, and we work hard to make that happen.
We are a traditional Church, which means that we have things like candlesticks, hymnals, choirs, organ music, and pews. But we are also a church that believes God is still speaking so we listen for new ways to respond to a new generation of worshipping people. On one Sunday you might hear a classical piece by Bach and the next week a jazz interpretation of Amazing Grace. We find humor in the ordinary and grace in the extraordinary; we worship with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other; sometimes the mood is gentle and quiet; and at other times it is exuberant and spirit-filled. While our services last about an hour, we have a saying that worship is over when it’s over.