Looking back on the history of the UCC, we have often been the first church to venture into new ecclesiastical territory. While being first isn’t always laudable, the church needs people who break ground and open new possibilities. I am proud to be part of a denomination that has so often done just that. Here’s a very incomplete list of some UCC firsts taken from their web site.

1636 Harvard is the first American university.

1640 Pilgrim Press is the first publishing house on this nation’s soil.

1646 The first Bible published in the new world is printed in the Algonquin language.

1773 The Boston Tea Party, America’s first act of civil disobedience, was hosted at the Congregational Old South Meeting House.

1773 Phillis Wheatley becomes the first published African American author.

1785 Lemuel Haynes is the first African American ordained by a mainline Protestant denomination.

1806 The modern Mission movement begins with five Williams College students.

1807 Congregationalists organize the first American seminary at Andover, Massachusetts.

1846 The American Missionary Association becomes the first anti-slavery society with a multi-racial leadership.

1853 Antoinette Brown is ordained, a first for any woman in a mainline church.

1972 William Johnson is ordained, the first openly gay individual in any church.

1976 Joseph Evans is elected president of the UCC, the first African American of any mainline denomination.

Over the years, The UCC has had a tendency to show up on time for the major issues of the day. For that I am appreciative.