UCC Removes "Heavenly Father"

[Jeremy Roenick]

A disturbing trend of denial is cropping up everywhere.  This is just one example.  I'm not here to judge the UCC, but you can only evaluate their faith by their deeds. 

http://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/faith-and-morals/8150-united-church-of-christ-votes-to-remove-heavenly-father-from-bylaws

Delegates at the most recent national meeting of the United Church of Christ (UCC) agreed overwhelmingly July 4 to strike the term “heavenly Father” from the denomination’s constitutional definition of the local church. By a vote of 613 to 161, the delegates voted to change language in Article V of the church’s bylaws (see page 3) from describing a local church as composed of persons who believe in “God as heavenly Father” to those who believe in “the triune God” — thereby relieving UCC members of the responsibility of acknowledging God as masculine.

Jesus referred to God the Father in prayer, and that's good enough for me.

[roustabout]

UCC. I believe that is Obama's group.

Maybe I can dig up some stuff I wrote on this a while back.

[Jeremy Roenick]

Yes Roust, I do believe that is Rev. Wright's church.

Considering the dribs and drabs of what I've heard preached in that pulpit, I'm not shocked at this development.  Saddened though.

[Sasquatch]

The UCC's chickens have come home to roost.

[roustabout]

I wouldn't make a mountain out of a mole hill. In fact I don't think Wright is 'officially' UCC. He is a radical off shoot who has his own agenda. Their doctrine doesn't line up with the official UCC. I don't know all the back story on this, so perhaps we shouldn't jump to conclusions.

This from the UCC.

The United Church of Christ embraces a theological heritage that affirms the Bible as the authoritative witness to the Word of God, the creeds of the ecumenical councils, and the confessions of the Reformation. The UCC has roots in the "covenantal" tradition—meaning there is no centralized authority or hierarchy that can impose any doctrine or form of worship on its members. Christ alone is Head of the church. We seek a balance between freedom of conscience and accountability to the apostolic faith. The UCC therefore receives the historic creeds and confessions of our ancestors as testimonies, but not tests of the faith. Linked on the right of this page are some of those testimonies.

Also

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before God in love.