The Lutheran Church and the United Church of Christ has many similarities and also some differences. I have a better understanding of this from the readings and from the presentation delivered by Carla and Meghan. One general thing that I observed is that both the ELCA and the United Church of Christ are liberal churches.
When it comes to sacraments in the two churches, they observe the same sacraments. They observe Baptism and Communion. In the United Church of Christ, Baptism is observed as a child and is part of the service. In the Lutheran church, they observe an infant baptism. Communion is a meal in remembrance of the sacrifice that God made for us all. It is open to anyone who believes and the age of the first communion is up to the parents. The fact that it is an open communion and the age at which children partake is the same for the Lutheran church.
Both churches have a very liberal stance on homosexuality. They recognize it in the church and ordain homosexuals. The Lutheran church that I am working with has gay members in their congregation and willingly accepts them. Immanuel does not have any open gay members and they are waiting for the situation to present itself.
To me, it seems like the United Church of Christ has a more liberal stance on abortion than the Lutheran church. The Lutheran church would prefer that it did not happen but understand special cases where the mother’s life is in danger or in the case of a child conceived due to rape. The UCC agrees with this but also says that it is the women’s choice.
The stance of war in the two churches is a little different. The Lutheran church recognizes that we live in a fallen world and accepts that war is bound to happen. The UCC sees war as “playing God” and they do not participate in that.
We did not talk about prisoners with Pastor Jay so I do not know what the Lutheran church’s stance would be on this issue. The UCC believes that prison is a place for rehabilitation. They also believe that the death penalty is wrong. They also believe that this is playing God. They are very vocal about the death penalty. I think that Lutheran’s would agree that the death penalty is wrong but I do not know for sure.
The UCC is in favor of women’s rights as is the ELCA. They both ordain women as pastors. It also seems from talking to Pastor Jay and listening to Carla and Meghan’s presentation that there is more prejudice against women pastors by other women. In the UCC there is more prejudice against the head pastors but the regular female pastors are generally treated well.
When it comes to the ELCA and UCC, it seems that both churches have the same stance on Immigration. They are for the rights of people as human beings.
The ELCA and UCC both recognize divorce but for different reasons. The ELCA recognizes that we live in a fallen world and sometimes it is better to get a divorce than keeping the marriage together depending on the situation. The UCC does not see divorce as a problem because they look at the context of this Bible. I have never looked at divorce that way. It kind of opened my eyes to that idea.
The UCC and the Lutheran church have the same ideas on human dignity and taking care of people that are in need in the neighborhood. St. John’s has the open closet, coats for kids, and various health care programs to offer to people in the church and in the neighborhood. Immanuel has the food pantry. Both churches help with this in bringing food to church and then it is taken to the food pantry. Both churches have an older congregation.
Immanuel wants what is best for the community and if that means packing up and moving it sounds like they would be willing to do it. They think someone who is better equipped to deal with the issue in the neighborhood should be working in that area. They are afraid to work in the community because of the violence etc. that has been going on lately. I do not see this in St. John’s. The open closet has almost two hundred people that come through on any given Saturday that they are open. They have people that work there from the neighborhood and it seems like they are more involved in the neighborhood. It does not seem like they are afraid to work with the people.
I think that the ELCA and UCC have a lot of similarities and some minute differences. I learned a lot this week about the United Church of Christ that I did not know before. I feel more educated about the different types of faith traditions.
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It looks like you got a lot out of the presentation, and you noticed a lot of similarities, but also the little differences. I think we'd all be better off, especially some of the more arrogant Catholics around Loras, if we were forced to look deeply into another faith tradition by interviewing another person the way we had to do it. You can be an asshole while you're reading a book about another church, but when you're listening to someone talk about their faith and how they feel about God, it's so much harder to judge. I know I feel a lot different about various denominations already from the presentations we've had.
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