Union Congregational Church

No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here.

Welcome!

Union Congregational Church (Union Cong for short) is a vibrant community of faith where we can connect to God through worship, service, education, and joyful community connections. We aspire to reflect Christian hospitality and Christ’s love by making everyone feel welcome and affirmed.  As a congregation, we seek to grow in relationship with God and neighbor, and to use our gifts to create a more just world. We invite you to join us at worship or at an event, ask questions, and mostly importantly, be yourself.

Statement Of Purpose

As Christians and as members of Union Congregational Church, United Church Of Christ, we believe it is our purpose and calling to…

  • grow in relationship with God and neighbor through communal worship, fellowship, mutual respect, prayer, and service;
  • empower each other, across generations, to discern Christian truth and meaning using a variety of sources;
  • welcome and celebrate God’s people, and affirm the many images of the Divine manifested in differing abilities and disabilities, ages, gender expressions, gender identities, sexual orientations, faith traditions, social and economic classes, ethnicities, colors, races, immigration statuses, and nationalities
  • minister to others using our spiritual gifts and financial resources ethically, mindfully, and creatively;
  • work to recognize and relieve systemic oppression, individual suffering, poverty, and isolation, through dialogue, action, and partnership with other religious and secular organizations;
  • honor the environment as God’s sacred creation, worthy of praise and protection;
  • reflect the love and grace of God in all that we do, joyous in Christ and grateful in the Spirit.

LGBTQ+ Open and Affirming Covenant

We welcome God’s people and celebrate the many images of the Divine manifested in differing gender expressions, identities and sexual orientations.  Union Congregational Church has welcomed LGBTQ+ people into the full life and ministry of the church since 2001, and we strive to continue to live into this commitment. In the United Church of Christ, our denomination, this is called being an “Open and Affirming” church.

Rev. Katrina At Sunday Worship: June 25, 2023

“People of God, let us pray:
Good and gracious God, God whose mercy is ever-expanding, wider than we can imagine. We pray as this Pride month comes to a close, giving thanks for all of the LGBTQ+ people who have, over the centuries, helped us understand our vision and understanding of your love. We give thanks for those who fought so that others would find a world more accepting – those who have been loud and proud so that all could find belonging. Help us to continually draw the circle wider, deepen our affirmation and embody a more extravagant welcome for all.”

Stay Connected

Ask a question, connect with Rev. Katrina, or sign up for our weekly newsletter to stay informed about upcoming events, reflections, and opportunities to get involved.

The United Church of Christ

Union Congregational Church (Union Cong) is a part of the United Church of Christ (UCC), a denomination known for welcoming all, loving all, and seeking justice for all.  The UCC was founded in 1957 by a merger of two denominations, but our denomination’s history goes back a lot farther than that. Known as a “denomination of firsts”: the United Church Of Christ was the first historically white denomination to ordain an African-American person, the first to ordain a woman, the first to ordain an openly gay man, and the denomination contained the first Christian church to affirm the right of same-gender couples to marry. Today, the denomination continues to change lives and live out a faith in the “still-speaking” God.

Each United Church Of Christ church belongs to both a larger group of churches (known as a conference), as well as a regional association. The purpose of both the conference and the association is to support, challenge, and strengthen local churches, bringing them together in community and mission and in relation to the larger church and society.

The national office of the United Church of Christ is in Cleveland, Ohio.

Union Cong belongs to the Central Atlantic Conference, and our association is the New Jersey Association.