Our Denominational Relationships

First Church is unusual in belonging to not one, but three denominations. Many comment on the theological diversity that they imagine would make it difficult for a church to include both Baptists and Unitarians, for example. Two factors make this work much better than one might at first think possible.

First, all three of our denominational traditions stress the responsibility of the individual for their own beliefs, and a freedom from fixed creeds to which one must assent. And all three also allow the local congregation complete freedom in managing its own affairs. Baptists originated the idea of “soul freedom” and the separation of church and state, with respect for differing expressions of belief.

Secondly, there is a long history of cooperation between religious groups here in Sterling. Back in the early 1900’s these three churches which were begun because of their differences were having joint Sunday evening hymn sings and worship services. Perhaps this helped the Baptists to be more cooperative and understanding than some by the same name in other communities. And perhaps the Unitarians were encouraged to hold onto some of their traditional Christian beliefs and practices more than those elsewhere. In any case, there has been a “meeting in the middle” that has worked well for over fifty years. The result is that we are proud to be what is now called an “Ecumenical Shared Ministry”.

Organizationally, First Church is still what is technically called a “federated” church, from the by-laws that were established in 1949. Each denominational group has its own membership, officers and annual meeting. They continue to hold title to invested funds or property, but the use of these must be given to the First Church without restriction. (Other multi-denominational churches have a different structure with a unified membership.) There has been discussion of the pros and cons of this cumbersome structure, but no decisions have been made to alter it to date.

For a background on each of these Protestant “free-church” denominations, and a discussion of what it means to be an interdenominational member of First Church, use the links below.

United Church of Christ

Unitarian Universalist

 American Baptist

Interdenominational