Hancock Church is a member church of the United Church of Christ (UCC). The UCC is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical confessional roots in the Congregational, Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,956 churches and 853,778 members.
Hancock is a proud partner of brother and sister congregations in the United Church of Christ. We support with our finances, our energy and our prayers the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC which consists of hundreds of congregations around the state. With them we engage in works of mission, learning and growth, and our ministers are strong participants in the Sustaining Pastoral Excellence Program of the Conference.
On a national level, we are in covenant relationship with United Church of Christ congregations. Together we are able to provide strong witness to the world of the Christian faith as we understand it: welcoming, inclusive, justice oriented, and spiritually guided. In our tradition, it is the congregations who sustain these wider efforts, and we contribute financially toward this wider witness.
We believe that most church work is best accomplished in vital congregations, but we are pleased to join with partner congregations to accomplish together what none of us could alone. To be a part of the UCC is to belong to a vibrant and challenging church, and Hancock is pleased to be regarded as a leading congregation in Massachusetts and the United States.
UCC Statement of Faith
—adapted by Robert V. Moss
We believe in God, the Eternal Spirit, who is made known to us in Jesus our brother, and to whose deeds we testify:
God calls the worlds into being, creates humankind in the divine image, and sets before us the ways of life and death.
God seeks in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin.
God judges all humanity and all nations by that will of righteousness declared through prophets and apostles.
In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord, God has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the whole creation to its Creator.
God bestows upon us the Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races.
God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be servants in the service of the whole human family, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.
God promises to all who trust in the gospel forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, the presence of the Holy Spirit in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in that kingdom which has no end.
Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto God.
Amen.