Brief history of Community UCC

By Curt Wilson, (Revised 10/04) (onto website by H. Dickel)

Community United Church of Christ (CUCC) began the celebration of its 150th Anniversary in November, 2003. CUCC itself was formed as a merger of three churches on Jan. 14, 1968. The three churches were the First Congregational Church, UCC, of Champaign, the First United Church of Urbana, and St. Andrew's United Church of Christ, of Urbana.

The Congregational Church was founded in 1853 in Urbana, but then moved to West Urbana (later Champaign), after the railroad came through. A church often called the "Goose Pond" Church was built just east of the Illinois Central tracks at what is now University and First (1855). A plaque commemorating this church stands just north of the Police Station. When the church formed it was a strong temperance church and a strong anti-slavery chuch. The Goose Pond Church was an early community meeting place, and welcomed Abraham Lincoln twice for speeches. Two other buildings in downtown Champaign later served as the church home. Many members of the church were faculty members. University buildings named after members include Noyes Laboratory, Talbot Laboratory, Davenport Hall, David Kinley Hall, Townsend Hall, Hopkins Hall, Forbes Hall, Babcock Hall,Taft Hall plus Willard Airport. Many students also attended. The church readily agreed to move to campus, rather than have a new "University" Congregational Church started on Campus. The present building was dedicated in 1921.

The First United Church of Christ in Urbana began as a Christian Church in 1886, and the first church building, in the 400 block of West Main St., was dedicated in 1889. A new church was built in 1910 at 402 W. Main. (This building is now home to the Canaan Missionary Baptist Church.) The church hosted the Quadrennial Convention of the International Association of the Christian Denomination in 1926, when they voted to merge with the national Congregational Church to form the Congregational-Christian Church.
The church was proud that it quickly changed its name to Congregational-Christian, and then to United Church of Christ when the national mergers occurred. This church had 362 members in 1933.

St. Andrew's United Church of Christ was established in 1960 as a mission church assigned to Southeast Urbana by the Illinois Conference of Churches, under the auspices of the North Illinois Synod of the Evangelical and Reformed Church. However, the national merger of the Congregational-Christian and the Evangelical and Reformed denominations had occurred in 1957, and St. Andrew's always went by the UCC name. The church was unable to rent space in Yankee Ridge School, so the Synod built a house at Mumford and Anderson with room for about 100 worshippers in the mostly open building. (This building is now occupied by the Disciples of Christ Community Church.) The church grew to about 75 members by the mid-60s.

In 1903 the Congregational Church assisted in starting the Sunshine Sunday School at Fifth and Grove St., to serve the north end residents. In 1910 funds were raised for a church building, a church named the Plymouth Branch was established, and the members were also members of the First Congregational Church. Anna Beardsley, after whom Anna Beardsley Hall was named (see plaque on east wall of what is now called Fellowship Hall) taught Sunday School there for nearly 40 years. The church eventually became independent, then disappeared, and the buiding no longer exists.

Both the Congregational and the First United Churches were suffering losses of membership in the 1960s, and St. Andrew's had stopped growing. Merger talks began in 1965, and the fall of 1967 the three congregations began worshipping together in the sanctuary we now use. The formal merger into the "Cooperative Ministry" and the service of dedication of the new congregation were celebrated in January of 1968. At the time of the merger there was a total of 572 members, but many were inactive. There were problems over the question of who should be minister of the newly merged church, but eventually all three minister resigned and the Rev. Arthur Gerhold was selected as interim minister in the fall of 1968.

Rev. Lionel Miles was called to be the minister of the Cooperative Ministry in January, 1969. The name Community United Church of Christ was selected in January, 1970. In 1975 Rev. Miles and the Men's Fellowship revived the Campus Ministry for UCC students as the United Church Foundation. Rev. Miles was also instrumental in organizing the Martin Luther King Jr. Service of Celebration, which met in our church for the first time in 1984. The church welcomed a number of Vietnamese and Eritrean refugees during the 70's and 80's. Rev. Miles resigned in May, 1985, and was followed by Rev. Jeffrey Belcher as Interim Minister.

Rev. A.J. "Jack" Good was called as minister in August of 1986, and served until June, 2001. He was noted for scholarly sermons that formed the basis for three books. He worked to promote the Campus Ministry and the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship program and actively participated in Illinois Conference affairs, including a year as Conference President. A major renovation and addition to the building was started in 1987, and further renovations in the 90's greatly improved parts of our old building. In 1995 Community UCC became the first church in the Eastern Association to become an Open and Affirming Church. Rev. Jeffrey Phillips and Rev. Jane Courtright served as Interim Ministers before we welcomed Rev. Michael Mulberry as our minister in October 2003.

Starting in 1921, campus student ministry was done under the names of Congregational Students' Association, Pilgrim Foundation, Seabury Foundation and the United Church Center. From 1963 to 1975 the UCC student ministry was merged into an ecumenical organization known as the United Christian Fellowhsip. Since 1973 the UCC Campus Ministry program has run under the auspices of Community United Church and the United Church Foundaiton. The program was led by seminary interns form 1975 until Rev. Karen Bush became Campus Minister in 1985. CUCC provides space for the ministry and much of the financial support, but UCF is a cooperative venture with St. Peter's UCC of Champaign. Sidney UCC was also active in support during the early years. The Illinois Conference, UCC, supports UCF through the Illinois United Ministry for Higher Education.