Our Denomination

The United Church of Christ

Zion Blue Mountain is a member of the Heidelberg Association of the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference of the United Church of Christ. The United Church of Christ (UCC) consists of autonomous churches. By this we mean that local churches in the UCC make their own decisions, write their own by-laws, own their own property, hire their own pastors, elect their own lay leaders, etc. Local churches are not bound by decisions made at the denominational, conference or association levels.

However, having said that, we are in covenant with the denomination, conference and association. We do not exist in isolation, we are a member of the United Church of Christ. Local churches are grouped together with other nearby local churches into associations. Associations help local churches in tasks which are difficult for individual congregations to complete and/or are more appropriate to be performed by a wider body of the universal church (i.e. processing candidates for ordained ministry). Conferences are comprised of associations. Conferences serve the same general purpose of association at a larger level (to assist local churches in fulfilling certain tasks and/or performing tasks that are better completed at a more universal church level). Conferences generally have full-time staff while associations do not. Those full-time staff assist local churches and associations as they work towards the goals God has set in front of them. If you would like more information on our denomination, please contact the church office for a brochure or go to www.ucc.org for denomination news or www.psec.org for news at the conference level.