National Association of Congregational Christian Churches - Relationships With Other Congregational Bodies

Relationships With Other Congregational Bodies

Another Congregational denomination whose member churches mostly stayed out of the UCC, the Conservative Congregational Christian Conference, came into being not primarily because of church governance disputes, but because of decades-long opposition to the dominant liberal theological orientation in the main part of American Congregationalism. Founded in 1948, the CCCC (or "4C's", colloquially) had no relation to the "continuing" movement per se, although some congregations may belong to both bodies simultaneously. The body requires its member churches to subscribe to, as its name implies, a standard evangelical statement of faith; neither the NACCC nor the UCC requires its congregations to adhere to any specific doctrinal position.

In fact, some NACCC congregations have actually retained nominal ties to the UCC, via the latter's listing of special "schedule" categories of membership. Resulting from the submission of the UCC Constitution and Bylaws to each individual Congregational Christian church for approval (a condition of membership to all UCC associations and conferences), those congregations who did not vote at all or voted disapproval but who did not take action to withdraw from their associations (or conferences, in the absence of associations) remained listed in that denomination's yearbook. As of 2011, 95 churches continue to hold this status in the UCC, although not all of them are NACCC members. Some NACCC churches, though, are simultaneously full members of the UCC.