Facebook error sends UCC congregations into denominational dislocation

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

Facebook error sends UCC congregations into denominational dislocation

> Written by Staff Report
> July 18, 2011
> Due to a Facebook-generated error on July 15,
> many of the UCC's local church pages now read
> "Church of Christ" instead of "United Church of
> Christ." Page administrators can easily fix the problem.

> Many UCC members awoke on Friday, July 15,
> wondering if Facebook had transferred their
> church membership into a quite different, but
> similar-sounding Christian tradition.

In an apparent across-the-board error by

Facebook, UCC congregations and Conferences with
"United Church of Christ" in their page names
became incorrectly listed as "Church of Christ"
entities. The wholesale mistake even resulted in
the
<http://www.facebook.com/unitedchurchofchrist>UCC's
national page being briefly categorized as belonging to the wrong denominat ion.

"The good news is that the error can be changed
quickly by anyone who is an administrator of a
local church's or Conference's Facebook page,"
said the Rev. J. Bennett Guess, the UCC's
director of communications. "The frustration is
that each page will have to be corrected manually."

To correct the error, page administrators should
click on "Edit Info" at the top of your page,
then remove the light blue "Church of Christ" box
in the "Place Sub-Categories" field. Type "United
Church of Christ" (not "UCC") to locate and
attach the correct affiliation. Then click "Save Changes."

Guess said there could be a silver lining to the
error. "Many of our churches actually may not
have any denominational affiliation listed with
their pages, because only recently did this
grouping become available. Churches with "UCC" in
their page name, for example, were not affected
by the Facebook-generated error but most of these
still don't have 'United Church of Christ'
correctly listed either. So this is an
opportunity for all of us to finally get on the same page for real."

Guess emphasized that a church's page name or
title was not affected. "But what was affected is
the sub-head ? or the category listed under your
page's name and how people might search for our
churches categorically or denominationally," he said.

Confusion between the "United Church of Christ"
and "Church of Christ" (or more correctly, the
"Churches of Christ") is nothing new.  In many
Yellow Pages and newspapers, churches of both
traditions are often listed in one misleading
category, generally under the "Church of Christ"
heading "to the great frustration of many of our
pastors and members, and most likely to those
belonging to the Churches of Christ, as well," said Guess.

"When I was pastor of a UCC church in Kentucky,
our local 'Church of Christ' congregation once
took out a newspaper ad to explain that they were
not us," Guess said. "I always felt a little
guilty that we didn't reimburse them for half the cost of the ad."

"Churches of Christ" are autonomous Christian
congregations that often resist being labeled a
"denomination" but are associated with one
another through common history, beliefs,
doctrines and practices, based on an emphasis on
biblical inerrancy, especially the New Testament.
For example, most Churches of Christ reject the
use of musical instruments in worship because
they feel their use is not specifically
referenced or supported in the New Testament.

While the two names are quite similar and

understandably confusing, Guess said, there is
little direct contemporary correlation between the two bodies.

"The UCC is generally regarded as one of the
country's historically mainline and more
progressive Christian traditions, while the
Churches of Christ are equated with more
evangelical and conservative Christianity," Guess said.

"But because the United Church of Christ is an
ecumenical church that resulted from the union of
many widespread Christian movements, it's not
accurate to say we have no relationship with the
Churches of Christ," he said. "We do share some common history."

The Churches of Christ trace their roots to

several independent movements in the early 19th
century that occurred through the leadership of
Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and
Barton W. Stone. They were active in American
frontier settlements and cities. Those leaders
had declared their independence from various
denominations, seeking a fresh start to restore
the New Testament church and abandoning creeds.
The names "Church of Christ," "Christian Church"
and "Disciples of Christ" were adopted by the
movement because they believed these terms to be biblical.

"Over time, the Campbellites, as they were known,
settled into various traditions, including the
Christian Church that became, in part, one of the
four predominant streams that came together to
form the UCC," Guess said. "And generally the
more progressive Campbellites found their way
into the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ),
which widely supports the use of musical
instruments in worship, ordains women as pastors,
and shares a full communion relationship with the UCC."

Guess said his staff has contacted Facebook about
the error, but he thinks the onus is likely to be
on the UCC to fix the problem, one Facebook page at a time.