UCC

I thought it was interesting that there are only 2 sacraments, and that communion is open to everyone, obviously two big differences from Catholicism. The fact that the Bible is inspired by God, but is open to individual interpretation with the help of a clergy member, is similar to Presbyterianism.
I also found it interesting, as Carla and Meghan pointed out in class, that there are some paradoxes in the stances of the United Church of Christ. For one, their main mantra seemed to be to not “play God,” and they say that any killing is wrong (which explains their opposition to the death penalty), but at the same time they have a pro-choice stance on abortion, even though they say that life begins at conception. Along with the “killing is wrong” stance, they are completely opposed to any war, but are ambiguous as to what should be done in cases in which genocide is occurring, such as with the holocaust.
The UCC reminded me of Presbyterianism in that they are interested in human dignity, in charity and justice; they are concerned with “the least of these,” and I would certainly say that Presbyterians are as well. They seem to match up in their stances on current social issues, such as pro-comprehensive reform in immigration and pro-choice on abortion.
I feel that the main difference between Presbyterianism and the UCC is that the Presbyterian Church puts more emphasis on institution and the universality of Church teaching and interpretation of that Bible, whereas the UCC puts more emphasis on the individual local congregations. In other words, the Presbyterian Church is closer to Catholicism than the UCC because of its universality.