United Church of Christ

United Church of Christ

The UCC came to the aid of the illegally-enslaved Amistad captives in 1839, an event that led to the U.S. Supreme Court's first civil rights ruling. It was the first church to ordain a woman in 1853 and the first to ordain an openly gay man in 1972.

Source: http://www.ucc.org/news/u010704.htm

Long before most other denominations were willing to affirm the leadership of women, our ecclesiastical ancestors accepted women as evangelists and ordained them as pastors. The first woman in America "ordained to the gospel ministry" by a recognized denomination was Antoinette Brown Blackwell. Almost 120 years later, the UCC took another pioneering step in ordaining an openly homosexual man to the Christian ministry, William R. Johnson.

Source: http://www.ucc.org/ucnews/jun02/past.htm