Page One

To the Editor: 

As an alumna of Pacific School of Religion at the GTU, I was pleased to see your article on love and relationship issues for those in ministry. However, please be aware that all three of the students whom you interviewed and referred to as members of the “Church of Christ,” are in fact members of the “United Church of Christ.” You referred to the UCC once, but thereafter misidentified the students. 

There is a great difference between these two denominations in theology and practice. The UCC has long been in the forefront of dialogue and work for social and political justice. PSR is a multi-denominational seminary of the United Church of Christ with historic ties to the United Methodist Church and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), but no official connection to the Church of Christ, a much more conservative tradition. PSR President Bill McKinney is himself ordained in the UCC. Berkeley’s 1st Congregational Church to which you refer is a UCC congregation. I doubt that the students interviewed, two of whom I know extremely well, would identify as Church of Christ ministry students.  

- Carol J. Barriger 

Berkeley