Trinity

The historical Congregational tradition, grounded in the Savoy Declaration (1658) and the Cambridge Platform (1648), fully affirmed the Nicene Trinity as inherited from the Puritan-Reformed tradition. The Savoy Declaration follows the Westminster Confession almost verbatim in its doctrine of God and the Trinity. The United Church of Christ's Statement of Faith (1959, revised 1981) affirms a Trinitarian faith using more flexible language — referring to God as 'Eternal Spirit,' Jesus Christ as 'crucified and risen Lord,' and the Holy Spirit as 'God present with us for guidance, for comfort, and for strength' — without requiring subscription to the Nicene formula.

The UCC is explicitly non-creedal: no creed or confessional statement binds member congregations or individuals. This means that while the mainstream of the UCC affirms Trinitarian faith as a living tradition, individual congregations and members hold a spectrum of views. Some progressive members and congregations have moved toward non-Trinitarian or radically open-theistic frameworks. The UCC Constitution affirms Scripture and tradition as sources of discernment without requiring specific doctrinal conclusions.