PSEC is the link that connects our church’s various and diverse ministries both locally and globally. Together, we provide our local churches, pastors and congregations with the training and inspiration they need to carry out our church’s wider mission. We are stronger together; therefore, we embrace diversity, and above all, we spread God’s love!
The United Church of Christ is made up of 38 regional conferences, each with its own distinct identity. Pennsylvania Southeast Conference covers a diverse area: Philadelphia and its suburbs are in our southern region, but the conference also includes several small cities, and stretches into farming communities and the heart of anthracite coal region. Our churches are just as diverse, with memberships ranging from 1,500 to just a dozen.
PSEC is made up of 165 churches with 42,000 members in Philadelphia and the surrounding six counties. The conference is a unique blend of congregations, some that stem from the colonial foundations of our nation, to new ethnic and multicultural congregations that have become part of the UCC in recent years.
The area encompassed by the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference is the heartland of the German Reformed Church. The Conference continues to welcome new congregations to the United Church of Christ, enriching our history and broadening our knowledge of God’s works in our combined history. While our conference has identified primarily with the Reformed traditions, with some churches claiming a Congregational tradition, the growth in our Conference has been through the addition of African-American, Indian, and Hispanic congregations. The addition of these congregations deepens and broadens our historic roots while also enriching our community life and worship.
We are blessed with a compact geography that makes us one of the smallest conferences of the United Church of Christ geographically, and yet numerically one of the larger ones. Hence, we can offer many opportunities for support, training, and congregational formation to strengthen our local churches. The Administrative Center, headquarters for the Conference, is located in Pottstown and no congregation is more than 2 hours away. This proximity makes it possible for both clergy and lay people alike to attend worship services, seminars, and workshops; and to participate in the Ministry and Mission Teams of the Conference.
These resources may be helpful in learning more about the Conference:
