Our history

The Keystone Conference of the United Church of Christ was formed by the merger of the four Pennsylvania Conferences – Penn Central, Penn Northeast, Pennsylvania Southeast and Penn West. These Conferences had started in 1962, soon after the birth of the United Church of Christ in 1957.

In January 2022, the Conference Ministers of the four Conferences gathered to discuss the urgency of issues confronting the UCC amid the divisions and hostilities of the day. They wondered how to answer Jesus’ prayer, ‘that they may all be one’ (John 17:21). They resonated with the spiritual hunger of church people and pastors and a desire to support the local church. They dreamed about new ways to embody gospel hope with the strength and giftedness of their collective clergy, congregations, leaders, and Conference staff.

They came to recognize that they were not the church they were when the denomination was formed in 1957 and the current contexts of ministry were very different. The “Keystone Study Group,” a group of representatives from all four PA Conferences, was brought together to expand the conversation beyond the Conference Ministers. They met to explore the issues facing the Conferences, to consider where God was leading them in this new day, and to consider how they might respond to the shared issues as one body.

The first Keystone Study Group meeting took place on October 15, 2022 and the group met faithfully every month through November 2024. They explored a Conference merger as well as other possible ministry-sharing options and concluded that one merged Conference was the best path. Members of the group learned much, experimented with ideas, experienced disappointment, prayed fervently, persevered, and worked diligently with great faith and hope. They rallied around the phrase “Together we are Stronger” and held to it as a foundational belief.

A combined Annual Meeting in June 2024 affirmed the energy and hope behind the idea that “Together We Are Stronger.” Therefore, on November 9, 2024, each of the four PA Conferences met individually and voted to formally send a resolution to the UCC General Synod to form the Keystone Conference from the merger of all four Conferences. The affirmative votes ranged from 89% to 98.6%. This resolution went on to a vote at General Synod on July 14, 2025, and passed almost unanimously. In all their steps those working on the Keystone Conference project felt the Holy Spirit guiding them. The combined response to the Synod vote was “Thanks Be to God!”

A logo contest ran during the summer of 2025 and the winning logo was revealed that October. The Keystone Conference was legally born on January 1, 2026.