The Rev. Michael Ellick (Judson), the Rev. Stephen H. Phelps (Riverside) and the Rev. Donna Schaper (Judson) march with other New York City faith leaders as they parade a 'golden calf' to the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park on Oct 9. (Photo Tom Martinez)

The Occupy Wall Street movement that started mid-September in New York City is rapidly spreading to cities across the United States and is generating response and participation from UCC ministers, seminarians, congregations and Conferences.

Clergy and lay members from New York's Judson Memorial (UCC/ABC) and The Riverside Church (UCC/ABC) marched to Zuccotti Park in downtown Manhattan on Oct. 9 carrying a handmade golden calf resembling the famous bull statue near the New York Stock Exchange. 

"This is a spiritual issue," the Rev. Michael Ellick of Judson told the crowd in the park. "You [protesters] remind us that our Wall Street bull has become a false idol, a golden calf and a symbol of our spiritual poverty."

"Some say faith leaders should stay out of this," Judson senior minister the Rev. Donna Schaper told the New York Daily News. "But actually . . . the Hebrew and the Christian scriptures are full of warnings about the acquisition of wealth to the harm of others and of the requirement that the poor and dispossessed be cared for."

Judson also opened its bathrooms for use by the protesters and held an interfaith service in Washington Square Park, across the street. 

In New Haven, Conn., the Rev. John Gage, senior minister of United Church on the Green UCC, erected a large tent behind the church to provide a place for Occupy New Haven participants to pray and hold services. "Many folks in our pews at United are reporting that they're finding their long-suffering hope renewed by the enthusiasm, constructive spirit, and creativity of the protestors in our own backyard here in New Haven," said Gage.

Connecticut Conference staff composed and circulated a prayer "for those who have been deprived of a just place in our nation's economy; for those who take offense that some have received the nation's help and failed to return even gratitude; and for those who have been vilified by association."

In Massachusetts, representatives from a number of Boston-area UCC churches have been serving communion in ecumenical services held Wednesday evenings at Occupy Boston. The Rev. Jim Antal, Massachusetts Conference Minister, posted a statement this week on the Conference website that reads, in part: "For 2,000 years, disciples of Christ have identified with the poor, oppressed, marginalized and disinherited. There can be no doubt that those witnessing through these many 'occupations' are boldly lifting up those same values."

In a number of cities, including Spokane, Wash., and Grand Forks, N.D., UCC churches are volunteering to be gathering sites for Occupy organizing. At Spokane's Westminster Congregational UCC,  pastor Andrea "Andy" Castro-Long is meeting with area clergy planning to become protest chaplains like those in Boston and New York who support the occupiers by helping with food distribution, talking to homeless persons who wander into the sites, and "letting the occupiers know that they have prayerful support." 

"We want to be the voice of Jesus Christ in this movement," Castro-Long says.

Jennifer Brownell, pastor of Hillsdale United Church of Christ in Portland, Ore., brought her 9-year-old son, Elijah, with her to Occupy Portland.

"I wanted to show him that if you're going to be a citizen in our democracy, you have to get out there," Brownell told the Portland Tribune.

The Rev. Chuck Currie, a United Church of Christ minister and the associate director of The Westar Institute, wrote this week in the Huffington Post: "For Christians, supporting the Occupy America protests should be clear-cut. The protesters are lifting up principles of compassion, justice and love. These principles are central to the Christian faith."