1966 to the Present

In large measure, the Southeast Conference was the product of the determination of national and regional leaders to comply with the mandate from the denomination's General Synod to align inter-church relationships according to geography instead of racial and ethnic groupings inherited from the past. Because of differences among the churches and pastors in the Euro-American Southeast Congregational Christian Convention regarding the denomination's involvement in the Civil Rights movement, the Southeast was one of the last regions in the country where all UCC congregations within its boundaries came together into one judicatory. Much of the immediate controversy was precipitated by a resolution from the Fourth General Synod, meeting in Denver, Colo. in July 1963, that called for the termination of financial support for churches and institutions that practiced racial segregation, and encouraged other UCC entities to do likewise. Only the adjoining Southern Conference, consisting of churches in North Carolina and Virginia, experienced difficulty organizing because of this, other than the Southeast.

After a failed attempt in 1964, the Southeast Convention, by a vote of only 54 percent, agreed to receive churches from the Congregational Christian (UCC) Convention of the South (African-American) and the southernmost congregations of the South Indiana Evangelical and Reformed Synod (Indiana-Kentucky Conference, UCC). This occurred at the Convention's annual meeting on April 24, 1965 at Central Congregational Church in Atlanta, Ga. The agreement brought the Conference officially into being on January 1, 1966. On April 23 of that year, meeting at First United Church (Evangelical and Reformed), Nashville, Tenn., annual meeting delegates adopted a constitution, consummating the process. The first officers of the new Conference were the Rev. Frederick A. Meyer, pastor, Central Church, Atlanta, moderator; Mr. J. Hubert Richter, member, St. John's (Evangelical Protestant) UCC, Cullman, Ala., vice-moderator; Miss Ellen Hull, member, Langdale Congregational Christian Church, Valley, Ala., recording secretary; Leslie Beall, member, Central Church, Atlanta, treasurer. The board of directors consisted of association representatives and chairpeople of commissions elected at large; initially, the Conference consisted of nine associations, but that number dropped to six by the early 1970s due to several of them merging.

Meanwhile, Conference staff and leaders, espousing the predominantly liberal outlook of the denomination, made extraordinary efforts to encourage churches to pursue aims such as advocating for peace in Vietnam, improved racial relations, and formulating a more articulate and relevant faith for the needs of the younger generation. This was particularly remarkable because Conference ministers, and associates, undertook these aims in addition to the daunting task of servicing the needs of churches spread over a seven-state region, which entailed much time and expense in travel and meetings distant from the Atlanta headquarters. Some churches were quite enthusiastic about all of these programs, engaging in experimental ministries and worship; others, mostly those outside the major metropolitan areas, resisted what they saw as an intrusion upon their traditions and autonomy, and these gradually began keeping to themselves, often only supporting their associations or customary benevolences. By the 1990s, many congregations simply decided to withdraw and form their own groupings or, just as often, become totally independent, a trait increasingly noticeable also among recently-established churches of fundamentalist or charismatic persuasion in the region. Those moves reduced the six associations down to the present three.

As with most UCC conferences, most of the Southeast Conference's current congregations antedate the 1957 union that formed the denomination. Until about the late 1990s, the Conference was either financially unable to support significant church expansion or experienced great frustration and lack of success on those projects it did enter into. Most of these have been centered in the metropolitan Atlanta area, where demographic experts have perceived the greatest patterns of growth. Even more problematic was the overweening fact that the Conference was dependent for many years on national subsidies simply to operate on a "maintenance" mode, let alone venture into expensive church building programs. Of course, the denomination was hindered by its lack of name recognition in the South (or, worse even, its confusion with the Churches of Christ, an entirely different evangelical Protestant tradition).

But, after years of decline and loss of disgruntled churches (which were mostly located in rural Alabama and Georgia), the Conference began to turn a corner in the 1990s, as it made an intentional effort to market its peculiar blend of evangelism and social service to both its existing congregations (through renewal programs) and especially individuals and churches disaffected from their historic traditions (e.g., Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and non-denominational predominently-gay groups). The Conference, and some of its churches, has recently made particularly effective use of the UCC "God Is Still Speaking," branding campaign.