Little River United Church of Christ

Here follows an excerpt from the church's website:

Little River was founded as a desegregated congregation in 1955, when segregation was still the law of the land. We also have the honor of having walked alongside and supported the first lesbian ordained clergy person in the UCC in 1982, as she and her partner were members for many years at Little River. We became an open and affirming congregation in 2001. We are building on this history of racial justice and LGBTQ rights as an antiracist and open and affirming congregation. When we say that all are welcome here, we mean it.

Little River United Church of Christ was founded in 1955 as the Congregational Christian Church of Fairfax County. We met in what was then the Annandale Elementary School until the construction of the present building in 1958. Our church was the result of faithful work by people interested in establishing a church in Northern Virginia where all races could worship together. The present church property sits on land once owned by one of the largest slave holding families in Fairfax County prior to and at the time of the Civil War. Read more here.

In 1985 the congregation voted to change the name of the church to Little River United Church of Christ to reflect the fact that members came from many traditions that had merged to form the UCC: the Congregational Christian Churches, the Evangelical and Reformed Church, and the Afro-Christian Convention.

Consistent with our welcoming tradition, in 2001 we formally declared Little River to be Open and Affirming, explicitly expressing a welcome to people of diverse personal and religious backgrounds – without regard to race, gender, age, physical ability, or sexual orientation.

We have benefited from long-serving as well as inspiring and effective leadership – having had only four senior pastors since 1955: Hubert Beckwith, Verne Arens, David Lindsey, and our current pastor, Shelli Poe.

Little River and its members have played active roles in the Potomac Association and the UCC Central Atlantic Conference. Having benefited from the support of an established UCC congregation when it was first formed, Little River has actively supported other UCC new starts in Centreville and Fredericksburg. We are currently strengthening our ties with the UCC of Fredericksburg.