The Coalition encourages UCC congregations, campus ministries, seminaries, regional bodies and other settings of the church to engage their members in serious study of sexual orientation and gender identity and to declare publicly their full welcome and inclusion of LGBTQ people.
The 1985 resolution had no legislative authority over individual congregations, which are autonomous, but set in motion a movement that spread rapidly throughout the church.
As a result, the UCC Coalition for LGBT Concerns launched an ONA program in 1987, led by the Rev.
Day and Donna Enberg, which raised funds from individual contributors, sympathetic congregations and private foundations.
In response to the perceived promotion of the ONA movement by denominational officials, 75 UCC congregations have identified themselves as "Faithful and Welcoming" by affirming the Lexington Confession (named for the North Carolina town where it was drafted), which affirms marriage as a relationship between a man and woman.