"U" is for Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches. The Reverend Troy Perry, a former Pentecostal clergyman, founded this Protestant denomination in Los Angeles, California in 1968. From the first Perry sought to create a church that would welcome those who felt excluded from most Christian churches. Affirming the historic creeds of Protestant Christianity, the church maintains a strong commitment to social action, particularly in the areas of discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age, and health. Consequently, the denomination boasts an extraordinarily high proportion of women clergy. Within five years after its founding, the UFMCC had churches throughout the South. In South Carolina there are congregations in Charleston, Columbia, and Greenville. Worship styles vary among congregations from charismatic to liturgical, but all Universal Fellowship Metropolitan Community Churches celebrate the Eucharist weekly.