Organ music plays as white upper-class couples and families take their seats in church pews.

An African American woman holding a fussy baby sits down in a pew only to be catapulted into the air as the pew ejects her out of her seat. A gay couple is ejected. One by one people of different ethnicities and social classes are hurled from their seats by the ejector pews.

The screen fades to black and the message “God doesn’t reject people. Neither do we.” appears.

With an ethnically diverse group of happy young, old, gay, and straight churchgoers, they assure viewers that “no matter where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here.”

This describes the commercial for the United Church of Christ currently airing on networks, welcoming the community into the church doors. It is part of the church's aggressive plan to fill church pews on Sunday mornings.

“Everyone who is not a church person, and those who have been hurt by institutional religion, can put their toe in the water and see that we are radically welcoming to everyone, and the commercial really shows that,” said the Rev. Kyle Lovett of Saint John’s UCC in San Francisco.

The Rev. Lovett said the church has seen a steady growth in the congregation since the first ad ran and said the commercials have been a positive experience for the church.

The commercials are part of a five-year “God is still speaking” campaign by the UCC, which was formed in 1957 when several denominations merged. It claims 1.3 million members in 5,725 congregations in the United States and Puerto Rico. Seventy-eight UCC congregations in California, 15 in the Bay Area, and three in San Francisco, have declared their support for the commercial and for welcoming and affirming lesbian and gay people and recognizing their relationships, according to the United Church Coalition for LGBT Concerns.

Bradley Zeledon, 20, sophomore theater major, said he is hopeful for the future of organized religion but remains skeptical of a single church running a commercial.

“A church running an ad is just like a business running an ad," said Zeledon. "The church is an institution and the more people they get in the more money they get."

While approximately 15 broadcast and cable networks have rejected the “ejector pew” ad, it has been accepted and is running during April on several others, including A&E, AMC, BET, CNN, CNN en español, Headline, Hallmark, History, TBS, TNT, E!, Lifetime, Sci-TV and Azteca America. CBS and NBC have declined to air the ads, saying they do not accept “advocacy” advertising. Viacom has also rejected the campaign because of the political nature of its content.

To the surprise and disappointment of many in the gay community, LOGO, a Viacom-owned TV channel catering to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community, is among the cable networks rejecting the United Church of Christ’s ad.

Dr. Christopher Carrington, associate professor of sociology and graduate director of the human sexuality studies program and former Unitarian chaplain at the Denver General Hospital is frustrated with LOGO for not running the ad.

“They want our money but could care less about our spiritual and communal well being," said Carrington. "I will no longer watch LOGO and I think the gay community should complain loudly to the advertisers on LOGO."

The Q Network as well as Here! network are running the ads for free as a public service to the lesbian and gay community.

Ryan Foster, 24, a senior theater major, said he would like to see LOGO run the ad as a free public service but can recognize the difficulty in seeing that through.

“Maybe if the ad wasn’t tied to one church it could be more of an advocacy thing,” said Foster. “Tied to one church and one denomination it makes it more of an ad for that church than an ad for religion in general being accepting.”

An earlier version of this advertising campaign with a similar message won the Association of National Advertisers Multicultural Excellence Award in 2005, beating out Microsoft and MasterCard.

The Rev. Lovett calls the UCC, "the best kept secret in Christendom.”

“People are seeing that this is for real - there really is a church that is this accepting," said the Rev. Lovett.

To find out more information about the UCC commercials visit www.stillspeaking.com.