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Gifts
*Once again, note the symbol of the Celtic cross
(back to top)
Our strategic plan for the next four years includes four emphases:
1) Embrace diversity, promote understanding and tolerance
2) Reach out to others
3) Teach
4) Minister through music
FREEDOM OF BELIEF---Disciples are called together around one essential of faith: following Jesus, who taught us to love god and love our neighbor. Believers are free to follow their consciences guided by the Bible, the Holy Spirit, study and prayer and are expected to extend the same freedom to others.
MINISTRY OF BELIEVERS---By virtue of our baptism, following the example of Jesus, all members are called to be ministers to one another and servant to those in need.
SCRIPTURE---We are a "People of the Book." We study the Bible to deepen our connection to God and others. We also affirm the role of tradition, reason and experience in discerning God's will for our lives.
OPEN COMMUNION---We celebrate communion weekly. It is open to all who are hungry for God's grace.
BAPTISM BY IMMERSION---In Baptism the old self-centered life is set aside and the new life of trust in God beings. While we practice baptism by immersion, other baptism traditions are honored.
Why Name A Church "Community?"
"We have all know the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that loves comes with community."
(Dorothy Day, The Long Loneliness)
Everybody talks about "community" these days, which is a sure sign that it is broken or lost. We read about the "white community" and the "Hispanic community." There is the "academic community" and the "religious community". None of these come very close to the kind of community Jesus came to establish as "The Kin-dom (Realm) of God." Think about the people who became his disciples. Under ordinary circumstances, Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot wouldn't have been caught dead together. But there they were, disciples of Jesus. James and John, hot tempered and impulsive, were in that group, along with Thomas, who was given to intellectual curiosity and cautious deliberation. Martha, the organizer and doer, was there, along with reflecting and studious Mary. Jesus has always attracted people who are as diverse as can be.
Biblical theology asserts that we are not only created in community but also for community. That is our intended destiny. Communities exist by shared symbols, language, communication and meanings.
---James B. Nelson, Embodiment
Two are better than one because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other, but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. ...A threefold cord is not quickly broken
---Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
It takes a village to raise a child."
---African Proverb
When we dream alone, it is only a dream. But when we dream together, it is the beginning of reality."
---Dom Helder Camara
So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you."
---Ephesians 4:25, 31-32