Religion doesn't have to be irrelevant, ineffectual, repressive...

Do you find more grace in the search for meaning than in absolute certainty, in the questions rather than in the answers?

Do you have religious interests and longings but cannot accept the beliefs and dogmas you associate with Christianity?

Are you disturbed by claims that Christianity is the "only way"?

Northshore United Church of Christ is a member congregation of The Center for Progressive Christianity. As a member of this group, our church affirms the following eight points of belief and practice:

By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who…

• Have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus;

• Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the way to God's realm, and acknowledge that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us;

• Understand the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus' name to be a representation of an ancient vision of God's feast for all peoples;

• Invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to):

  • believers and agnostics,

  • conventional Christians and questioning skeptics,

  • women and men,

  • those of all sexual orientations and gender identities,

  • those of all races and cultures,

  • those of all classes and abilities,

  • those who hope for a better world and those who have lost hope;
     

• Know that the way we behave toward one another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what we believe;

• Find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty - more value in questioning than in absolutes;

• Form ourselves into communities dedicated to equipping one another for the work we feel called to do: striving for peace and justice among all people, protecting and restoring the integrity of all God's creation, and bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers; and

• Recognize that being followers of Jesus is costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to evil, and renunciation of privilege

For more information about these eight affirmations, including study guides and questions for reflection, please visit the website of The Center for Progressive Christianity.