Commitment to Openness and Affirmation

In keeping with the Covenant of our church, we, the members of the Plymouth Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ in Plymouth, New Hampshire, respond to the call of the 15th General Synod of the United Church of Christ and to the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ by making the following commitment:

• Blessed by the bountiful care of God and by the support and love of one another, this church seeks to affirm all members of our fellowship and all who live in the greater community. We especially declare our openness and affirmation to all who have been diminished by prejudice, bigotry and oppression. We marvel at the many children of God and their varied talents. Yet we acknowledge that the world’s views have often prevailed and that these same brothers and sisters in Christ have at times been neglected or met with silence.

• As a result of this Church’s experiences, intentional study, prayer and action in dealing with those who may feel alienated from the Church of Jesus Christ, we lift up all people as equal brothers and sisters and resolve that this Church shall continue to seek ways to affirm and to include them.

• Recalling the example of our Lord, we resolve to welcome all people regardless of their economic status. We look and work for the day when success will not be measured by material wealth.

• Recognizing the enrichment of the Church calls for the involvement of all people, we resolve to welcome both young and old, as well as those of all physical and mental abilities. Remembering the Good Samaritan, we resolve to welcome all without regard to race or ethnic background. We shall be active in celebrating the rich texture of our cultural differences.

• Acknowledging that all are equal recipients of God’s grace, we resolve to welcome those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Just as many gifts from God differ from one person to another, we understand sexual orientation to vary.

• Knowing that in Christ there is no such thing as male and female, we resolve to welcome both men and women as equals. We welcome all people, in families, couples or as single persons, and hope that together we may work toward justice and peace.

Therefore, we declare that the Plymouth Congregational Church shall be an open and affirming Church for all people in both its membership and leadership. Knowing that this commitment poses a spiritual challenge, we promise to gently encourage each other in our own struggle to understand and accept, to pray for the strength to dispel ignorance, fear and hatred, and to choose to turn toward loving and away from judging, since only God is capable of pure impartiality. Resting in the guidance and inspiration of Scripture and believing that there are many interpretations of the Word, we acknowledge that God encompasses yet surpasses the written word, and we pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our continuing quest to be open and affirming.

January 26, 1992

Statement of Just Peace

The Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ declares itself to be a Just Peace Church and defines Just Peace as the interrelation of friendship, justice, and common security from violence for all people everywhere, beginning within our church and our community, and reaching beyond to our world.

A Just Peace is grounded in God’s activity in creation and God’s covenant with us, in the reconciling activity of Jesus Christ and our discipleship as members of the Body of Christ, in the presence of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s work through us, in the community of reconciliation, in hope.

We affirm the following as marks of a Just Peace Church: a community of hope, believing a Just Peace is possible; a community of worship and celebration, of Biblical and theological reflection, of study of Scripture and the Christian story, of spiritual nurture and support, of honest and open conflict about issues on which we cannot agree; a community of solidarity with the disadvantaged and marginalized, seeking to be present in places of oppression, poverty, and violence, standing with victims and those without a voice; and a community of loyalty to God and to the whole human community, above personal political or other loyalties. ​

We affirm the necessity of all nations working together to ensure that people everywhere are able to meet their basic needs, including the right of every person to food and clean water, adequate health care, decent housing, basic education, and the means to provide for these needs for themselves and their families in an atmosphere of freedom from exploitation, oppression, violence, and torture.

We further affirm our intention to encourage and support these rights without regard to differences, including but not limited to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, national, or social origin with freedom for all people to participate in their local political process and decision-making and to worship according to their own faith and practice.

We affirm our understanding that declaring our church to be a Just Peace Church is a statement of becoming rather than being, of process and intention, of a journey toward a destination rather than the assumption of permanent status.

We ground our declaration and affirmation in Scripture: and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? – Micah 6:8. In the Covenant of the Church: We hold it to be the mission of the Church to witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ in all the world while worshipping [sic] God, and striving for truth, justice, and peace. In the Call: Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ is called to be: OPENLY SEARCHING: We believe that the pilgrimage of all human beings is to understand God and God’s mission. As progressive seekers on a lifelong spiritual journey, we find more grace in the questions than in dogmatic answers, more faith in our search than in human-conceived answers. IN THE WAY OF CHRIST: We claim our voice as a Christian community, welcoming the challenges and opportunities as we approach God through the life and teachings of Jesus. Together we seek to imitate Jesus’ compassionate treatment of those often excluded from society. We covenant with each other and with God to do justice as Jesus did.

Grounded in these understandings and covenants, we promise to encourage each other gently, to pray for each other regularly, and to challenge each other lovingly as we each and all struggle to understand and accept our own places in the journey and our needs for the strength and wisdom to dispel ignorance, fear, and hatred. We promise further to choose love rather than blame and learning rather than punishing, as the reasons for whatever judging and discerning we feel called to do to discover our places, individually and together, on the path to Just Peace for all creation.

The Open and Affirming/Just Peace Committee accepts responsibility for bringing issues and information before the membership of the church in ways that educate, invite participation and suggest how individuals and/or groups might become involved in witness and action. Resting in the instruction and inspiration of Scripture, we pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our continuing quest for peace with justice, here and everywhere.