Credo

I believe in Almighty God: Rock, Mother, Father, Creator.
I believe that Almighty God created all that is, seen and unseen.
I believe that the creation stories we have are myths to help us understand God’s acts in the history of the world.
I believe that something’s being myth can be True without being factual.
I believe in Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Word of God made flesh.
I believe in the Dominion of Christ, and that Christ makes the rules, and we do not.
I believe that we are to love everyone and let Christ sort us out.
I believe that Christ came to take way the Sin of the whole world, not just the two-leggeds, or the any-leggeds for that matter, and not just those who in this temporal life “decided to follow Christ.”
I believe that the Christ event altered all of history and that in the fullness of time all creation will be restored to right relationship with God and with itself as a result.
I believe that Christ was fully God and fully man, but that Christ’s being a man on earth doesn’t confine Christ to masculine-gendered language.
I believe that Christ was born of a virgin.
I believe that Christ died.
I believe in resurrection, but not always in the resurrection of Christ’s body.
I believe, that as an Easter person, resurrection is what is important to me, and that the resurrection of Christ’s body is not on what my faith hinges; there are forms of resurrection other than that of bodies.
I believe the Christ is now with the Almighty God as part of the One God, Holy and Triune.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is with us now, guiding us into the path of peace and the way Christ gave us as an example to live.
I believe that the Holy Spirit has always spoken to God’s people through humans, despite the frequent unwillingness of God’s people to hear God’s words, particularly when they are challenging the status quo.
I believe that God is still speaking through the Holy Spirit.
I believe that when Jesus told the disciplines he still had many things to tell them that they could not bear, he meant that the Spirit would always be with us revealing things that people of the past could not have been able to bear.
I believe that the Church, despite her many parts, is still one, holy, catholic, and apostolic.
I believe that as long as the Church professes Christ as Lord she is still one and catholic, regardless of local behaviors or practices.
I believe that apostolic faith has been passed through Scripture and Tradition and that apostolic succession is not necessary for the professing the faith of the apostles.
I believe that the apostles left ways for us to know their faith, such as scripture and documents pertaining to worship, without having to trace a lineage of laying on of hands.
I believe that the Church is holy, not by establishing a new law of do’s and don’ts for its member to follow, but by plunging into ministry on behalf of the world’s hurting ones and making the world a better place.
I believe that in baptism we are grafted onto the body of Christ, our sins – past, present, and future – are forgiven, and we are marked by and given the gift of the Holy Spirit.
I believe that in the fullness of time all that once was, is now, and is yet to come will be united with Christ in Christ’s return, when we will feast at the heavenly banquet together forever.
I believe that worship should be common. Common worship can hold bodies together when there are many divergent views of the Christian faith.
I believe that the work and worship of the Church cannot be separated, no matter how hard one tries to separate them.
I believe that the liturgy of the Church shapes the people and should enable them to fully live into the vows of their baptisms in the world.
I believe that the Creeds are of God and shape and fold Christ’s followers.
I believe that the music of the Church affects the way the people of the Church perceive God; if Unitarian songs are sung, the people’s concept of God will be Unitarian. If songs are bloody and about Christ's death, the people of God will focus on blood and death rather than resurrection. If songs are about our dying and going to heaven and not fixing this world, God's people will not work to fix this world.
I believe that the Church, through it’s proclamation of the word, its praying to the Triune God, its singing of the faith, and additional resources such as classes, Bible studies, retreats, and community building, should strengthen God’s people in making the world a better place.
I believe that the Church is to be welcoming and inclusive to all, but not tolerant of all things.
I believe that inclusion does not mean that there are no expectations from members of the Church and that accountability is not the same as exclusion.
I believe that the Church should speak when things are morally wrong, particularly on behalf of the marginalized and society’s voiceless, especially when civil government is perpetuating oppression
I believe that nationalism has no place in spaces set aside for Christian worship or in Christian worship.
I believe that Christians are resident aliens whose primary citizenship is in heaven.
I believe silence is tacit approval and that not objecting to the objectionable puts corporate and individual guilt on those who participate directly or indirectly in oppressive acts.
I believe that claiming a belief in Christ requires not just an intellectual assent, but also action that reflects that assent.
I believe that when the Gospel is separated from a community of faith, it ceases to be the Gospel of Christ.
I believe that being in community is messy and sometimes people get hurt, though injury should not be intentional. In addition to injuries forgiveness is part of part of being in community.
I believe that in the way God has forgiven us in our baptisms and we find forgiveness at the Eucharistic table, we are to forgive all wrongs done to us and to seek the forgiveness of others when we’ve done wrong.
I believe that the table is central to the Christian faith.
I believe that all tables where people gather together and make themselves vulnerable – from discussion groups to daily meals to the Eucharistic feast – are places of God’s presence and places where people grow closer to one another and to God.
I believe that there is a place at all tables for all kinds of people: young, old, rich, poor, gay, straight (and in-between), men, women (and in-between), just, unjust, bitchy, sweet, a multiplicity of racial identities.
I believe that they should not only be welcomed, but sought out – not as tokens but to enrich the perspectives of everyone present at the table and because we are all made in the image of the Most High God.
I believe that people should be safe to be themselves at the table, and that they should not feel like they have to pretend to be something else in discussion.
I believe, as an historian, that language is an excellent primary source and reflects traditions of the day in which it was spoken and written, and that original uses of terms about God are not the only ways by which God can be referred.
I believe in language that enables the people of God to understand God in the innumerable ways in which God can manifest Godself, gendered to reflect masculine and feminine images, gender-neutral to reflect God’s transcending gender, and any variety of images of metaphor so that God’s people can try to understand that which cannot be understood.
I believe that language is power, and that including different kinds of images enable more people to relate to God, and it is not merely being politically correct but seeking to make God more available to more people.
I believe that the Bible is the word of God and contains all things necessary for salvation, but that human beings - who are not God and as such are fallible - recorded God’s message.
I believe that the overarching them of the Bible is that God loves God’s people and has tried to show throughout history that God does.
I believe in following what Christ taught as literally as seems humanly possible, or even more than seems humanly possible.
I believe that watering down the Gospel to domesticate it and make it easier to live is exactly what Christ did not want to happen.
I believe in placing a higher emphasis on the Gospels and Christ’s life than on one-sided conversations between an apostle and a variety of churches whose circumstances and behaviors we cannot and do not fully know.
I believe that cultural context is necessary for understanding Truths that God wanted revealed to God’s people.
I believe that God loves us all as we are without condition, and that love and grace win over everything else.
I believe in loving God and loving others and that doing one requires the other.