The clever answer to that is….

“Our faith is ancient, but our thinking is not.”

Our answers to that question come out of our strong relationship to Unitarian Universalism and Progressive Christianity.

The principles of each are listed below.

 UU Principles

·          The inherent worth and dignity of every person

·          Justice, equity and compassion in   human relations

·          Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations

·          A free and responsible search for truth and meaning

·          The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large

·          The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all

·          Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part

• Words and deeds of prophetic women and men which challenge us to confront powers and structures of evil with justice, compassion, and the transforming power of love;  

• Wisdom from the world's religions which inspires us in our ethical and spiritual life;  

• Jewish and Christian teachings which call us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves;  

• Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.

The Center for Progressive Christianity

8Points of Progressive Christianity

1.      Have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus.

2.    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.

3.    Understand the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus’s name to be a representation of an ancient vision of God’s feast for all peoples.

4.    Invite all people to participate in our community and worship life without insisting that they become like us 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.

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

6.    Find more grace in the search for understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty – more value in questioning than in absolutes.

7.    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.

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