We Are Not Alone

A Tent of Our own Making is a series of gatherings in the United Church of Christ where leaders across the UCC have been convened by the General Minister and President to talk about the diversity of the church, the future of the church as well as identity and belonging. The September gathering was the third. The church is complex in its diversity. People don’t always see eye to eye. There is suspicion and questioning of why some are present in the life of the church.

Along with UCC members, the last event included ecumenical partners. Rev. Philip Peacock, General Secretary for the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), provided a keynote address that grounded, transformed and challenged those present. The WCRC includes 100 million Christians from more than 230 member churches in 109 countries across the globe. The UCC is a member of the WCRC, a body that reflects a diversity that is deeper and wider than what we find in the UCC. Member communions do not always agree and yet, there is a commitment to stay in fellowship and work through the challenges as they present themselves.

The Executive Director for Christian Churches Together (CCT), Dr. Monica Schaap Pierce, also joined us as a keynote speaker. CCT is also diverse. The website notes: Catholic, Orthodox, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Historic Black, and Mainline Protestant Churches loving across difference, learning across traditions, and leading together in faithful witness. While CCT is a national organization, there, too, diversity is evident in many ways and the intention to love and learn across differences is a value that is held by CCT members. The UCC is a member of CCT.

Representation was also present from full communion partners The United Church of Canada and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Those faith partners also have a breadth of diversity in their numbers. As they shared, their challenges are the same as they hold the tension of differences and the hope of Christian unity.

Like many denominations and faith-based organizations, the UCC has diversity in many categories, and truth be told, there has been no agreement to “agree to disagree.” Congregations are not the same in governance or composition. There are few assumptions that carry across the life of the denomination and can be held with consistency. Instead, the question of uniformity continues to be a challenge in the life of the church.

Every person is as unique as the fingerprints they have, coming into spaces where they are welcomed as they are, if expectations of receiving each person with dignity and respect are held, valued and met. The UCC has the opportunity to learn and grow together as a faith community across the settings of the denomination, and with the accompaniment of partners who are having similar experiences and asking similar questions about what it means to be diverse and how it can live with the tensions inherent with diversity.

Regardless of the differences each person brings to the church, commitment to care for and love one another is possible, if the choice is to hold the tension of diversity. If the interest in community is to create a space where all think and act alike, then the church is not the place because the diversity and differences are already present. If there is an interest in building the beloved community, then the church is the right place for transformative social change that can lead to Christian unity.

The Beloved Community held possibility for a country which was being torn apart by racism in the early 20th century. These days the problems of those days seem to be present, returning with full force with the accompanying hatred and partisan politics which are dividing churches and communities. Now is the time to build relationships and communities surmounting the conflicts, based on differences to ensure that the violence of the past is not revisited because of the amplification of differences.

This journey is undertaken with attention to the unity of the church and faith in God.

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