Mission Statement
Bethel United Church of Christ is a regional congregation of people from diverse backgrounds, who are bound together by the love of God, the grace of Jesus Christ, and the sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit. We are in solidarity and partnership with Hoyleton Youth and Family Services and Illinois South Conference of the United Church of Christ.
We are an Open and Affirming congregation, recognizing the uniqueness of each individual as a gift from our Creator. We believe that God's unconditional love and acceptance, as modeled by Jesus Christ, compels us to welcome all people, regardless of race, gender identity, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, and physical or mental health and ability into the membership, fellowship, and leadership of Bethel church.
Together on our spiritual journey, we grow in faith as we
Adopted by the congregation October 2005.
The United Church of Christ embraces a theological
heritage that affirms: the Bible as the authoritative witness to
the Word of God, the creeds of the ecumenical councils, and the
confessions of the Protestant Reformation.
The UCC has its roots in the "covenantal"
tradition--meaning there is no centralized authority or hierarchy
that can impose any doctrine or form of worship on its members.
Christ alone is the Head of the church.
We seek a balance between freedom of conscience and
accountability to the apostolic faith. The UCC therefore receives
the historic creeds and confessions of our ancestors as
testimonies, but not tests of the faith. Some of the central testimonies
from Scripture and from the experience of the church are in the
UCC Web Site.
We are a united, and a uniting church. "That they may all be one," taken from John 17:21, is the identifying scripture of our church.
From this it follows that we are a church characterized by diversity within unity. We do not all think alike, we do not all believe alike, we do not all act alike. Out of our Evangelical background comes a motto that says, "In essentials, unity, in non-essentials, diversity, in all things, charity."
All of this functions in an atmosphere of responsible freedom. No one dictates to a local church, or to an individual member, concerning the decisions that are made. We are free; but it is a "freedom in the gospel." That means that every congregation, every expression of the church, and every member will seek to make decsions in the light of the gospel and out of a sense of responsibility to the whole fellowship. And it means mutual respect in areas where we differ.
Finally, we are a church that serves in the world. We do not believe that the church exists for the sake of the church, but for the sake of the world for which Christ died. That is why we seek to work together across geographic and denominational lines to bear witness to the gospel in every area of life at home and abroad.
Visit UCC web sites at www.ucc.org and www.stillspeaking.org
The United Church of Christ is strongly committed to
ecumenical cooperation with other Christian Churches. On the
international level the United Church of Christ participates in
the World Council of Churches.
On the national level, this is expressed through UCC
participation in the National
Council of Churches
The UCC has also been in special
partnership with the Christian
(Disciples of Christ) Church since 1989. The two
denominations maintain separate identities, but agree to work
closely together nationally and among local churches.
In 1997, the United Church of Christ was one of four Protestant denominations that entered into an agreement for full communion. The four denominations are the UCC, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Reformed Church in America, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). The agreement does not merge the churches, but establishes a relationship in which members can celebrate Communion (Lord's Supper) together, and ministers can cross denominational lines, subject to the rules of each church. St. Paul UCC has historical roots in both the Reformed tradition of John Calvin and the Lutheran tradition of Martin Luther. One of the UCC's predecessors, the Evangelical Church of the West, was founded by Lutheran and Reformed immigrants from Germany. The agreement of full communion ends over 400 years of formal separation between many Lutheran and Reformed churches, although the groups have long agreed on fundamental issues.
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