About Us
Mission
We exist to be an authentic, open and affirming community of faith centered in Christ.
Vision
We believe God has called us to celebrate our faith in service to our community, to support and nurture spiritual growth, and to promote justice and peace. With God’s grace, we seek to be a congregation that includes all persons, embracing differences of sexual orientation, gender, marital status, age, mental and physical ability, as well as racial, ethnic, or social-economic background. We welcome all to share in the life and leadership, ministry, and fellowship, worship, sacraments, responsibilities and blessings of participation in our congregation. Our ministry prepares us for an active faith, supporting alliance building with initiatives that are consistent with our mission and values. We also support the wider mission of the Rocky Mountain Conference and the world-wide mission of the United Church of Christ. Our church is open to all as a teaching and resource center.
Values
- We value the Bible, using its history of humanity’s encounters with and understandings of God over the centuries in our worship and life
together. We are especially grateful for the accounts of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ found in the New Testament. - We value the shared experience of the method and discipline of contemplative prayer for all who seek a deeper personal experience of the divine presence.
- We value the practice of open communion, the sharing of bread and wine in Jesus’ name, which is a representation of God’s love for all people.
- We value lay ministry. Whenever possible, the ministries of this church will be carried out by non-ordained servants.
- We value all people. We are committed to all people just as they are without regard to race, faith, culture, or sexual orientation. We value the dialogue and friendship between people of differing perspectives.
- We value a commitment to the Holy Spirit. We are committed to spiritual creativity and encourage the use of our unique spiritual gifts.
- We value service, justice, and peace. We are committed to justice and common security from violence; in our homes, our church, our community and throughout the world. We are committed to resolution of conflict through peaceful processes.
- We value God’s creation. We are called to be good stewards of our natural environment.
Whole Earth Covenant
- We believe Scripture teaches that God's first instruction to humanity was to keep the garden and all its inhabitants throughout the Earth.
- We accept that the covenant God made with Noah to preserve life was made with all animals and humans.
- We believe Jesus uses parables about the abundance of nature and the equitable distribution of the fruits of the earth to teach us of God's justice.
- We believe some of humans' impact on Earth destroys what God has created and deprives future generations of their God-given heritage.
- We believe that as stewards of this Earth, we must recognize that conservation of God's creation is an act of fidelity to the covenant God made with us.
- Given these beliefs, we, the members of the Gunnison Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, resolve to do the following:
- We, as a Church and as individuals, will show leadership in conserving God's good Earth by reducing our energy consumption.
- The Church will provide education and leadership in spreading the principles of the Whole Earth Covenant to all parts of our lives and the lives of those in our communities.
- The Church will honor all creatures, all life, and the Earth as blessed by God in liturgy, worship, prayer, policies and practices.
- We will challenge ourselves and others to be responsible stewards for the Whole Earth.
A Just Peace Church
The vision of a Just Peace is a hallmark of United Church of Christ theological identity. For nearly two decades, the Just Peace Church program has been a grassroots movement of UCC congregations committed to corporately naming and boldly proclaiming a public identity as a justice-doing, peace-seeking church.
Our Just Peace Church identity has become an important symbol for our congregation. It both shapes the congregational identity and offers a theological framework for doing justice-based theological reflection.
What does it mean to be a Just Peace Church in times like these?
For many the Just Peace identity involves ministries of direct service, legislative advocacy, and courageous witness. The approach differs from person to person: Some are immersed in anti-war and anti-militarism issues, while some focus their energies on U.S. policies affecting various war impacted countries around the globe. We invite your involvement as we continue to shape our congregation's direction in this critical movement.
More on the UCC commitment to a Just Peace can be found here.
An Open and Affirming Church
GCC was founded as an “open and affirming” (ONA) congregation. We are committed not only to being open to all but to affirming that openness to the community and to the world. Our congregation is not just saying “We will not reject others” but “We will welcome others.” More can be found on the ONA stance at the UCC web site.
We, the people of the Gunnison Congregational Church - United Church of Christ, seek to be a community of Christians who celebrate and live in openness to the voice of the Still Speaking God. We celebrate the beauty and uniqueness of each expression of God's diverse family as well as our oneness in Christ. As we seek to lives of compassion and promote justice, healing and wholeness of life, we welcome into our community persons of every gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, mental and physical ability, age, race, nationality, economic and social status, faith background, marital standing and family structure. We invite them to share in the life, leadership, ministry, fellowship, worship, sacraments, responsibilities, blessings and joys of our congregation as we seek to grow together in faith and love.