The Center for Progressive Christianity was created to serve "people who have spiritual interests and longings, but who cannot accept the dogmas they associate with Christianity. People who value the search over certainty in the life of faith. People who are put off by Christianity's claims of superiority over all religious traditions. People who want to be engaged in the struggle for justice and peace — throughout society as well as throughout the world."
These are the principal beliefs of the members of the Center for Progressive Christianity:
By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that we are Christians who —
- Proclaim Jesus Christ as our Gate to the realm of God;
- Recognize the faithfulness of other people who have other names for the gateway to God's realm;
- Understand our sharing of bread and wine in Jesus's name to be a representation of God's feast for all peoples;
- Invite all sorts and conditions of people to join in our worship and in our common life as full partners, including (but not limited to):
Believers and agnostics, without imposing on them the necessity of becoming like us;
Conventional Christians and questioning skeptics,
homosexuals and heterosexuals,
females and males,
the despairing and the hopeful,
those of all races and cultures, and
those of all classes and abilities,
- Think that the way we treat one another and other people is more important than the way we express our beliefs;
- Find more grace in the search for meaning than in absolute certainty, in the questions than in the answers;
- See ourselves as a spiritual community in which we discover the resources required for our work in the world:
striving for justice and peace among all people,
bringing hope to those Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers;- Recognize that our faith entails costly discipleship, renunciation of privilege, and conscientious resistance to evil — as has always been the tradition of the church.
If you share my belief that all of these statements are what Christianity ought to be about, you are invited to join The Center for Progressive Christianity as either a congregation or an individual. You can also contact the Center for the name and address of a congregation near you that has adopted these beliefs as part of their statement of faith.