Our Hartford Church is Open & Affirming, Just Peace, Anti-Racist and Environmentally-Conscious

Immanuel Congregational Church, UCC strives to live out its vision as the church that loves and works for justice.

These are several important commitments as part of our identity:

Just Peace Church

As a Just Peace Church we seek to encourage reconciliation, forgiveness and peacemaking as core virtues in a world that prizes violence and aggression.

Open & Affirming

As an Open and Affirming Congregation we seek to offer a particular welcome to gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people, many of whom have felt exclusion from the life of the church as a result of their sexual orientation.

Anti-Racist

As an Anti-Racist community. We have committed ourselves to aspire to become a multicultural, multiracial community where God’s new reign is glimpsed through the coming together of people from different backgrounds, races and abilities.

Environmentally Conscious

As an Environmentally Conscious community. As an environmentally conscious church we seek to strive, individually and collectively, to be good stewards of the Nature and the environment and to address climate change through education and advocacy.

Below is the text of the Immanuel Church Covenant, recited each time new members are received into the life of the church.

The Immanuel Church Covenant:

Our Covenant With God And With Each Other Calls Us:

To affirm our oneness with the Church of Jesus Christ, uniting as a family in worship and service;

To worship God in word and music and by striving to live lives filled with justice, mercy and humility;

To love all people, embracing their diversity and treating everyone with dignity;

To dedicate ourselves in principle and action to promote peace and justice;

To find the God in each of us;

To walk together in all God’s ways, serving our community and the world;

To protect God’s creation, this earth and all that live upon it; and

To support each other on our spiritual journeys with open minds, loving hearts, and our personal talents and means.

Immanuel Congregational Church is part of the United Church of Christ. Formed in 1957 by the joining of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church, the UCC is a denomination that is modeling justice by voting to become Open & Affirming, Just Peace, and to embrace prophetic hospitality.