“Charity is a matter of personal attributes, justice a matter of public policy. Charity seeks to alleviate the effects of injustice; justice seeks to eliminate the cause of it.”

--William Sloane Coffin, UCC Minister

Who We Are

Mission Statement and Guiding Principles

Justice Cinema                                                 

Becoming a Multiracial Church

Anti-Racism

UCC Historical Commitment

LGBT Family and Friends Group

Environment

Green Church Covenant (Approved 2008)

Green Sunday Services

Energy Audit

Outreach to the Community

Other Social Justice Actions

Fair Trade

            Advocacy Resources

Our Faith Our Vote

Voter Registration

Quote of the Month

Mission Statement and Guiding Principles (Faith in Action Group)

The Faith in Action group is dedicated to finding ways we at Bethesda UCC can put our faith into action regarding the issues facing our world today. Through experiencing God’s grace and the Spirit’s energizing presence, our hope is to move beyond charity and further into justice.

Mission Statement

We seek to encourage, support and inform people as they live out their faith with respect to the issues facing our world today.

Guiding Principles

Base actions on Scriptural study and reflection
Speak with a prophetic voice
Speak to the issues
Respect the opinions of others
Work with the UCC and other like-minded organizations

Justice Cinema

The Justice Cinema is a series of thought provoking films whose purpose is to view and discuss films dealing with peace, justice and social issues.  

Through Film and Discussions we have explored:

ü  How early events in the civil rights and gay rights movements still impact us today.

(“4 Little Girls” “Freedom Riders” and “MILK”)

ü  Environmental issues such as the scientific evidence of the human impact on Climate Change (“An Inconvenient Truth” and the 11^th Hour) and the narrowing supply of clean water for many people of world (“FLOW”)

ü  The issues of people who immigrate to our country to build new and better lives (“Ameerika” and “God Grew Tired of Us”)

ü   The difference people can make in by giving kid's opportunities to develop self-esteem, when society had already written them off (“Freedom Writers” and “War Dance”) 

ü  The issues of race as they intersect with gender, class and sexual orientation (“The Way Home”, and “Rabbit Proof Fence) 

ü  The current concerns and roadblocks of LGBT persons struggling to create their own identities (“For the Bible Tells Me So”, “Call Me Malcolm” and “Bullied’)

 

Anti-Racism

Bethesda UCC continues to work on becoming a church of extravagant welcome to all. Such a welcome is the work of worshipping, the work of learning, the work of trusting, the work of trying, and the work of removing obstacles. God is calling Bethesda UCC to deeper commitment which we know will take study, reflection, and prayer.

A group of us participated in an “Anti-Racism Training.” We learned the difference between being non-racist and anti-racist, the patterns of oppressors and the oppressed, definitions of racism, and levels and types of oppression – individual, cultural and institutional. We talked about cultural competency and the continuum on becoming a multiracial and multicultural church. It was a powerful and enlightening experience. We realize we must be bold to become multiracial and multicultural. We have to “welcome the world.”

We also sponsored an anti-racism training for our youth and invited youth from neighboring UCC churches.

This training led us to actively explore how BUCC could become a more multi-racial/cultural church and to clearly understand where we are as a congregation. We formed a task force using the Anti-Racism Audit developed by the Reverends Nathan Harris and Art Waidmann. We decided to focus our energy on “Welcome without exception” from our Church’s Mission Statement.  Surveys and interviews of members of the congregation and building users have been completed, and the team is presently reviewing all of the collected responses, and writing the report. We feel this self-assessment will highlight some of the positive aspects of BUCC, raise awareness of who we are, and will help us to guide our future planning as we become a more multi-racial/cultural church. 

 

 

LGBT Family and Friends Group

 

The LGBT Family and Friends Group is helping BUCC live up to it’s commitment to be an Opening and Affirming Church.  The group has focused on education and reaching out to the LGBT community, letting them know that they are welcome here at BUCC. This has been accomplished by films, discussions, proudly displaying rainbow flags, through our website, and our presence at Gay Pride Day activities. The group participated in the Gay Pride Parade and Festival activities with other UCC congregations in the Association being the very first faith community to have a float in the Parade. It was a witness to the metro-Washington community to spread the word that the UCC really does WELCOME everyone without exception.

 

The group also educated the congregation on the legislation that would legalize gay marriage in the state of Maryland.  A delegation from this group traveled to Annapolis in support of this legislation.  Bethesda UCC took a stand on this issue, in 2006, when we prayerfully thought through this issue and decided to support an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief for a case dealing with the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples to get married in the state of in Maryland.

For more information on LGBT issues go to http://www.ucc.org/lgbt/.

 

We hosted “Pioneering Voices” http://www.familydiv.org/ an exhibit created by the Family Diversity Project.  Through photographs and stories transgender people and their families share their lives.  This exhibit seeks to dispel and challenge damaging myths and stereotypes about transgender people.  In an effort to become more welcoming of transgender people we used “transACTION” a transgender curriculum for churches, produced by the Institute for Welcoming Resources, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force http://www.welcomingresources.org/.

 

Green Church Covenant

As faithful and loving people, we believe peace and justice are God's plan for all creation. God, the Creator, calls us to care for, appreciate, and enjoy all of creation. Relying on God, the Sustainer, we strive to live in harmony with all people and the environment by respecting and honoring God's creation. As humble stewards, we commit to deal justly with one another and the earth in all areas of our personal and our church lives. Through study, prayer, and reflection, we will strive to:   

Green Sunday Services

We have “Green Sunday Services” emphasizing the theological aspect of protecting God’s creation and reaffirming our “Green Church Covenant”.  We continue to look for opportunities to explore and act on environmental issues at Church and in our personal lives. 

Energy Audit

We have been moving from awareness to action in becoming better stewards of the environment both corporately and personally. We performed an energy audit which resulted in recommendations that, when implemented, will substantially reduce our carbon footprint.  We have already implemented several of the recommendations. We have replaced all our exit lights with super efficient LED signs, updated all our overhead fluorescent light fixtures to be more energy efficient, have added badly needed weather-stripping, and have placed new recycle bins throughout the church.   These changes have already reduced our carbon footprint. Further recommendations will be considered as we make updates to our building.

Environmental Outreach to the Community

We joined with Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light http://gwipl.org/ to work with other faith communities on environmental issues. We opened our doors to our neighbors and offered a free showing of the movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” We continue to host films that highlight environmental issues.  We participate with other organizations such as Rumi Forum, a gathering of diverse faith communities, which provided an opportunity for exchange of ideas, thereby multiplying the impact we have on our environment. We work with the Alice Ferguson Foundation to help keep our local Potomac Watershed free from trash and toxins. 

Fair Trade

We increased awareness of how purchasing Equal Exchange (fair trade) products support farmers around the world and backed it up with a system to make it easier for our congregation to purchase Equal Exchange products. We have added “fair trade” olive oil from a producer Palestine to our product line.  One of our members spent a week living with coffee farmers in Chiapas, Mexico, and she has increased our awareness of the impact purchasing fair trade products has on farmers around the world.  We are using the proceeds from the sales to support the “Holy Joe” project, which provides coffee to UCC military chaplains throughout the world.  These chaplains invite soldiers in Iraq into a safe and informal place where they can receive spiritual care and good coffee.  For more information go to http://www.ucc.org/justice/coffee-project/

Advocacy Resources

Members are invited to respond to timely social justice concerns through various forms such as signing petitions and contacting our local representatives.  Examples are healthcare issues, marriage equality in Maryland, support of Scotland Recreation Center funding in Montgomery County, and the Dream Act.  We keep people informed about advocacy resources available through the UCC’s Justice and Witness Ministries. For more information go to http://www.ucc.org/justice/

Our Faith Our Vote

We sponsor community voter registration drives, which is a part of a national UCC initiative called “Our Faith Our Vote.” The hope is that this and other actions will inspire dialogue about the importance of expressing our faith through civic participation. For more information go to http://www.ucc.org/ourfaithourvote/

Tents of Hope for Darfur

In July 2008, we hosted a gathering of our Potomac Association churches to meet Tim Nonn, the founder of the Tents of Hope project.  The Tents of Hope project was a one-year community-based campaign to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur, and to raise funds for the refugees.  Tents of Hope became an ecumenical and secular movement involving organizations throughout the United States.  Tents were chosen as both a symbol of the loss suffered by the 3.5 million Sudanese refugees as well as a symbol of hope caring, shelter, and our shared humanity.  In September 2008, we collected a special offering for the people of Darfur, which we donated to the ongoing work of Church World Service in Sudan.  Then, on November 7-9, 2008, we joined with hundreds of other churches, temples, schools, and civic groups who brought their decorated tents to the National Mall to raise awareness of the ongoing crisis and to advocate for the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers.  For more information go to http://www.tentsofhope.org/ 

UCC Historical Commitment

When the founding General Synod of the United Church of Christ met fifty years ago, the overwhelming majority of those present were men from a European heritage. The synod reflected little racial or even gender diversity. Since then, God has been working consistently with the UCC.

Over the years, changes have taken place within the UCC that paralleled changes in society. Such change was empowered by the civil rights movement, the emergence of liberation theologies from developing countries, the feminist movement, and the gay and lesbian movement. God worked among us through these voices.

Many members from distinct communities and congregations found solidarity, identity, and power within a predominantly European American denomination. Some of those same members challenged the church to make good on its ministry of justice and love.

In 1993, the 19th General Synod adopted a pronouncement that called on the UCC “in all its settings to be a true multiracial and multicultural church.” It reminds us of our vision as a denomination, “that they may all be one,” and names some of the impediments to reaching that vision. It identifies the sins of racism, discrimination, and bigotry. It also acknowledges changing economic, cultural, and social realities that impact the church as well as the world. The pronouncement presented the challenge: “A multiracial and multicultural church is called to participate in God’s mission of doing justice, loving kindness, and walking humbly with God through Christ in all communities with all peoples in all places.”

Most importantly, what compels us to be multiracial and multicultural in the United Church of Christ is not changing population demographics, but rather biblical and theological imperatives. It is a faithful response to God, creator of all people. This commitment continues to inspire the efforts of the Faith in Action Group. For more information click on http://ucc.org/justice/.

Quote of the Month

“When persons are not free to be their authentic selves, we all lose.  The full potential of those individuals is lost to society in general and our churches and institutions in particular.  God’s creative freedom is stifled because of our fear and prejudice.”  Rev. Rebecca Voelkel, Institute for Welcoming Resources and Faith Work Director.