The Eight Points
by which we define
Progressive Christianity
By calling ourselves progressive, we mean that
we are Christians who…
1. Have found an approach to God through the
life and teachings of Jesus;
2. Recognize the faithfulness of other people
who have other names for the way to God's realm, and acknowledge
that their ways are true for them, as our ways are true for us;
3. Understand the sharing of bread and wine in
Jesus's name to be a representation of an ancient vision of God's
feast for all peoples;
4. Invite all people to participate in our
community and worship life without insisting that they become like
us in order to be acceptable (including but not limited to):
- believers and agnostics,
- conventional Christians and questioning
skeptics,
- women and men,
- those of all sexual orientations and gender
identities,
- those of all races and cultures,
- those of all classes and abilities,
- those who hope for a better world and those
who have lost hope;
5. Know that the way we behave toward one
another and toward other people is the fullest expression of what
we believe;
6. Find more grace in the search for
understanding than we do in dogmatic certainty - more value in
questioning than in absolutes;
7. Form ourselves into communities dedicated to
equipping one another for the work we feel called to do: striving
for peace and justice among all people, protecting and restoring
the integrity of all God's creation, and bringing hope to those
Jesus called the least of his sisters and brothers; and
8. Recognize that being followers of Jesus is
costly, and entails selfless love, conscientious resistance to
evil, and renunciation of privilege.
