Adopted January 24, 1993
The Bible places before us a vision of the world God meant for us — a world of peace, justice, good-will and mutual caring, a world of abundance for all, a world that is in harmony with all of God’s children and all of God’s creatures everywhere. Therefore, the members of Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ believe that God calls us to make the following three-fold covenant with each other and with God to become a just-peace church.
First, we pledge to seek justice, to oppose violence, racism, sexism, fear of differences, economic inequity and abuse of power and substitute acts of good-will and caring: to feed the hungry, to provide shelter for the homeless, to nurture the ill, and to prevent cruelty to any of God’s children or any of God’s creatures.
Secondly, we pledge to be peace-makers: to oppose violence between individuals, groups and nations. We acknowledge that in a diverse world conflicting ideals and values will inevitably exist. All have the right to express and defend their ideas but we will always work toward nonviolent resolution of such conflicts.
Thirdly, we pledge to strive to become good stewards of the lovely earth which God has given us as a home. God’s reign of justice, plenty and peace is hampered by the exploitation of the earth’s resources and population growth. We will therefore endeavor to become informed as to why this deterioration has begun and how it can be halted and then to take action to preserve that natural world and where possible to repair the damage that has already occurred.
These three concerns: justice, peace and integrity of creation are intricately woven together in God’s design. To neglect any of them is to neglect all. Therefore, we pledge to each other and to God in gratitude for the gifts bestowed upon us to keep this three-fold covenant as an expression of our faith in God.