The Call
Guided by the love of Jesus Christ, Edgewood United Church seeks to be a community of healing, hope, and hospitality.  We celebrate the diversity that God created and seek to reflect that diversity in our community of faith.   In the Edgewood United Church Covenant Statement on Justice and Peace, we covenant “to conduct our common life in ways that reflect God’s inclusiveness of people of all nationalities, races, ages, abilities, genders, gender identities, and sexual orientations.” We believe we are called as disciples of Jesus Christ “to discover God’s message by standing with the poor, the victims of injustice, and those on the margin of society.”

In standing with those who have been marginalized because of sexual orientation or gender identity, we feel the need to speak and act with enhanced boldness as a congregation and to be more explicit in our inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people into the common life of our church.  The Christian church has often judged and excluded lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender persons from the community of faith or has been complicit by its silence.  These actions have served to justify, if not encourage, discrimination and violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.  It is time for Christians to declare that such practices are incompatible with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Covenant
Therefore, in response to the call of the 1985 General Synod of the United Church of Christ, we declare ourselves and Open and Affirming congregation and we covenant anew:

--to affirm that people of all nationalities, races, ages, abilities, genders, gender identities, marital statuses, and sexual orientations are embraced within the family of God and the fellowship of Edgewood United Church.

--to honor, support and celebrate the partnerships and families of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

--to encourage all persons to share their talents and energy in the worship, ministry, mission, educational programs, and leadership of Edgewood United Church.

--not to discriminate on the basis of race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality or marital status when hiring church staff and contracting for goods and services.

--to condemn acts of homophobic violence, to confront the continuing injustice of institutional discrimination, and to advocate equal protection under the law for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.

--to empower the Church Council to establish a Task Force to work with the congregation and its boards and committees to implement the covenant statement in the life and ministry of Edgewood United Church.

Adopted by the Edgewood United Church at a Congregational Meeting on May 17, 1998,  amended on February 7, 2010

   
   We, now, mindful of the bond which relates us to the Lord of all life and to each other, do covenant together to express in our individual and community life the spirit of Christ, made known or to be made known. Whatever it should cost us, we offer ourselves anew to the struggle for justice, peace and the integrity of God’s creation, that the Kingdom of God may draw near.

      Therefore, we will strive to live out this covenant in the priorities for the worship, programs, and ministries at Edgewood United Church. We covenant:

....to respond as a community of hope to God’s call to nurture the growth of peace and justice within ourselves and to work for justice and peace in our church, our community, our nation, and our world neighborhood;

….to confess our complicity in sin and evil, and our individual and corporate part in perpetuating systems of injustice, violence, and destruction;

….to discover God’s presence and message by standing with the poor, the victims of injustice, and those on the margin of society;

….to create in our congregation a zone of freedom in which differences may be expressed openly as we strive for mutual understanding and growth;

….to conduct our common life in ways that reflect God’s inclusiveness of people of all nationalities, races, ages, abilities, genders, gender identities, and sexual orientations;

….to nurture, love, and empower one another as we work together to respond to God’s mandate for justice and peace; and

….to act boldly in response to the kairos, the crises and opportunities, of our time.

 With this covenant, Edgewood United Church is declared to be a Justice and Peace Church.

Adopted unanimously by the congregation at the Edgewood United Church annual meeting, February 4, 1990 and amended on February 7, 2010.