Adopted unanimously at Annual Meeting on September 17, 2023 after a well-informed, careful process open to our entire church family.

We, the members of the United Church of Strafford, Vermont, regard all people as beloved children of God.  We give thanks for the many and diverse gifts of God among us.

We declare ourselves to be an Open and Affirming congregation. We welcome and accept into full participation, membership and leadership, people of every sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, race, ethnicity, faith background, political affiliation, age, marital status and family structure, physical or mental abilities, education and economic status.  We acknowledge with humility that this list is not exhaustive and that the terms are in some cases harmful and evolving social constructs.  We honor the worth and dignity of all people.  We affirm all relationships founded on the principles of love, justice, the Golden Rule and treating others as they wish to be treated.

We commit ourselves to integrate the spirit of this covenant into all aspects of our church life.  We pledge to work to end oppression, discrimination and hateful behaviors whenever we encounter them, and, guided and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to help create the beloved community of God’s realm on earth.

Whoever you are, wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.

Open and Affirming Implementation Plan

Adopted unanimously, September 17, 2023

As an Open & Affirming church, we commit to seek ways to incorporate the spirit of our Open and Affirming covenant in our church life, including worship, mission, outreach, advocacy, individual and collective education and reflection, and mindfully crafting our interior and exterior spaces to reflect the covenant.

We recognize that in order to achieve our goals, we must also evaluate our fulfillment of the Open and Affirming covenant at Annual Meeting each year, as well as look for ways to live it as fully as possible, which could include seeking feedback on our progress from the communities we wish to be open to and affirming of.  The Fulfilling Our Vision Committee will also evaluate our implementation of this Covenant and continue to offer educational workshops for the church family and community on related issues.

This implementation plan is meant to be a guide.  It is also meant to be reviewed and amended as an iterative process as we strive to achieve our goals.

We will remind our congregation of our ONA status and commitments by:

• posting the covenant in the church building, such as on a prominent bulletin board;
• having a sentence about it in the bulletin each week (for example, saying “An Open and Affirming Congregation” in the heading, or saying, “We are an Open and Affirming Congregation. Whoever you are, wherever you are on life’s journey, you are welcome here.”);
• putting the covenant on a pew card and reading it in worship on appropriate occasions;
• including our Open and Affirming principles and related issues in our spiritual exploration with children and youth, in sensitive, age appropriate ways;

We will enact our commitment in our congregation by:

• Creating a community resource bulletin board at the church and online;
• Examining and incorporating new pronoun use in worship and church publications (with occasional exceptions for classic texts such as the King James 23^rd Psalm or beloved Christmas carols);
• Having nonbinary bathroom signs;
• Making our meeting spaces available to support groups and other organizations working on issues related to our ONA covenant;

We will share our commitment with our larger community by:

• publishing our Open and Affirming covenant on our website and in our newsletter;
• putting the words “Open and Affirming” on the church sign;
• putting symbols such as a rainbow comma on the sign or church building to indicate our allegiance with marginalized groups;
• seeking ways to communicate with publicly visible symbols or signs the full range of groups that we are welcoming, affirming and defending from oppression;
• making sure we are included in online listings of ONA churches.

In order to fulfill our Future Directions Vision, “to be a force, not just a presence, responding to wrongs, threats and destructive forces in the world and effecting positive social change, connecting religion to issues of peace, justice and the care of God’s creation,” we will live into our Open and Affirming commitment by actions such as:

• supporting or partnering with groups like local Gay Straight Alliances or anti-bullying efforts and other churches working on these issues;
• supporting other anti-discrimination efforts;
• performing weddings and other ceremonies or rites for all orientations and genders;
• continuing to educate ourselves and our community about the issues surrounding this commitment.