Bethany United Church of Christ

Worship Schedule:

9:00 am – Morning Worship
*** – Junior Church for children (age 5 through 4th grade) immediately following
“A Time for Young Christians.”
10:00 am – Fellowship in Zwingli Hall
11:00 am – Worship Broadcast on Blue Ridge Cable Channel 11



Bethany’s Core Values
As a Congregation in the United Church of Christ


1. We belong to Christ. Jesus Christ is central to who we are. We know God especially in Jesus, who lived, loved, died, rose from the dead, and is present today through his Spirit. Because we belong to Christ, we worship, love, pray and serve.

2. We are a people of extravagant welcome. Jesus didn’t turn people away, even those often rejected by others. We don’t intend to either. God welcomes, claims and loves all people – all people. No matter who – no matter what – no matter where we are on life's journey – notwithstanding race, gender, sexual orientation, class or creed – we all belong to God and to one worldwide community of faith. We are like a “company of strangers,” made family by the grace of God. God also feeds our hunger, forgives our sins and frees us from aimless wandering.

3. We are a people of worship and prayer, one in baptism and one at the table. Worship and prayer are central to our Christian life. Through the water of baptism, God embraces you - no matter who you are - and brings you into Christ’s church. At the Lord’s Table (Holy Communion), all Christians are welcome to share in a simple meal of bread and wine (juice). Here, we encounter Christ’s presence. Together, around the welcoming table, we recall God’s loving acts in Jesus, experience oneness in God, hope for a time when all will be fed, and anticipate the fullness of God’s love and justice throughout creation.

4. We seek a just and loving world. Jesus taught about the kingdom (realm) of God. This realm (wherever God rules) is one of love and justice, hope and peace. We see it in the past, particularly in the life of Christ. But we also glimpse it in the present, and look for the fulfillment of it in the future. God’s promise extends even beyond death to eternal life. God continues to break through the barriers of sin and death in the bold witness of God’s people. In gratitude to God, we seek to root out injustice; to stand in solidarity with those who are poor and oppressed; to give with inspiring generosity; to care
for the earth; and even to sometimes go against the grain of conventional norms.

5. We are a people of covenant, a united and uniting church.
Our unity as Christians is not found in unanimous agreement on doctrine or positions on current social issues. We are bound together in “covenant.” The Bible speaks of God’s holy covenants with people, communities of faith, nations and of all creation. We agree (or covenant) to walk together in all God’s ways on our spiritual journeys and be the church. We covenant with many other Christian denominations and local churches to do God’s work in the world. We pray the prayer of Jesus to his disciples, “that they may all be one,” the motto of the United Church of Christ.

6. We listen for the still-speaking God, who speaks through Sacred Scripture and who still speaks to us today. We believe that the Spirit of God led the ancient writers of the Bible to write about their experience of God in their own time. We believe that God still speaks to us today through those ancient stories as we read and ponder them with our hearts and minds. We also believe that God continues to speak to us today through worship and sacrament; through prayer and Christian fellowship; through the arts and sciences; through acts of compassion; and particularly in the voices of those who suffer. God is at work in our hearts and minds, in faith communities, and in the
wider world.
Adopted 4/16/13 by the Bethany U.C.C. Spiritual Council