Vision
The members of First Congregational UCC believe that our faith calls us to be citizens who seek to advance the cause of social justice in the world. A just society is one that respects the equal rights and opportunities of all citizens and that works to remedy the causes of inequality, including poverty, disability, discrimination, and other barriers to full citizenship. We are called to work for social justice through witness and participation.

We believe that we must look to our faith to guide us when we act publicly, as a body, in pursuit of social justice. Such guidance is applicable to our public action in the following ways: we can work to understand the connection between the principles of our faith and our public action; we can conduct ourselves in ways that exemplify our faith or serve to model faith-based citizenship; we can use our faith to inform the process by which we decide the issues and occasions of our public action; we can prepare to challenge accepted definitions of the issues on which we take a public stand and to be changed if we listen as well as speak. We understand our limitations that keep us from seeing the “right truths” but seek a process that allows more light and truth to break forth from God’s word.
Examples: Marriage Amendment – speaking out from a faith position, and joining others in the actions of educating and voting. Chiapas – traveling to witness, acting and sharing with our friends in Chiapas; speaking and writing to influence U.S. policy with Mexico, and exploring how our individual choices (e.g. consumption patterns) affect others outside the U.S. War – witnessing about Just War issues, joining in actions to oppose/support policy, acting in solidarity with brothers/sisters in other countries, and showing support for brothers and sisters who are in the military.

Five Year Planning Possibilities
◦ Strive to make clear the faith basis for public action. Action as a congregational body invites group discussion and clear statement of our faith basis. Conversely, our faith informs our public actions as we seek opportunities to reflect on our principles based on the work we do in the world and entertain challenges to our principles that arise from that work.
◦ Reach out to those who differ from us in important ways for our faith calls us to be inclusive in our outlook as we work to make the world more just. This is part of the “how,” not only the “what” of our political action.
◦ Pay attention to who sets our political action agenda. Seek broad support in the church for any formal collective action. Individuals may differ on the directions faith leads us and in such cases we commit to ongoing dialogue.
◦ Pay attention to how the issues in which we're involved are defined. People of faith are in a position to think broadly and deeply about issues, perhaps challenging the way issues have been defined by partisan groups. As we bring our perspective to bear, we take responsibility for questioning how issues have been defined. Example: in working against passage of the proposed marriage amendment, we question accepted definitions of "marriage" and "family," rather than accepting these terms as they are currently defined.
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