Theological Vision Statement

In keeping with the UCC General Synod XV declaration as a Just Peace denomination, we at First Church, Pasadena, agree that a "Just Peace" represents the presence and interrelation of friendship, Justice and common security from violence.

We agree with General Synod XV's pronouncement and proposal affirming the United Church of Christ as a Just Peace Church. General Synod XV listed several biblical and theological foundations which form the basis of our declaration as a Just Peace church. They include the following:

Just Peace is grounded in God's activity in creation. Creation shows the desire of God to sustain the world and not destroy it.

Just Peace is grounded in covenant relationship. God creates and calls us into covenant, God's gift of friendship. When God's abiding presence is embraced, human well-being results or shalom, which can be translated as Just Peace.

Just Peace is grounded in the reconciling activity of Jesus Christ. Through Christ's suffering love on the cross, the power of sin in all its forms has been broken, and the possibility of friendship with God and with one another has been restored.

Just Peace is grounded in the presence of the Holy Spirit. God sends the Holy Spirit to continue the struggle to overcome the powers ranged against human beings.

Just Peace is grounded in the community of reconciliation: the church. As a Just Peace Church, we embody a Christ fully engaged in human events. The church is thus a real countervailing power to those forces which divide, which perpetuate human enmity and injustice, which destroy.

Just Peace is grounded in Hope. Shalom is the vision which we keep always before us. As Christians, we offer this conviction: peace is possible.

Resource: A Just Peace Church, by Susan Thistlewaite (Ed.) produced by the Office for Church in Society. UCC United Church Press, 1986.