Open and Affirming

Our Open and Affirming Statement

We, the members of the First Congregational Church of Montclair, New Jersey, declare ourselves to be Open and Affirming (ONA). In so doing, we wish to honor and embrace our founding principle that discrimination is incompatible with Christ’s gospel of unconditional love.

We acknowledge that in the past the Christian church has often condemned and excluded people because of race, culture, age, gender, economic status, disability or sexual orientation. While the church has made progress in being open and affirming of many groups, there continues to be condemnation of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons by the community of faith, or at least, a tolerance of such condemnation and exclusion through silence. We believe such actions are inconsistent with Christ’s teachings.

With God’s grace, we seek to be a congregation that includes all persons, embracing differences of sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, religious upbringing, age, mental and physical ability, as well as racial, ethnic, or socio-economic background. We recognize, celebrate and give thanks for the diversity in which God created us, each in God's image and loved by God. We welcome all to share in the life and leadership, ministry and fellowship, worship, sacraments, responsibilities and blessings of participation in our congregation.