United Church of Hayward's Values Statement

As we prepare for this new year, the leadership of our beloved community is aware of and troubled by ongoing and unfolding challenges in our nation to human rights, civil rights, and democracy.

As a theologically progressive United Church of Christ community, with polity that privileges the voices of all members who are striving to follow the example and teachings of Jesus Christ, we resolve to continue to hold fast to our faith and to act in accordance with our spiritual calling to “Love God with heart soul mind and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.” (Luke 10:27)

We believe that all humans are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Thus, in our beloved community and alongside likeminded religious communities, we will strive to feed those who are hungry and thirsty physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We will work to welcome the stranger, to clothe the naked, to take care of the sick, to visit the prisoner, and to attend to the needs of those who are disenfranchised and in pain because as Jesus says clearly, “When you do it for the least of these, you do it for me.” (Matthew 25:35-40)

In keeping with our commitments to love our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 10:27),  we will also continue to evaluate and dismantle white privilege in ourselves and in our communities; we will view our nation’s history with open eyes – including our legacies of creativity and innovation, as well as slavery, Native American genocide, misogyny, and violence. We will participate in creation with God in myriad ways, including supporting the arts and valuing the wisdom of scientific method through not “conforming to the world but being transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Romans 12:2). We will support refugees and immigrants because Jesus and his family were refugees in Egypt fleeing injustice and seeking safety and a better life (Matthew 2: 13-15), and this calling is articulated over forty times in our scriptures (Matthew 25, Deuteronomy 10:19, Jeremiah 22:3).

We will continue as a community that has committed to being publicly “Open and Affirming” to support and welcome ALL people, including foremost the LGBTQIA+ community. We especially recognize the supreme need for support of the transgender community at this time. (Romans 8:38-39 and Acts 8) We will also welcome our neighbors who are poor and unhoused, those with different abilities, and women and our elders. We will also strive to be stewards of the earth God has created by working in global community to avert Climate Catastrophe caused by wrongly conceived, misogynistically based theologies of “dominion over” Mother Earth and her resources (Genesis 1:28), for God’s covenants after the flood were with all of creation, not just Noah and his descendants (Genesis 9:17).

As “Seekers Embracing the Journey” foremost we value the scripture-rooted activity of loving God, our neighbors, and ourselves. We remain committed to growing spiritually and in relationship with each other and to embodying the presence and actions of Jesus Christ in the world. In doing so, we resolve to stand firmly in our values--even if those values come under duress in coming days.