Articles

Articles II-V

Excerpted from the Church By-Laws*

ARTICLE II – PURPOSE

The purpose of this Church is to bind together persons who believe in God, accept Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior, and depend on the guidance of the Holy Spirit; to provide
opportunities for Christian worship, teaching the Gospel, celebration of the sacraments,
and furtherance of Christian fellowship, to render service to all humanity and to strive for
righteousness, justice and peace.

ARTICLE III – POLITY

This Church acknowledges Jesus Christ as its Head and finds in the Holy Scriptures,
interpreted by the Holy Spirit through reason, faith and conscience, its guide in matters
of faith and discipline. This Church shall be an independent body amenable to no other
ecclesiastical authority, having within itself all necessary powers of government and
discipline. The government of this Church is vested in its members who shall exercise control
of all its affairs. It accepts the obligations of mutual counsel, comity and cooperation involved
in the free fellowship of the United Church of Christ, and pledges itself to share its common
aims and work.

ARTICLE IV – COVENANT

The objectives of this Church and its basis of fellowship are expressed in the following
confession and covenant. In a humble sense of our unworthiness and dependence on the
free grace of God in Jesus Christ, we give up ourselves to God, the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit, in an everlasting covenant not to be forgotten. Accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord
and Saviour, we covenant with God and one with another to walk together in His ways as
He reveals Himself to us; to unite in maintaining the public worship of God among us; to
perform the duties of Christian love toward each other; to raise our children in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord; to foster the spirit of Christian fellowship; to proclaim the Gospel to all
the world; and to seek in every way to relate the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to all of life.

ARTICLE V – STATEMENT OF FAITH

We gladly affirm the Statement of Faith of the United Church of Christ as a faithful expression
of Faith of the Church universal and as setting forth the Faith which is held among us:

We believe in God, the Eternal Spirit, who is made known to us in Jesus our brother, and
to whose deeds we testify: God calls the worlds into being, creates humankind in the divine
image, and sets before us the ways of life and death. God seeks in holy love to save all
people from aimlessness and sin. God judges all humanity and all nations by that will of
righteousness declared through prophets and apostle. In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth,
our crucified and risen Lord, God has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin
and death and reconciling the whole creation to its Creator.

God bestows upon us the Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ,
binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and race. God calls us into the
church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be servants in the service of the whole
human family, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in
Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.

God promises to all who trust in the gospel forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage
in the struggle for justice and peace, the presence of the Holy Spirit in trial and rejoicing, and
eternal life in that kingdom which has no end.

Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto God. Amen.

*Excerpt from the By-Laws of the First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Milford, NH – Revised January 2010.

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