LGBTQIA+ Inclusive

We are an LGBTQIA+ inclusive congregation and embrace all who are members or supporters of this community. God created humankind in God’s image. Every human being is created in God’s image. This biblical statement affirms that no matter how different our worldviews, faiths, skin colors or personal sexual orientation is, all are created in the likeness of God. No matter who we are and how we identify ourselves as human beings in this world, we are holy. And LGBTQ people are holy, too! Now, being holy and made in God’s image does not mean that we don’t make mistakes or are perfect. We do make mistakes, we do things God doesn’t want us to do – And that we affirm and embrace, too. Our brokenness is part of our holiness.

Many people claim that since the Bible does not talk directly about LGBTQ people, it means that it is “un-Christian” to support them. We believe our faith affirms and embraces the diversity of all people. The Apostle Paul writes to his community in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) that in our faith in God and Jesus Christ, there are no religious categories, no social status, no sexual identification:

​“There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  Galatians 3:28

Paul reminds us that all that does not – and should not – matter because we are all united as people. We at Eliot Church embrace this worldview.

In 2003, our congregation voted to be an “Open and Affirming” congregation of the United Church of Christ. We have gone through a long discernment of our beliefs, and educated ourselves to the struggles of the LGBTQ community and consider ourselves a proud ally.