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An Open and
Affirming Church
North Prospect Union United Church of
Christ is an Open and Affirming church. It welcomes all who seek to know God. We believe that, although we are
many members, we are one body in Christ. We have been called as well as
challenged by God to respect and reconcile our differences.
We recognize and love
each individual as a child of God. We welcome, respect, support, and
lovingly encourage people of every race, ethnicity, creed, class, gender,
sexual orientation, age, and physical and mental ability to join us on our
journey of faith.
Mission Statement
We believe that devotion to the
ideals set forth in this mission statement, as we endeavor to be worthy of
God's trust, will result in spiritual growth and fulfillment.
We join together as a diverse community of individuals to worship God; to
love, enjoy, and care for one another; and to continue Christ's ministry
in the world. We seek to learn and discern God's will for us as
revealed through scripture, the teachings of Jesus and his followers, and
our own experience. We strive to live our faith through the choices
we make in our daily lives, and our work for social justice and spiritual
outreach. We commit ourselves to being a safe and welcoming haven,
and to ministering to the longing for meaning in ourselves, our
neighborhood, and the larger community.
Theology and Heritage
North Prospect Union United Church of
Christ belongs to the United
Church of Christ. The denomination was formed in 1957 by the
merger of the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and
Reformed Church.
The church resides in the theological tradition of protestant
Trinitarianism. It
confesses God who has created all that is, God who has come into human
life and taken on its joys and sorrows in the form of Jesus the Christ,
and God who continues to intercede in history in the form of the Holy
Spirit. North Prospect Union Church also recognizes that human existence is
abundant in sorrow and injustice. Our faith, then, is paradoxical and
submits to no easy resolution of the God we believe in and the reality of
the world we live in. Our struggle to understand is ongoing. In that
struggle we find the comfort and assurance of a loving God, which we
celebrate. And we find our calling, taken from the long line of prophets,
Jesus, and the cloud of witnesses who have followed them, to be
instruments of justice, truth and love.
Polity and Governance
North Prospect Union Church inherits its governance by
Congregational Polity from its roots in Congregationalism. Congregational
Polity gives the largest measure of authority to the whole active
membership of the church. Consequently, all major decisions are made by
vote of the present active members at an officially called meeting of the
congregation.
The congregation, however, delegates the day
to day operations of the church to the various officers and committees of
the church. Committee chairs and officers together form the Executive
Council, which oversees all the work of the church and makes
recommendations to the congregation for action at congregational meetings.
Following are a list of some of the officers
and committee chairs and other people with church responsibilities, who
may be reached through the church office:
Senior Minister The Rev.
Dudley Rose
Moderator Robert Seiler Church Clerk
Kate Eshelman
Treasurer (pays bills and
makes financial reports) Robert Seiler
Financial Coordinator
(oversees pledges) Florence Carvelli
Chair Finance Committee (makes
financial recommendations to the Council) Robert Seiler
Chair Board of Trustees
(oversees plant and property) Vinny Vellucci Chair Diaconate (oversees
worship life) Florence Carvelli and Sally Addison
Chair Christian Education
Corey O'Brien Christian Educators
Kim Bears and Melissa McGoldrick Chair Music Committee
Kate Eshelman, Bob Seiler, Rebecca Ramsay Newsletter Editor Rebecca
Ramsay
Church Secretary Barbara
McLean
Music Director Bryce Sady
Sexton Vinny Vellucci
Brief History
Introduction
North Prospect Union United Church of
Christ stands in the New England Congregational tradition. Through its
parent churches, Prospect Congregational Church and North Congregational
Church in Cambridge, and North Street Union Church in Medford, it traces its lineage back to the nineteenth century, and from
there to the seventeenth century Puritans. Today North Prospect Union, as a
member of the United Church of
Christ, sees itself as a Christian church,
rooted in the community, bound together by covenant, encouraging the
spiritual growth of its congregants and care for all in God's creation.
Prospect Church
On September 20, 1827,
thirty-nine women and six men, having responded to the evangelical
preaching of Lyman Beecher, formed the "First Evangelical
Congregational Church in Cambridgeport," later Prospect
Congregational Church. Its first house of worship was on Norfolk Street,
and in 1852, after great growth under its second minister, William
Stearns, it built the church on Prospect Street, which stands next to
Bread and Circus.
North Church
Meanwhile, by the middle of the
century North Cambridge, between Harvard Square and Arlington, had grown
enough to need a church. On July 15, 1857 twenty-seven women and sixteen
men met on Bowdoin Street to organize a Congregational Church. Its first
permanent building was the Holmes Chapel, built on Arlington Street. In
1866 the church bought the building that belonged to Old
Cambridge Baptist Church. It was moved from its site near Harvard Square
to its current location at 1803 Mass. Ave Cambridge, by oxen, taking twenty-one days, but without disrupting the horse car
schedule! The building was sold to Leslie University
in January 2006. North Street Union Church
(This section is under construction) North-Prospect Church
On June 1, 1985, after three
years of a shared ministry, Prospect and North churches officially joined together to
become North-Prospect UCC. North Prospect
Union
On January 1, 2006, North-Prospect and North Street Union
Churches joined together to for North Prospect Union United Church of
Christ.
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