Washing of the Feet, by John August Swanson
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Social Justice

Open Road

As a church on the Open Road, we are called to make connections and build relationships outside our doors too—crossing boundaries, constructing bridges, opening ourselves to encounter the Stranger waiting at the margins, with all the attendant risks and opportunities. Our Vision dares us to give away not only our resources but also our selves—sent forth to travel with Jesus on his mission of healing, reconciliation, and justice. With him, we dream of a church with an all-embracing spirit of hospitality toward the world: able to invite and to be invited, able to sit at other people’s tables to learn and share the inestimable riches of God.

Imagine a church that cannot stay put, but takes God's welcome into the world. Imagine a church in conversation with other lives, other cultures, able to invite and be invited, to sit at other people's tables, to learn and share the inestimable riches of God, to build relationships outside its walls. Imagine a church where the hands, hearts and feet of every member, young and old, are shaped for service, and a church that does not lack imagination about ways to use them. Imagine a church compelled by the Spirit to travel with Jesus, healing, reconciling and doing justice, a church filled with the daring and delight of the children of God.

Imagine a church on the open road, agile and able, willing to follow Jesus into life's margins, a church that gives itself away and asks nothing in return, a church mobilized for mission: Imagine First Church in Cambridge!

From God's Vision For Us:  A Way of Hospitality

The picture above is of a mural outside the San Salvador chapel where Archbishop Oscar Romero was assassinated in 1981 while serving communion.  13 First Church members visited El Salvador in 2005 on a delegation with CRISPAZ (Christians for Peace in El  Salvador).