Welcome to
the First
ChurchOpen and Affirming
Website!
Thank you for visiting our site. At the annual meeting of
First Church Simsbury in May 2011, the Open & Affirming
Ministry Study Team announced that First Church would be embarking
on a study process in order to determine if the church wishes to
adopt an Open and Affirming, or "ONA", statement. An ONA
statement, in summary, is a written statement adopted by the
congregation that declares that the church is open to all and
affirming that everyone is a child of God. Adopting such a
statement is one way to make a public declaration that certain
categories of people that have felt persecution and rejection by
the institutional church in the past will recognize that they are
welcomed into the life of the First Church community and will be
afforded the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as all
others in the church.
This website is designed to be a
resource for First Church members, staff, visitors and prospective
members to learn more about what our church is considering and to
study resources related to various ONA topics. Additional
content will be added to the site as the ONA process proceeds over
the coming year, so please come back to visit it again.
If you have questions regarding ONA at
First Church, or wish to comment on or make suggestions related to
the website contents or the ONA process, you may email them to openaffirm@gmail.com. or put
them in The Box outside the church office that is labeled "Open
& Affirming".
We thank you once again for visiting
our site and look forward to your participation in the ONA process
as we move forward.
The First Church Open &
Affirming Ministry Study Team