Open and Affirming

The Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ has been an Open and Affirming Conference since 1984.  The Open and Affirming Task Force offers a variety of resources that assist congregations in the Open and Affirming process, same-gender marriage issues, etc. To find helpful resources, please click "here."

Marriage Resources

In the midst of the 2004 Massachusetts debate about the meaning of marriage, prompted by the 4-3 decision of the Supreme Judicial Court, 30 clergy and lay members of our Conference expressed themselves in a brief statement which was communicated to the Conference Minister and Area Ministers.
 

There followed a meeting between 15 of the signers and the executive staff of the Conference, at which the signers were invited to engage the conversation by providing access to points of view that were underrepresented in the discussion to date. This website is an attempt to respond positively to that invitation.

This web site is created by the signers of the statement, and is representative of a variety of points of view. We agree that these points of view ought to be part of the overall discussion. However, the views represented in the various resources are those of the individual authors, and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of all the signers. For more information, please click "here."