Our Community Today
ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE We are people – all kinds of people – brought together by a desire to grow in kindness and compassion. It's hard to imagine a more diverse congregation than ours, in terms of ages, wages, ethnic heritages, viewpoints, and sexual orientations. Our membership continues to reflect the fact that we were one of the first racially integrated churches in Los Angeles. YOUNG PEOPLE For a small congregation, we have a remarkable number of children. In our Godly Play church school program, our kids act out scripture stories and come up with their own “endings” for them… reminding our whole church that we are shaping Christian faith afresh for our time. Our teens meet in a tent under the tree (or in The People's Office if weather dictates) to explore issues relevant to their lives and find strength and support from this community and their relationship with God. SHARED POWER * INDIVIDUAL SPIRIT Our church is "congregational" in its structure. That means that it is a "town-hall" style of democracy: all our members have voice and vote on the important decisions that our church makes, including the choice of our ministers. We follow the example of Jesus in his life and teachings - and we let our members decide for themselves what that means to them. We don't have a fixed creed or doctrine that we expect our members to follow. We cherish and maintain our Christian tradition without having one way of interpreting it. We believe that other religions can be as good for others as ours is for us - and that is reflected in our embrace of elements of other faiths that are meaningful to us, in worship and in personal spiritual practice. WALKING THE TALK For over 100 years this congregation has been engaged with issues of peace and social justice in Los Angeles. Our cross, which centers us in worship, is marked with the words “He Is Our Peace”. It was given to us by Japanese Christian peace activists after World War II. It was fashioned from wood scorched by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It represents our hope for peace and reconciliation in our neighborhood, city, and wider world, and our commitment to work for it. COME ALONG! We hope you will come and experience the warmth and extravagance of our welcome, and join with us in service to our community and world! Mount Hollywood UCC experience of Burning Man 2016 with Que Viva! CampBurning Man logo art by Laura Diamond
OUR DEFINITION OF "EXTRAVAGANT WELCOME!"
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OUR CORE VALUES Continue our Legacy of Progressive Thinking Celebrate Diversity through Extravagant Welcome Build the Future with Innovation and Creativity CHURCH SPEAK: DEFINING TERMS We are a UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST: a denomination with a history of activism on many social justice issues - public education, racial and gender equality, health care access, marriage equality, to name a few. We are both an OPEN AND AFFIRMING Church
and a JUST PEACE Church. We believe that our deeds matter more than creeds. We are a PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIAN congregation
We take the Bible seriously, not literally. Read MUSINGS on Progressive Christianity - the blog site of Jim Burklo, Member of Mt. Hollywood UCC and Associate Dean of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. We are COVENANTAL
Those who join this church do not have to adhere to any creed or belief system. We do agree to support one another on our faith journey - wherever we happen to be. Here is some language we currently use when welcoming people into fellowship: We are a community of faith. This is our faith: We share a vision of G-d: --a G-d whose spirit is love, --accessible to all, yet beyond our knowing, We are reborn in the Spirit, and become followers of that Way shown by Jesus: --to love G-d with our whole being; --to love our neighbors as ourselves; --to treat others as we would have them treat us; --to strive for justice and peace; --to have respect and compassion for every person and for the whole of creation; --to forgive those who do us harm; --to love one another as Christ has loved us. We are a covenantal community. Together, we journey on this Way toward reconciliation with the whole of creation. We break bread together, sing and pray together. We reach out to one another for strength beyond our own – and find it. Thanks be to G-d. ***** [Statement adapted from St. John’s-Grace Episcopal Church, May 2005] |
An L.A. Times article describing Mount Hollywood UCC and the Installation Service of our former minister, Rev. Anne Cohen.