Introduction

Ť Introduction ť

Jesus invested his life in teaching about and calling others to participate in God's vision for all creation -- a "new community" where human beings live together as neighbors seeking wholeness and abundant life (salvation) for each person and all creation. As those who are trying to be faithful to God by imitating the way of Jesus, we are committed to live and act as that "new community." We hope and struggle, therefore, to be a community where diversity is affirmed and celebrated, where truth-telling liberates people from the shame of secrets; where burdens are shared and failures forgiven; where all of who we are, including our brokenness, is respected; and where each of us and all of us are engaged in seeking and building relationships of justice, mutuality, and compassion with our neighbors toward the reconciliation and healing (salvation) of God's creation. We believe this is the only way to live out Jesus commandment to "love God and neighbor."

As a way to bear witness to Gods call to live as neighbors, we have chosen to be a "reconciling" community--welcoming of all persons including gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgendered persons--and a "shalom" community--committed to ministries of healing, support, and empowerment to and with persons and families who are challenged by HIV/ AIDS; addiction; and the effects of spiritual, physical, and emotional violence and abuse. Believing that all of us are broken in different ways and all of us are gifted in different ways, we seek to be wounded healers both by being a safe place for one another's healing and growth, and by participating in healing the world through hands-on care, education, and political change.

We have also chosen to administer and invest the resources of our community in ways that reflect our call to love God and neighbor. Administratively, our shared leadership style of organization, which includes collaborative decision-making and needs-based ministry and mission teams, is motivated by the question: "Given who we are and who we are called to be, what is life-giving for us and our neighbors?" Financially we are committed to the discipline of spending one dollar beyond our walls for every dollar we spend on ourselves, and investing one hour of time -- volunteer and staff -- in the larger community for every hour we spend in our own community. In addition, our goal is that our facilities be simple and adequate, conserving our resources for the work of our mission and ministry. The primary source of funds for Community of Hope is the participants. We have received a number of small grants for our work with HIV/AIDS and racism.

The symbols which have come to represent who we are focus on healing, reconciliation, and community:

--a broken-made-whole chalice represents both the broken-made-whole life journey of Jesus, and the broken-made-wholeness that each of us continues to find as we join our own lives in community;

--a rainbow shalom candle both celebrates the diversity and wholeness of Gods creation and represents our commitment to choose hope rather than curse the darkness as we seek Gods shalom (peace and wholeness) together;

--a not-quite-round-table symbolizes both our goal to be a place of welcome to all people (a round table with room for all) and our confession that we often fail in our hope--(we are not quite round);
--a braided rug represents our ongoing process of weaving a vision for our life together out of our understandings of who God is, who we are, what values we hold central;

--a companioning wall of handprints reminds us both that Gods presence is made known to us through one another, and that following Jesus requires hands-on participation in healing the world;

--a remembering wall holds a hand-painted tile naming each of the 50+ companions in our community who have died of HIV/AIDS;

Although the participants of Community of Hope come from a wide variety of religious backgrounds and traditions, most of them have a strong commitment to being denomination-ally related as a community of faith rather than non-denominational. The connection to a denomination is important both as an expression of our part in the worldwide Christian community, and as a means of sharing both responsibility and accountability to the traditions of the faith and to the current ecumenical dialogue about the future expressions of the Christian faith. For the first six years of our life, we were in a covenant relationship as a base community (rather than a chartered relationship as a local church) with the United Methodist Church. Our pastor was United Methodist clergy; we were guided and supported by an Advisory Board of United Methodist clergy and laity; and, until official complaints regarding our practice of conducting holy unions forced us to withdraw, we worked diligently both to honor the spirit of our UM connection; and, at the same time, to embrace and live into our founding invitation to help the larger church explore new ways to live as the "new community of Christ. A congregational discernment and visioning process has led us to enter the "Exploration process" with the United Church of Christ and we are currently engaged in an official conversation regarding denominational affiliation.

We have learned a great deal in our journey together about choosing life, about the power of community, and about Hope... not hope that is the flimsy wish for something to be different, but hope that is the confidence--[the faith]--that, in light of the Gospel, what we are doing makes sense. (V. Havel) And so it is that, strengthened by one another's presence and encouraged by the grace of God, we continue our journey of becoming a community of Hope*.
*"Hope is not the conviction that things will turn out well, but the confidence that what we are doing makes sense regardless of how they turn out." -Vaclav Havel

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