Core Beliefs
We believe that there is a God who created everything there ever was and ever will be. God is many things, but first, God is love. In his great love, God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to live like us and with us. He came as a poor carpenter from a little backwater in Palestine called Nazareth.
Ultimately, he challenged the status quo, stood up the little people and befriended those who were tossed aside by society. This got him arrested and killed. We believe that a few days later, some faithful women went to his tomb to anoint his dead body, but he was gone. He had risen. And in dying at the lowest and rising to the highest, he has conquered death itself.
Death and all of its minions - anger, hurt, addiction, disease, pain, division - still exist, but they don't get to tell the story of the world anymore; God's love does. Jesus' proclamation of a kingdom of love still stands. God's Holy Spirit remains with us - sometimes in loud shouts and shooting stars, but most of the time, God's presence is like the air we breathe. We might not even notice, but it gives us life. It fills us up. It's a part of who we are.
Our story here at Stonington United Methodist Church is a chapter in that story. We proclaim Jesus Christ crucified and risen, and we try to devote ourselves to what he called the greatest commandments: to love God with all of our hearts, our minds, our souls and our strength and to love our neighbors as we would love ourselves.
We are a Spirit-filled congregation with a rich history, a thriving present and we hope a faithful future. We try not to get too bogged down in smaller matters of belief and keep the main thing the main thing: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again, and he calls us to be people of love. That's it. All the other matters are important, to be sure, but we try to focus on the big ones. If you're somebody who has been steeped in the United Methodist Church, if you've been a part of a different kind of church or even if you're just church-curious and haven't really done this sort of thing before, we think you'll find a home here.
Ultimately, he challenged the status quo, stood up the little people and befriended those who were tossed aside by society. This got him arrested and killed. We believe that a few days later, some faithful women went to his tomb to anoint his dead body, but he was gone. He had risen. And in dying at the lowest and rising to the highest, he has conquered death itself.
Death and all of its minions - anger, hurt, addiction, disease, pain, division - still exist, but they don't get to tell the story of the world anymore; God's love does. Jesus' proclamation of a kingdom of love still stands. God's Holy Spirit remains with us - sometimes in loud shouts and shooting stars, but most of the time, God's presence is like the air we breathe. We might not even notice, but it gives us life. It fills us up. It's a part of who we are.
Our story here at Stonington United Methodist Church is a chapter in that story. We proclaim Jesus Christ crucified and risen, and we try to devote ourselves to what he called the greatest commandments: to love God with all of our hearts, our minds, our souls and our strength and to love our neighbors as we would love ourselves.
We are a Spirit-filled congregation with a rich history, a thriving present and we hope a faithful future. We try not to get too bogged down in smaller matters of belief and keep the main thing the main thing: Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again, and he calls us to be people of love. That's it. All the other matters are important, to be sure, but we try to focus on the big ones. If you're somebody who has been steeped in the United Methodist Church, if you've been a part of a different kind of church or even if you're just church-curious and haven't really done this sort of thing before, we think you'll find a home here.