Who We Are

Once a small country church, now folks from Greece to Victor, Webster to Stafford, find in this community of faith a spiritual home.

Wiggly babies and seasoned life travelers, third-generation residents and recent transplants, successful business owners and unemployed, people with all kinds of families and with no family, make up one growing family of faith that shares each other’s sorrows and joys.

We don’t pretend to be able to define God, but we are blessed to know God as . . .

• Love–unconditional, boundless, and never ending.
• Revealed in the compassionate life, transformative teachings, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ.
• Present in Creation, in our humble worship, in each and every person.
• Always loving us as we are, yet always calling us to become more than we are.
• Not contained by human labels of masculine and feminine, liberal and conservative,  orthodox and unconventional.
• Continually seeking to save, renew, and speak to us through scriptures, life experience, our inner spirit, the Holy Spirit, and each other.

We don’t pretend to be able to prescribe a Christian life, but we seek to move forward in faith by following Christ in his . . .

• Amazing humility as a faithful servant of God.
• Compassionate ministry to all people.
• Courage in speaking the truth in love.
• Complete trust in God’s goodness.
• Total devotion to God and God’s will.
• Emptying himself so that he could be filled by God.
• Penetrating discernment of God’s saving truth in a world of hypocrisy, divisiveness, violence, and sin.
• Passionate desire to bring all people into the embrace of God’s love.
• We don’t pretend to be able to remove pain and suffering from the world,

But we seek to partner with God in advancing God’s reign by . . .

• Living lives of love, not selfishness; hope, not cynicism; faith, not fear.
• Answering God’s call to be ministers in our homes, work places, communities, and world.
• Generously offering our gifts of time, talent and treasure to build up Christ’s church as a place of inspiration, spiritual growth, empowerment, and love for all.
• Being the hands, feet and mouth of Christ in the world through our local mission work and our giving to those who go where we cannot go.

We don’t force our views on anyone, but we welcome all who are willing to know Christ, grow in Christ, and serve Christ to join with us as we seek to embody Christ’s spirit together.

Henrietta United Church of Christ is a vibrant, growing church that welcomes people from a variety of faith backgrounds or those who have no prior church background. We are rooted in the traditions and insights of the Protestant Reformation, which emphasize God’s abounding grace and the call of all believers to be in ministry in their daily lives.

We also experience Christ’s Spirit continuing to re-form the Church today, and explore ways to make the Good News of God’s transforming love engaging and relevant for people in the 21st Century. Our church’s worship and programs are designed for people who are open to deepening in faith, growing in love, and discovering their own gifts for ministry.

What is the United Church Of Christ?

The UCC was founded in 1957 as the union of several different Christian traditions: from the beginning of our history, we were a church that affirmed the ideal that Christians did not always have to agree to live together in communion. Our motto—”that they may all be one”—is Jesus’ prayer for the unity of the church. The UCC is one of the most diverse Christian churches in the United States.

(For a more detailed account, visit our parent UCC.org website)

A Congregation of Ministers?

God has created each of us by extending His Spirit into our beings. We continue God’s ongoing act of creating and renewing the world by extending our gifts, our abilities, our creativity, and our light into the world.It is in offering ourselves in service to others and the world that we strengthen our love, give meaning to our faith, and fulfill God’s purpose for our lives. Each person’s gifts, no matter how humble or ordinary, are an important part of the ministry of this church as we reach out to each other, our community, and our world.