Get Ready to Explore Stoney Creek United Church

The World Council of Churches recognizes your baptism at  Stoney Creek United Church. But we don't baptize, you, God does. One of only two United Church sacraments, baptism is a celebration of your membership in God's family.  Often, a person is baptized long before they are able to make commitments to a Christian life and so parents and others make promises for them. As a congregation we promise to support parents in keeping these promises. Of course persons of any age can be baptized, and the liturgy (ceremony) is very much the same. We suggest you attend worship with us to get a sense of whether this is the community of faith where you wish to have the baptism. Then, contact with the church office will put you in touch with our minister to explore your options. 

We celebrate communion once a month at our location or one of the Grace community church buildings. The United Church recognized only two sacraments, communion and Baptism.  The table is not ours, it  belongs to Jesus Christ. We welcome all believers who sincerely wish to join us in remembering the life and death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. During the Sunday morning worship, people are invited to come to the front of the church, receive a piece of bread, either dip it in a cup or receive a separate small cup of juice and consume them as symbols of the life and love of Jesus Christ. 

One of our members attended Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco a few years ago. He was struck by a statement made by the presiding minister: RICH OR POOR, GAY OR STRAIGT, LABOUR OR CAPITAL, OLD OR YOUNG - IF GOD MADE YOU, WE WANT YOU. We have not chosen to enter into the Affirm process, for a number of reasons, but we do subscribe to the notion of going beyond sexual orientation and gender issues to foster inclusion of all people who are on the margins of our society.

Could there be a more loaded question? Do you mean what do we believe is the best way for people to live there lives, or do you mean what do we think is the nature of God? To either question, the number of answers you would get in our church on a Sunday morning is simply a function of how many of us are in the room. But to set out a general framework, we'll send you to three faith statements officially adopted by The United Church of Canada. If reading them tells you anything, it tells you the United Church is a "big tent," with room for all. The statements, along with a documents from the 1920s that is no longer "official" are all contained in a section of the United Church of Canada website found at  Faith Statements | The United Church of Canada (united-church.ca) 

As questions arise, we may post them with answers here.