St James Episcopal Church, 44 West St, Keene, NH 03431, US

To share in our worship and to become a part of the faith community of this church. United Church of Christ has full handicap accessibility through the rear entrance of the church. Welcome to the website of our United Church of Christ in Keene NH, where the Spirit is alive and miracles happen! We believe that the love of Jesus was a radically-inclusive love, so no matter who you are or where you are on life s journey, you are most welcome here. In fact, I cordially invite you and yours to join us for worship any Sunday at 8: 00am in our Chapel or 10: 00am in our historic Sanctuary. You ll be glad you did! Church School is offered for children, infants through grade 8, during our 10: 00am worship service each Sunday on the 3rd floor. Thank you for visiting our website. I hope you enjoy learning more about us. If you have questions, I hope you will contact either me or our Church_Office. As a recent New York Times ad for our denomination, United Church of Christ, says: With all Christians, we rest in God s amazing grace and hear God s voice in the words of Scripture. Yet, the UCC is unique to some because we do not require uniformity of belief. We are a church of open ideas, extravagant welcome and evangelical courage. Our passion for democracy extends to both government and church, where decision-making rests within each individual congregation. We support liberty in our pulpits, just as we affirm the individual conscience of our 1.2-million members to agree, disagree and wrestle with life s biggest questions in a spirit of love. Our story is this nation s story. We are the people of the Mayflower. More than 600 of our 5700 congregations were formed before 1776. Eleven signers of the Declaration of Independence were member of UCC predecessor bodies. As early abolitionists, we came to the aid of the Amistad captives and founded hundreds of schools across the South after the Civil War. We were the first mainline church to ordain an African-American ( 1785 ), a woman ( 1853 ) and an openly gay pastor ( 1972 ). We were also the first to form a foreign mission society ( 1810 ). Our multi-ethnic membership includes persons from every immigrant group, as well as native peoples and descendants of freed slaves. Our unity is not dependent upon uniform agreement, but in our shared allegiance to Jesus Christ. Ours is a risk-taking church, because ours is a risk-taking God. God is still speaking!