Peace Covenant Church of the Brethren Welcomes YOU!
Peace Covenant Church of the Brethren has been actively discerning a call toward becoming public in our welcome and affirmation of LGBTQ+ siblings since December 2016. This document provides an overview of the timeline and the elements of our communal discernment.
“Peace Covenant Church of the Brethren is a Christian community based in Durham,North Carolina, with global connections. We love meeting people and are committed to welcome everyone of any age, gender identity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious formation, financial status, physical and mental ability, or nationality. We are a small and committed group who invites and encourages everyone to share their gifts in every aspect of congregational life.”
(Welcome statement adopted July 2020)
Peace Covenant is also a member of the Supportive Communities Network (SCN).
How did we get here?
Between 2017-2019, our congregation weathered seasons of leadership transition, welcomed new members, and underwent an intense and life-giving series of conversations around racism and white privilege. This growth - both numerically and spiritually - led us to feel more confident in entering into a vulnerable process of discernment around sexuality and welcome.
June, 2019:
Coordinating Council (our church board) agreed to begin drafting a "roadmap" for our collective discernment.
October 2019 - February 2020
Intentional conversation and discernment in the Sunday School hour. These conversations led to our highest average Sunday school attendance in ten years, regularly including between one-third to one-half of the congregation. These Sunday School conversations included:
Curriculum from "Listening to the Spirit: A Handbook for Discernment" (Chalice Press: 2001), including close study of scriptural passages related to sexuality
Learning about terms, definitions and inclusive language
Hearing personal stories of LGBTQ siblings in the church at large and the Church of the Brethren
Sharing personal testimonies of our own experiences around sexuality and faith
Conversation with a pastor of an SCN member congregation
Studying the 1983 Church of the Brethren Annual Conference statement on Human Sexuality
Conversation with neighborhood partners
Conversation with our Virlina District Executive
March 2020:
Sunday school conversations led us to invite a broader group into conversation. We held a congregational meeting with Carol Wise, Director of the Brethren Mennonite Council.
Coordinating Council met to draft a welcoming statement and finalize plans for steps toward a formal vote. Church members were asked for feedback on a draft welcome statement and revisions were made.
April 2020:
Coordinating Council created and fielded a survey to gauge the readiness of the congregation to move ahead with adopting the welcome statement and joining SCN.
May 2020:
Coordinating Council finalized the welcome statement from feedback and changes suggested through the survey process. The welcome statement is at the beginning of this document.
June 2020:
An all-church meeting took place via Zoom reflecting on the survey results and naming the values that were guiding our discernment and the challenges we might face. Reflecting on the all-church meeting, Coordinating Council decided it was time to bring the question to a congregational council meeting and set a date.
July 2020:
At a called congregational council meeting, the congregation voted unanimously to adopt the welcome statement and join SCN on July 12, 2020. Additionally the Virlina district was informed that day of the decisions.