What We Believe
Statement of Faith
The United Church of Christ ratified its Statement of Faith in 1959, two years after the denomination was formed. Trinity uses the version adapted by Rev. Dr. Robert V. Moss Jr., who recast it in inclusive language, speaking of God rather than of the Father, and of humankind rather than of man.
Robert V. Moss Jr. was born in Wilson, North Carolina, in 1922. He studied at Franklin and Marshall College and Lancaster Theological Seminary, was ordained in 1946, and took his doctorate at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He returned to Lancaster to teach New Testament and became its president in 1957. At thirty-five, he was among the youngest heads of a divinity school in the country.
In 1969 he was elected president of the United Church of Christ on the first ballot, and served two four-year terms. He led the denomination through the years of the Vietnam War, speaking plainly for peace and for racial and economic justice at a time when saying so drew opposition. In 1970 he pressed for women to be called to highly visible positions of responsibility across the churches; the United Church of Christ created its Task Force on Women the following year. He was a New Testament scholar and a committed ecumenist, and he prepared his adaptation of the Statement of Faith in 1976, the year he died, aged 54.
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His life and ministry
NCpedia, published by the State Library of North Carolina, carries a full biography of Dr. Moss: his years as a scholar and seminary president, his election, and the social justice work that defined his ministry.
What We Believe
Statement of Faith
United Church of Christ Statement of Faith — adapted by Robert V. Moss
We believe in God, the Eternal Spirit, who is made known to us in Jesus our brother, and to whose deeds we testify:
God calls the worlds into being, creates humankind in the divine image, and sets before us the ways of life and death.
God seeks in holy love to save all people from aimlessness and sin.
God judges all humanity and all nations by that will of righteousness declared through prophets and apostles.
In Jesus Christ, the man of Nazareth, our crucified and risen Lord, God has come to us and shared our common lot, conquering sin and death and reconciling the whole creation to its Creator.
God bestows upon us the Holy Spirit, creating and renewing the church of Jesus Christ, binding in covenant faithful people of all ages, tongues, and races.
God calls us into the church to accept the cost and joy of discipleship, to be servants in the service of the whole human family, to proclaim the gospel to all the world and resist the powers of evil, to share in Christ’s baptism and eat at his table, to join him in his passion and victory.
God promises to all who trust in the gospel forgiveness of sins and fullness of grace, courage in the struggle for justice and peace, the presence of the Holy Spirit in trial and rejoicing, and eternal life in that kingdom which has no end.
Blessing and honor, glory and power be unto God.
Amen.
Our Statement of Faith sits alongside the Black Value System as a foundation of this congregation’s life and witness.