A Compassionate Community Led and Transformed by the Spirit.
We are proud to be a Reconciling Congregation! Read our Reconciling Statement to learn more about this distinction.
We also believe that our church should be accessible to everyone; to read about how we strive to do so, click here.
Striving for Beloved Community:
St. Paul’s seeks to create a community that reflects the dream of God, wonderfully diverse and deeply united. We seek to create a place that welcomes a diversity of race, ethnicity, citizenship, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical and mental ability, faith background, economic status, appearance, marital condition, political persuasion, education and life experience. We strive to do so in a way that protects the most vulnerable among us.
Connecting With and Through the Spirit:
Though we are all in unique places on our lifelong spiritual journey, St. Paul’s seeks to connect us for mutual support, fellowship, guidance and transformation. St. Paul’s offers connection with the sacred through authentic worship, study, practice, nurture, and prayerful engagement with one another and the wider world. With the Spirit’s direction, we continually evaluate, dream, and create opportunities and spaces for divine revelation and relationship.
Acting with Compassion:
Jesus taught his followers in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, that when they minister to the ‘least of these’ -the hungry and thirsty, the sick and imprisoned, the naked and the stranger- they minister to Jesus. Following the leading of the Spirit, we at St. Paul’s strive to see Jesus Christ in each person and come together from a variety of places within the mystery of compassion to serve those most in need in our world, often in partnership with community agencies and groups, and with other faith communities. Through our beloved community and sacred connections, we open ourselves to the world, discerning where joy, peace and compassion are most needed.
Standing Up for Justice:
Throughout the Book of Acts, the movement of the Holy Spirit challenged the infant church to redefine who was included in God’s dream for the human community. The Spirit revealed to the early church that “God shows no partiality.” As those who follow the Spirit’s call, St. Paul’s stands for justice and works alongside those who are marginalized, oppressed, and silenced in our society and the larger world. We are constantly listening, learning, and acting to end “injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves (United Methodist Baptismal Covenant).” Our Beloved Community and connections to the sacred give us the courage and endurance we need, in the words of Martin Luther King, Jr., to “realize the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
Watch the video below as area faith and spiritual leaders respond to acts of anti-Semitism and racial hatred in and around the Ithaca community. We affirm that hate has no home here.