The Charter Itself
|
| At <Insert name
of Church> we express the love of God for us
and our love for each other by working towards
becoming a place where :- |
| 1. All people
are welcomed to worship God with us regardless of
age, gender, race, ability and background. |
| We accept that
not everyone whom we welcome will have the same
understanding of worship as we do. We as a church
will undertake to develop ways of broadening
worship to satisfy the needs of a wider
community. We understand that in such a community
we cannot expect every element in every act of
worship to be in a style that we as individuals
would personally like it to be. We also
understand that in this charter we are extending
a welcome to those who may not always be able to
meet our personal expectations of conduct. We
will accept such situations with understanding
and good grace. |
| 2. We will
encourage all those who are part of this
community to grow in their Christian
understanding and discipleship. |
| We accept that
none of us has all the answers and so we will
journey together to grow in our understanding of
what it means to be Christian. We will give
teaching and encouragement to all our community
regardless of where they are in their journey. We
will accept the insights of all members of our
community as part of our communal understanding
of who God is. We will help and support parents
in the difficult task of bringing up children in
the Christian faith. We will explore what
discipleship means for us in our wider community
and put this into practice. |
| 3) We will
provide facilities that will make our premises
and practices accessible to all. |
| We will work to
remove any barriers (physical, mental or
spiritual) that prevent others from joining the
full life of this community. This may mean
changing some elements of our building or
practices that we may treasure, but we will
accept this with understanding and good grace. We
will provide special facilities particularly to
help children and those with disabilities. |
| 4. We will do
all in our power to ensure that all members of
our community are kept safe from harm |
| We understand
that this means that we must take seriously the
requirements placed on us by the law to protect
children from those who would harm them. We must
be careful not to exploit those who are
physically, mentally or spirituality vulnerable.
We must constantly be vigilant to keep our
premises as safe a place as possible. |
