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what we believe

We Are Manchester UMC Sermon Image 4 × 4
mission & vision

We are called to be an inclusive community of people who love Christ deeply, worship him passionately, and serve him boldly. We are called to make a difference for Christ by transforming church and community.

God

God is Love

We believe that God is love. God is the creator of the universe and source of all that is good. God opens our eyes to a world of mystery, miracle, and meaning.

Jesus

Son of God

We believe that Jesus is the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, known to us intimately in his life, death, and resurrection, by whose example we know how to live and love.

Holy Spirit

Breath of the Divine

We believe that God’s Holy Spirit is the breath of the divine, present with us in every circumstance, active in the redemptive process, calling us to follow her lead and inspiring us with compassion, creativity, and boldness.

The Church

Body of Christ

We believe that the Church is the Body of Christ, a community of people called to heal a broken and hurting world, and to be a community in which justice is proclaimed and lives are transformed.

The Bible

Grace-Filled

We believe in grace-filled, Spirit-led faith formation that is grounded in Scripture and informed by tradition, reason, and experience. We share our diverse scriptural perspectives and interpretations in community as we move together toward a deeper understanding of who God is and who God calls us to be.

Salvation

Saved by Grace

We believe that we are saved from sin by grace, which is at work in us even before we are aware of it. Grace enables us to realize our need of God and draws us ever closer to the divine. Through our practices of discipleship, we cooperate with God’s grace in a life-long process of salvation. Wesleyan theology describes these various expressions of grace with the terms prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace.)

The Sacraments

Baptism & Holy Communion

Baptism and Holy Communion are each means of grace, conduits through which God reaches out to us. Baptism initiates and incorporates the individual into the community, and is available to all ages, from infant to adult. Communion is the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, a remembrance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and an anticipation of the heavenly banquet, and is open to all persons.

Christian Living

Our Vows

Though we live our discipleship in unique ways, there is a common framework comprised of our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness. Together we live the liturgy of life, the collective work of the people. The community participates in a rhythm, an ordo of daily, weekly, and yearly cycles, including worship, faith formation, works of mercy and justice, high holy days, and Sabbath as a sacred rest.

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Pastor's Note

The Rhythm of Worship

There will be a tree at the West Entrance the next time you come to the church building! And there will be leaves and fruit to add to it! For the next month, “The Tree of Life” will be our theme at Manchester UMC. In the Bible, the Tree of

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Pastor's Note

What Makes Humans Human

“If we do it right, we might be able to evolve a form of work that taps into our uniquely human capabilities and restores our humanity. The ultimate paradox is that this technology may become a powerful catalyst that we need to reclaim our humanity.”– John Hagel The emergence of

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Sermons

Let There Be a Big Bang

Science teaches that the universe began 15 million years ago with a “Big Bang.” Genesis teaches that God created the “heavens and the earth” by speaking it all into existence. Human beings are composed of the same elements as the stars, which connects us to God’s creation in a very

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