You Are Welcome Here!

Center Church Voted to become Open and Affirming in 1994.
Thirty years later, we are still believe God calls us to be a community of radical hospitality and extravagant welcome.

The United Church of Christ (UCC), the denomination of which Center Church is a part called on UCC churches to declare themselves Open and Affirming (ONA) in 1985. The historic Connecticut Conference declared itself ONA in 1989. In the summer of 1990, Center Church began a series of congregational conversations, educational programming and a process of discernment that ultimately led to Center Church declaring itself to be an Open and Affirming Congregation in the fall of 1994. In October of 2024, Center Church will celebrate it’s 30th anniversary of that declaration. You can read more about the history of Open and Affirming ministry at Center Church here.

Proud of how far we have come, we know there is work still to be done.

Hard-won LGBTQ+ rights face attacks from the Conservative Right. LGBTQ+ youth make up a significant portion of the national homeless population. Transwomen and transmen have increasingly less access to the gender-affirming treatments they need to live their authentic lives. Gender identity and sexual orientation are increasingly politicized in local, state and national elections across the country. Identity based hate is on the rise: racial violence, homophobia, transphobia contribute to an increasingly hostile environment for so many of God’s beloved children.