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April 21, 2026

Dear Gathering Church,

We hope that you will attend our Congregational Meeting, this Sunday, April 26th beginning at 12:45, where we will continue our conversation and discernment about the meaning of welcome at The Gathering.

In 2023, The Gathering decided together to engage in a guided discernment process with Credence and Co. to help in navigating a past process that caused confusion and concern.  With Credence and Co., we listened to one another in a variety of ways and committed to growing in our faith and in relationship with one another and the community around us. We observed and practised unity amid diversity.  Following this we committed to a season of prayer and began using the priorities noted by Credence and Co. as a guide to our ongoing journey as a faith community.

One priority was:

To grow in our capacity and understanding of safety and love as a faith community and continuing to create a welcoming and safe space at The Gathering, including LGBTQ folk.

Rationale: This reflects how we want to deepen as a faith community.

Anticipated Outcomes: We want to be a welcoming and safe community for all people.

We have actively engaged with one another around this priority, most recently through a three-part sermon series and a season of discernment where staff and Leadership listened to the Holy Spirit, congregants and a variety of resources.

Out of this time of learning and discernment, the leadership, which includes the Board, Vision and Care and staff, have created a draft Welcoming Statement which is included in this email.

Our April 26th meeting is a listening and discerning conversation not a decision-making meeting. We will continue our congregational conversation, listening to God and one another, holding the questions we have and discerning together whether this draft statement faithfully captures the next step along our journey together as The Gathering Church.

Our core beliefs of being faithful, dedicated followers of Christ and inviting others into relationship with Jesus remain central, as stated in our Membership Covenant:

Confessing Jesus as leader of your life, with an ongoing willingness to move towards Jesus.

We are already a welcoming church. This is one of the primary ways God has invited us to express His love. In writing a welcoming statement we are bringing clarity and definition to what welcome means to us as a congregation and to those exploring The Gathering.  

Leadership is unified in the process of wanting to move forward with this statement. Through it we seek to express the fullness of the welcome at The Gathering where no one group holds more value than the other.  

At the April 26th meeting, leadership will provide further background on the context of and process around this draft statement. We will engage in dialogue, giving opportunity to explore this draft statement together. This conversation will guide leadership in next steps. There will be further meeting(s) and conversations as we seek to be faithful to what God is calling The Gathering.

For parents of Senior Youth, your child(ren) in Senior Youth areinvited to attend and participate in this meeting. We will have a table and facilitator for the Senior Youth.  Please speak with your child(ren) about the purpose of the meeting and decide together if they would like to participate.

Our hope, always, is that we, as God’s gathered people, will share and experience the peace and unity of Christ as we seek to be faithful to the ways of Jesus.

In Christ,

The Gathering Church Leadership

Draft Welcome Statement:

As followers of the ways of Jesus, we are a faith community that warmly welcomes all people to join in the life and mission of the Gathering Church. 

We believe that all are uniquely created in God’s image and are unconditionally loved by God. We believe that God’s warm welcome includes all ages, diverse economic and life circumstances, abilities, racial and cultural backgrounds, gender identities, and sexual orientations.

Together, as a church, we choose to be a safe worshipping community where all can belong and participate in the life and ministries of the church.