A Warm Welcome to Church in the Highlands

Founded in 1921, The Church in the Highlands is a congregation of the United Church of Christ, a 1957 union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Our Pilgrim forbears were the first Congregationalists. The Christian Church, founded in New England in 1801, united with the Congregationalists in 1931. The Evangelical and Reformed Church, itself a union of historic churches of Germanic background, was founded in 1702. Congregational churches are free of overhead control. They own their property, call their ministers and govern their own affairs by means of democratically elected lay leaders.

The Church in the Highlands is more than a location or a beautiful Gothic structure. It is a church that places its emphasis on people. We are bound together in a covenant relationship through which we sustain each other on our faith journey, duplicating the ties that sustained the Pilgrims when they came to the shores of New England.

The Bible is central to our teaching and beliefs. We celebrate the common Judaic-Christian traditions that bind together all who worship Jesus The Christ as Lord and Savior. There is an openness in our fellowship. Everyone is welcome, no matter their race or nationality. For us, the God we worship is One and each human being is our brother or sister.

We place great emphasis on inquiry, not on dogma or creed. No question is too trite or meaningless, if it is genuine. We believe that each person must love God with his or her heart. But love of God must also include the mind. To this end, we strive to challenge each other intellectually; so we may end up loving God with all our strength, soul, heart and mind.

Personal and corporate commitment and witness are encouraged, so each of us may make the world a better place for all of God’s creation. Many of our members work in the communities where they live, endeavoring in positive ways to bring understanding and love.