FAITH AND BELIEF – Our foundational teachings are summed up in the Apostle’s Creed:

I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Head-level belief is important. We are also interested in how that belief gets translated into a fleshed-out way of life - the life of faith. Faith is keeping ourselves open for God to show up in the middle of our doubt and unknowing; it’s asking for God to transform and bless us even as we wrestle with constant questions about God.

• PLAYFUL EXPERIMENTING

  At Open Way, everything is in perpetual draft form. We hold things both lightly and intentionally and maintain a posture of listening and learning. We welcome change, constantly improvising, transforming, and co-creating with the Spirit. The children of Open Way teach us how to embrace the value of play as we learn and worship intergenerationally, encouraging curiosity and risky questions, leaving room for wonder and mystery and the trickster Holy Spirit. We gather our various cultural and faith traditions to see what resonates, remixing them into our collective worship and spiritual practice (we love practicing together!). We also love it when congregants come up with new projects and gatherings that engage our community, even if they’re messy or short-lived.

• QUEERING POWER

  Queer people and culture have been central to Open Way from the beginning, and one gift of the queer community is advocating for an anti-oppressive, margins-centering approach to structures and practices, and to our broader work for justice. Employing a team of multi-vocational co-pastors, establishing pay equity on staff, and using consensus-based decision-making have been some of our early experiments in decentralizing and sharing power. We strive to listen regularly to multiple voices and intersectional perspectives, both from the pulpit and within our leadership, to better hear Christ speaking among us. Our commitment to learn and practice an anti-racist and decolonizing faith is also very connected to this value.

• CLEARING THE WAY

  Everyone should be free to connect with God and to use their gifts in the church community. Unfortunately fear, shame, and systemic exclusion are barriers we must clear. At Open Way, aspects of our identity that could marginalize or disqualify us in other communities (e.g. queerness, mental illness, agnosticism, disabilities, ethnicity/race) are seen rather as facets of the diverse image of God, with potential to strengthen the church. Our invitation is open-handed; God is generous with us, so we follow suit with an open pulpit and open communion table. Membership is an annual invitation centered on shared practices rather than shared beliefs. Even as we work to improve accessibility, maintaining hybrid/virtual options for participation to allow more people to join in, we also won’t use guilt to discourage people from leaving if they decide it’s healthiest to step away.

• SLOW TRUST-BUILDING

  At Open Way, there is no one-size-fits-all spiritual journey. Because we know God is with us wherever we are, we can release each other to connect and find spiritual waypoints at our own pace. Trust (a synonym for faith) takes time to (re)build, especially when we’re grappling with harm caused by churches. We remind each other to listen to our bodies, minds, and spirits, honouring our agency to set boundaries when we feel the kind of discomfort that doesn’t promote growth. We are not perfect, but we seek to communicate transparently, to proactively address tension instead of letting conflict fester, and to be accountable when we make mistakes. Collectively, we move slowly, valuing rest, refusing to over-fill our lives with too many churchy things, following the sustainable, alternating rhythm of Church in the Large and Church in the Small.