Who Are We?
We believe that each of us has a call to service, prayer, and community. Together with each other and with God,
we seek to bring hope and healing to a broken world.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
Maybe you’re just beginning to look into faith, on a hunch that there’s more to life than what’s immediately obvious. Or maybe you’re beginning to look again at the religion you were raised with, wondering if it is still relevant to your life today.
Either way, Harvard-Epworth Church is a welcoming, inclusive, and safe space to explore the Christian path, following the way of Jesus. Love – real, robust, radical love – is our guiding principle in all we do and are.
Harvard-Epworth is a community of fellow life-travelers ready to welcome you, just as you are! We respect and celebrate the full range of human diversity. Together, we are learning (however imperfectly) to live out the teachings of Jesus, by loving God, Humanity, and Creation in all we do and with all we are.
The glory of God is a human being fully alive -St. Iranaeus
Whoever you are, however you’ve been, wherever you are on your journey, Harvard-Epworth welcomes you and values you as a beloved child of God. We are an inclusive community of faith, committed to radical hospitality as we live out Jesus’ call to love, peace, justice, and compassion.
We gather in worship services at church; we gather in people’s homes; we gather to serve the needs of our community. We share prayer and study; we share our passions; we share laughter and love in all we do.
In each generation, we are tested. Will we love our neighbors as ourselves? How do we survive together? How do we resist together? How do we respond to unspeakable brutality and the collective oppression of our neighbors?
—Barbara Holmes
We believe that God has a dream for who each one of us can become, as we grow in faith and in love. We believe that God has a dream for this congregation as we live into our passions for justice and for peace. We are dedicated to living out Jesus’ call to love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves.
Harvard-Epworth church provides a supportive and transformative environment where each of us can discover, live out, and continually deepen our most authentic selves. Together, we seek to become “all we can be” as the beloved children of God, working to heal a broken world.
Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church endeavors to embody what the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called The Beloved Community, where God’s radically inclusive love is the guiding principle and the primary expression of our life together in faith.
We strive toward inclusion because we recognize and honor the image of God in every human being, and celebrate every human being as a beloved child of God. We receive and rejoice in the full breadth and beauty of God’s incredibly diverse creation.
Our church family includes, welcomes, and celebrates differences across race, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation, neurodiversity, gender identity, ability, theological perspectives, and socioeconomic status. We affirm and celebrate the personhood and gifts of everyone, encouraging participation at all levels of church leadership as we live into our identity in Christ. There are no limitations on an LGBTQIA+ person’s participation at Harvard-Epworth. All are welcome to serve in ministries and receive ministry, join in membership, and hold leadership & staff roles. Pastoral care is available to all, including spiritual counsel, prayer, baptism, weddings, and funerals.
We acknowledge and grieve both the history and present-day reality of harm being done to people of color and the LGBTQIA+ community by church policies, practices and individuals, including within the United Methodist Church, our parent denomination. We work to heal and repair these broken relationships and as we work toward the Beloved Community.
Harvard-Epworth’s History
True to the Methodist spirit, Harvard-Epworth has looked outward to its city and the world since the congregation was organized in 1868.
The church has made a special place for college students from the start. In 1875 we sent Letitia Campbell to be one of the first single, female Methodist missionaries to China. In the early 20th century the Woman’s Home Missionary Society aided newly-arrived immigrants, at a time when many in the nation were beginning to withdraw their welcome.
In the late 1950s, Alabama native Rev. Daniel Whitsett brought an ethos of racial reconciliation that the church has followed ever since. In the early ’60s, Harvard-Epworth provided office space for a regional office for the civil rights group SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Two decades later, the church joined the global campaign against South Africa’s apartheid regime, by selling South African investments in the church endowment.
In 1999 we became one of the early congregational voices in the New England Conference for the full inclusion of LGBTQ members, clergy, and same-sex marriage. Since then we have made space for a drop-in shelter for homeless teenagers and young adults, and joined the Outdoor Church’s mission to the homeless in Cambridge. We know there will be other missions for us in the years ahead, and we will always be ready to say Yes.
Click here to learn more about Harvard-Epworth’s History.