We are in the beginning stages of creating a new church in the East Bay area (New East Bay Church is not our name, but just a placeholder for now). Anyway, here’s what we care the most about. Read our Newsletter to find out when and how we’re meeting next.
Christ-Centered.
We aim to follow the life of Jesus and the way he lived and we trust in the truth of the risen Christ while holding how that can be as mystery.
Rooted in Tradition.
We align ourselves with the Episcopal tradition, which has its own history of sins, but which was built on a foundation of ambiguity over certainty; an aim towards right worship over right belief; and a recent history of naming their role in the collective sins of racism and colonialism. We are liturgical—accountable in worship to both the lectionary and Church calendar.
Centered in the stories of our lives.
We hold to the idea that “one does not have a body but is a body.”* As a result, we believe that our bodies and the stories of our lives matter to how we understand ourselves and how therefore we understand God. We affirm LGBTQ+ folks. We welcome ex-Evangelicals, ex-non-denominational folks, Episcopalians, the old, the young—anyone for whom this kind of church community might feel like a balm.
*-Dr. Scott MacDougall
About Me
Emily Hansen Curran
Originally from Modesto, CA, my wife and I now live in Richmond with our two kids (Sal & Simone). My church story spans the Assemblies of God, the Covenant Church, an Acts 29 church, and some time on staff with Cru at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. I spent my deconstructing years at L’Abri in Switzerland and while working on my Masters at Fuller Seminary. Somewhere in there I discovered the Episcopal Church and have spent the last nearly 10 years wondering what it would be like to combine the best of what I see in the Episcopal Church (with its theology, politics, and liturgy) with the best of what I grew up with in the Evangelical world (with its sense of community and down-to-earth ethos). This new church is the product of those years. ∆ You can listen to a lot more of my story on the Abbey Normal Podcast.
new east bay church
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