Church of the Cross

We don’t want to settle into a cul-de-sac of comfort. We want to be generous and adventurous with what God has given us—our time, talents, and treasure. More than that, we want to be generative: raising up and sending out leaders, planting churches, cultivating and supporting new ministries, and strengthening the mission of Jesus in Greater Boston beyond our own congregation.

A refuge is a place of shelter, welcome, and hospitality—offering food, rest, and companionship. Church of the Cross has been a refuge for people battered by the world, by broken relationships, or by bad choices. It has been a place where people are welcomed to the table, into a family that is being restored by Jesus, and where we welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us, to the glory of God.

We are joyfully Anglican. That means we are rooted in the historic faith of the church, shaped by Scripture, nourished by Word and Sacrament, and formed by a liturgical life that teaches us to worship God with reverence, depth, and joy. Our Anglican tradition helps locate us within the wider church across time and space, and gives us a rich, durable way of following Jesus together. At the same time, we gladly recognize that the Holy Spirit is at work across the wider body of Christ, and we do not believe Anglicanism is the only faithful way of following Jesus, and look for ways to partner with other Christians from other traditions.

Because we are made in the image of the Creator, we want to reflect something of his creativity in the way we live and serve. So we celebrate and support the good use of creativity—whether in music and the visual arts, in teaching and parenting, in scientific and technological innovation, or in entrepreneurial work and new business ventures, or in hospitality, problem-solving, communication, discipleship, mission, and the faithful shaping of culture. We want to be a community where creativity is encouraged, supported, and offered as a gift to God and to one another.

From the start, we have been a deeply engaged community, giving ourselves to the mission of Jesus. Therefore we are a people who lean in to one another, to the shared life of the church, and to the work God has placed before us. And we lean outward as well—toward our neighbors, our city, and those beyond our community—being salt and light in Greater Boston and sharing the gospel in word and deed through acts of justice and mercy.

We want to be a discerning people. In a noisy, hurried, and confused age, we need the grace of the Holy Spirit to recognize what is true and false, what is timely and faithful, and what it means to follow Jesus in today’s world. Discernment means listening carefully to Scripture, attending to the illumination and leading of the Spirit who inspired it, testing what we hear, and learning together how to notice and respond to God. We want to be a church that is neither reactive nor naive, but prayerful and grounded in the wisdom of Christ—seeking to understand what is happening in our lives, in the world, and in our culture, and above all to recognize where God is at work and how he is calling us to respond.