Center For Progressive Christianity

 Gig Harbor     Washington

http://www.tcpc.org     << Visit Website

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The Center for Progressive Christianity was founded in 1994 by Jim Adams who was, at the time, rector of St. Mark's Church on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. At that time there was no known organization, scholar, or church leader publicly using the term, "progressive Christianity." His vision was to create a non-profit organization that encouraged churches to focus their attention on those for whom organized religion had proven to be "ineffectual, irrelevant, or repressive." According to Rev. Adams, the goal "was to keep the churches from drying up and blowing away." This was a response to the recently published statistics showing that membership in mainline churches had dramatically declined in the 1980s, the third decade in a row this had occurred. Based on Adams' experience at St. Mark's Church, he was convinced that if churches would become bolder about professing their progressive tenets, they could thrive. Adams and a small group of peers agreed that they needed to provide some way to help "open and progressive" churches find ways to self identify as "progressive." This was the genesis of TCPC's Eight Points defining progressive Christianity. This early founding group also thought it important to provide opportunities for these churches to network, to share "progressive Christian" articles and book reviews, and to gather occasionally for conferences and workshops. For the first ten years TCPC held annual national forums, and published quarterly news letters. In 1996 TCPC launched its first website giving "affiliate" churches an opportunity to list themselves as "a progressive church" based on their affirmation of the Eight Points.