This is an invitation to reflect on the words of prominent early 20th Century Unitarian theologian James Luther Adams. How do his words extend an invitation to change?

Excerpt From I Call That Church Free, James Luther Adams

I call that church free which enters into covenant with the ground of freedom, that sustaining…, transforming power not made with hands. It protests against the idolatry of any human claim to absolute truth or authority…

I call that church free which liberates from bondage to the principalities and powers of the world, whether churchly or secular, and which promotes the continuing reformation of its own and other institutions. It protests against routine conformity or thoughtless nonconformity that lead to deformity of mind and heart and community…

I call that church free which in charity promotes freedom in fellowship, seeking unity in diversity….

I call that church free which responds in responsibility to the Spirit that bloweth where it listeth. The tide of the Spirit finds utterance ever and again through a minority. It invites and engenders liberation from repression and exploitation, whether of nation or economic system, of race or sex or class. It bursts through rigid, cramping inheritance, giving rise to new language, to new forms of cooperation, to new and broader fellowship. The church of the Spirit is a pilgrim church on adventure.

I call that church free which is not bound to the present, which cowers not before the vaunted spirit of the times. It earns and creates a tradition binding together past, present, and future in a living tether, in a continuing covenant and identity, bringing forth treasures both new and old…