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Meet the Rupert Family

Charlie and Cathy
with
Ellie and Carter

When we moved to the area, we were looking for a United Church of Christ church because of its open and affirming policy. We visited the Congregational Church of Birmingham-UCC and felt the members were welcoming and very involved in service to the community.  We have been members for 11 years and both our children have gone through confirmation at CCB.  Cathy: I grew up attending a Congregational church in Saugatuck, Michigan, and that’s where Charlie and I were married. We were members of a UCC church in Portage, Michigan, where our kids Carter and Ellie were baptized.  It feels good to be part of a church that we can fully support. The idea that women can serve as church leaders is important to us. It’s also important to be part of a church community that embraces marriage equality for the LGBTQ community.

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Meet Kyoko Miyazaki

Soon after I moved to Detroit from Tokyo to pursue a marketing job at a law firm, I started looking for a home church. My first visit to the Congregational Church of Birmingham was to attend a concert where a pianist friend performed to raise funds for the church. The following Sunday, I decided to come to the worship service – and the rest is history! I’m fortunate to have found this open and inclusive church where congregants respect one another, embrace wider humanity and experience individual spiritual growth. For a Japanese single woman with no family roots here, the warmth and sense of safety I felt were very important factors in choosing a church. As a youth, I went to a Catholic kindergarten and studied a Methodist discipline in college. But when I first came to CCB, it had been decades since I had regularly attended church. Interestingly, I later learned that the church in Japan that my grandmother and I attended was, like CCB, a member of the United Church Christ.

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Meet Cynthia Martin

My late husband Bob and I originally came to CCB because we knew by reputation that it was an open and affirming UCC church that took social justice seriously. We stayed because the congregation showed us such extravagant welcome and love. I continue as an active member because this faith community provides me spiritual support every day and offers me so many opportunities to share the love and support I receive with others. Spiritual discernment calls me to ponder again and again what it is that God asks of me. I have found a church family in which I can ask those questions, seek guidance, and do it safely. In answer to the call, I have served in many capacities in my local church and multiple settings of the wider church. From this service, I have received as much as I have been given in equal measure. Thanks be to God!

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Meet Jeff and Jake with Daniel

In some churches' eyes, being gay and Christian isn't a combination that pairs with one another, as we have discovered from other churches we have attended in the past. Being gay parents adds another level that some folks can't comprehend. READ MORE It was important to us to find a safe, loving, and nurturing place where we are welcomed as a family, where there are families that are like ours and families that are different from ours. CCB brings us together as one big family of love and support.

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