Purpose of the Coalition

The Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches is a collaboration of more than 80 churches and other ministries in the Chicago metropolitan area which welcome and affirm people of all sexual orientations and gender identities. We have two goals:

To spread the message of our members' LGBTQ-inclusion across the Chicago metropolitan area, mindful that a positive message about sexual and family diversity is a gift to all people.
To connect the leaders, members, and guests of our partner churches for fellowship and education, enabling support and resource-sharing for the practices of faithful welcome.

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St. Pauls United Church of Christ

This congregation contributed to the CCWC during 2024!

2335 North Orchard Street
Chicago, IL 60614

Parking is available on Sundays in the church parking lot in the 600 block of west Kemper Place and in the Children's Memorial Hospital garage in the 2300 block of north Lincoln Avenue For free parking in the garage, have your ticket validated in the church office.

Mission Statement

St. Pauls Church, as a congregation in the United Church of Christ (UCC), is a community of Christian faith. The Congregation expresses its faith joyfully in the city, through worship, fellowship, education and service. St. Pauls Church affirms the uniqueness of each person as a gift of God with us. It is an open and affirming congregation, accepting into the Congregation and as friends all who believe in God without regard to race, color, age, marital status, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or physical ability. St. Pauls Church encourages personal growth in Christian life and dedicated involvement in the ministry of the Church. The heritage of St. Pauls Church calls its Members and Friends to serve and witness as good stewards in the local community and the world.

Other Information

Our motto is "Making A Joyful Sound in the City", and we try to do this through worship, education, fellowship and service. We are an open and affirming church welcoming into membership all persons regardless of race, color, age, marital status, national origin, gender, sexual orientation or physical ability.

Open and Affirming (ONA) congregations in the United Church of Christ are those which believe that people of all sexual orientations are children of God, created in the image of God, and are therefore welcome in the full life and ministry of the church. The United Church of Christ is the only mainline denomination to ordain into ministry those who are gay or lesbian. St. Pauls Church has been an Open and Affirming congregation for many years, even before publicly declaring itself so in a revised mission statement voted by the congregation at its annual meeting in 1989.

St. Pauls joins similar churches in several mainline denominations in being part of what is called the Welcoming Church Movement. We are greatly pleased at St. Pauls to have the full participation of gay and lesbian Christians in the leadership of the church.