1. We believe that God's purpose is to restore creation and to gather the human community under the Lordship of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit so that all persons are brought into communion with God and with one another. (Ephesians 1)
2. We believe that the Church is a foretaste of this communion with God and with one another, that the purpose of the Church is to unite people with Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and to manifest unity in worship and action.
3. We believe that the calling of the Church is to bring all people into communion with God by proclaiming reconciliation, promoting justice, protecting the integrity of creation, and providing healing to overcome divisions based on race, religion, gender, age, culture and color.
4. We confess that sin and the misunderstanding of the diverse gifts of the Spirit cause the churches to be divided within themselves and among each other; and that the scandal of divisions damages the credibility of the Church's witness and contradicts its very nature.
5. We give thanks to God that through the leading of the Holy Spirit we recognize a certain degree of communion already existing among us. We come together as the Kentucky Council of Churches for mutual understanding, dialogue, worship, shared witness and service and a growing theological convergence even as we confess our division.
6. We proclaim that our unity is rooted in the confession of Jesus as the Christ, and we are enriched in our search for a deeper unity by the diversity of our churches rooted in theological traditions with various cultural, ethnic, or historical contexts which contribute to the richness and fullness of the Church.
7. We call for the unity of the Church given by God and expressed in the common confession of the apostolic faith; a common sacramental life entered by the one Baptism and celebrated together in one eucharistic fellowship; a common life in which members and ministries are mutually recognized and reconciled; and a common mission witnessing to all people to the Gospel of God's grace.
8. We strive for unity not for the sake of the Church alone but also for the world where God calls the Church to be a sign working for the salvation of people and the renewal of all creation.
9. We seek the leading of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 13:13) who makes us restless until we grow together according to the will and prayer of Christ that those who believe in him may be one (John 17:21), and we will keep before us the pain of our division, repent of our sinfulness and joyfully celebrate when communion is alive among us.
