Who We Are
Progressive and inclusive.
OCBC is a progressive, inclusive Christian community in the American Baptist tradition that seeks to offer God’s radical hospitality to everyone, answering God’s call to hold fast to love and justice for the earth and all its peoples, and welcoming all who are seekers. Through our common life of prayer, worship, spiritual development, and the arts, we strive to follow the example of Jesus and to work, through active nonviolence, for social, racial, economic and ecological justice, and for peace.
Committed to social justice.
OCBC has a long history of welcoming people of all races and cultures. We are fully committed to racial equity, which demands the fair allocation of opportunities and resources in employment, housing, education, health care, and other areas. We are also committed to working to ensure that no racial group be disproportionately impacted by environmental hazards or the criminal justice system.
Welcoming and Affirming.
OCBC is a Welcoming and Affirming congregation (meaning we are fully inclusive and celebrate the lives of LGBTQ people), and has been since 1983, when the community declared itself to be officially welcoming of gay and lesbian people, and began to work actively within the church and the world for the civil and ecclesiastical rights of all, regardless of sexual or affectional orientation. This commitment now includes bisexual and transgender persons. OCBC also has a history of promoting gender equality and of providing accessibility to persons of all abilities.
Our Affiliations:
OCBC is affiliated with the Samuel Stillman Association of The American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts, the American Baptist Churches-USA, the Alliance of Baptists, the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America/Bautistas por la Paz.
Our ecumenical and interfaith witness is primarily via joint ministries with other Cambridge congregations, including ministries with the unhoused and food-insecure, such as Project Manna and Friday Café, and with refugees and asylum seekers through the Harvard Square Sanctuary Coalition. OCBC also contributes to faith-based and secular community organizations through monthly mission offerings and our benevolence (mission) budget. Many individual members represent OCBC in community groups outside the church that are addressing urgent needs and policy initiatives at the local, state, and federal levels.