All Are Welcome at Central Lutheran Church
“We at Central Lutheran Church acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral lands of the Duwamish people - a people that are still here, continuing to honor and bring to light their ancient heritage. We are an open and affirming congregation, committed to Reconciling in Christ. All are welcome in this worship and in the full life of the church, including people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, people of every age, race, ethnicity, national origin, economic circumstance, and physical and mental health circumstances. Whoever you are: you are welcome here.”
-Pastor’s opening statement that is included in each Sunday worship service
For more than 130 years, the congregation of Central Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity has striven to live into the teachings of Jesus Christ who preached about a radical and inclusive love God has for all people.
We come from and adhere to a Lutheran tradition and are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). We confess that, through Jesus Christ’s death on the cross and subsequent resurrection, we are saved through God’s grace alone and this gift of salvation is for everyone.
Through this confession, we uphold the dignity and worth of all people. Our mission as a congregation is to realize this universal truth and act accordingly:
Foster a spiritual life of radical love, inclusion, and community.
Engage with and serve our neighbors.
Dismantle systems of patriarchy, white supremacy, and queerphobia.
Oppose war, violence, oppression, and exploitation.
Advocate a life of stewardship and care for the Earth.
We proclaim the fullness of God’s love.
We denounce theologies, practices, and traditions that are used to subjugate women or exclude others.
We profess that the intrinsic and essential nature of all human beings is created in God’s image.
This is especially true for our queer and trans siblings—folks who are often targeted, demonized, and excluded from other religious organizations in our present day—who wish to profess their faith and be a part of a Christian community. We emphasize our full acceptance and affirmation of queer and trans individuals; the full witness of their identities, their experiences, their relationships, and their families.
We at Central Lutheran Church are committed to living out this radical inclusiveness not just by expressing these beliefs verbally, but through our actions as a congregation:
We developed Capitol Hill’s Community Lunch program, which feeds those who are experiencing economic, housing, and food insecurity. This program is now its own self-sustaining organization which still operates in the neighborhood.
We formally committed to the Reconciling in Christ program in 1992 and performed some of the first blessings of same-sex unions in the decades that followed prior to Washington state’s legalization of same-sex marriage in 2012.
For the past several decades, we have striven to intentionally use inclusive and expansive language for God and humanity in our worship services. We worked intensively as a congregation and developed a variation of Jesus’ prayer we feel is reflective of this intention and recite it before Holy Communion each Sunday.
We minister to the elderly and sick through our worship services at the Truewood assisted living community on First Hill.
We have worked, and will continue to work, to sponsor refugee families in need of support as they make their transition to new lives here in our region of the continent.
We work with Faith Action Network to lobby our state legislators in support of public policies that promote equity and justice for all in our state.
We approved an enormous facilities restoration project for our historic sanctuary building which began in January of 2024 and will make much-needed updates to our worship space so those with physical disabilities can fully access our facilities with ease.
If you share our values, and our works of radical and inclusive love for all speak to your vision for a Christian community of faith,
we invite you to come and join us for worship each Sunday morning at 10:00 am.