Raising Our Voices in Prophetic Witness:
A Declaration of First Presbyterian Church of Durham, NC
We, the people of First Presbyterian Church of Durham, NC, will not remain silent. We are
called by our humanity, our faith, and by the God in whom we place our faith to raise our
voices in prophetic witness, proclaiming the Kingdom of God and denouncing as immoral
forces within our government that are now taking actions and imposing policies on
American society that are antithetical to our Christian values.
As Christians, our beliefs are rooted in the beatitudes: Blessed are the poor, the dispirited,
the bereft, the meek, those who hunger for food or for righteousness, the merciful, the pure
in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted (Matthew 5:1-12). We cannot, therefore, be
reserved in our witness to Godβs Kingdom, living as we do in a world that values wealth,
profits from war, and persecutes prophetic dissent. Our calling is not to be silent but to be
like a city built upon a hill, to be the salt of the earth, to be the light of the world.