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About Us

• Mission Statement, Values, and Vision
• History
• Mountford Library
• How to get to First Met
• Staff Info
• Links to Other Websites
• Organizational Structure

Mission Statement

Our church is a community of people called to love, honour, worship and serve God. We invite others to share our Christian journey as we prepare to be an effective ministry in our city and the world.

Our Values

We value:

• Loving one another unconditionally as God loves us.
• Being an accepting, welcoming, caring congregation that values each person's uniqueness.
• Laity and clergy working in partnership bringing visions to reality.
• Christian education, dialogue, and consensus as a basis for growth.

Our Vision

We envision:

• An alive, warm, joyful Christian community where all people are welcome guests in God's house.
• A caring, sharing atmosphere which supports groups exploring their interests and needs within a larger faith community.
• Worship services which draw us closer to our Creator, drawing on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit.
• A sanctuary of holiness in our busy world, preparing us for work and ministry through a sense of comfort, joy and Christian love.
• Transformation through prayer, learning and service of many forms, thus encouraging the exploration, deepening and living of our faith.
• Actively reaching out in love and concern to meet the needs of our neighbour in our church family, in our community and beyond.

Our History

When Metropolitan United Church and First United Church joined together in 1997, it marked the amalgamation of the three founding congregations of Methodists, Presbyterians and Congregationalists in the province of B.C. Together we bring over 300 years of mission and service to the life of Victoria, with a ripple effect that has literally gone out around the world. As strong winds of change have blown through society at the closing of the 20th century, so the Spirit encourages us to become a fresh and vital community of Christ at the heart of the city.

Mountford Library

Visit the Mountford library in its attractive room on the main floor near the Church Office (Room 102). In its collection will be found books of help and comfort in times of trouble (ill health, death, personal problems), devotional books, studies on the Christian church, studies on current Biblical research, a number of interesting biographies and autobiographies, and even a little fiction. The library is open on Sunday mornings from 10:15 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. and occasionally at other times.

Organizational Structure

A process church uses a bottom-up organizational structure. It is much more intentional about encouraging every member and adherent in the congregation to share their spiritual gifts to enrich the worship and service life of all. The Ministry Teams seek to draw on people's spirituality and wisdom to help formulate church policies. To that end, anyone who wishes is invited to their monthly brainstorming session (first Tuesday of the month at 7 pm) where decisions on major policies are birthed.

One person may have an exciting idea for Sunday evening services, or another wants to encourage more interesting liturgy and a third has a vision of outreach in the neighbourhood. Bring these ideas to the Ministry Teams' monthly gatherings where the team leaders and ministerial staff can help to put flesh and blood on these bare-bones visions. From there, they are presented to the congregation at the regular forums where the hope is that other members' interest and enthusiasm will be piqued and they will come together to make these ideas a reality. These small teams will be encouraged to be as instantly creative as possible within the boundaries defined by the congregation's mission, values and vision. In this way, we hope there will be a continual "bubbling up" of fresh, new ideas to enliven all aspects of our church life.

To augment this visioning process there is also an administrative process. The Council attends to the regular, nuts-and-bolts administrative details that any group of people must have to organize their many activities. Their overall mandate comes from the visioning of the congregation.