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Our chief end is to know God and to love and serve Him. Our aim is to encourage our members' devotion to Him for the greater good of our families and communities. We gather to sustain our faith and joy, to sharpen our sense of vocation, and to renew our vision of God's kingdom among us.
First gathered as a small Bible study group at 85 Rosebrook Road, New Canaan, Connecticut in 1995, we take our lead from another group of Christians who lived on the outskirts of London in the early 19th century, and whom history remembers as "The Clapham Circle." Their most famous member was William Wilberforce whose lifetime in Parliament was spent opposing the slave trade. Other members were Thornton, Babbington, and Macauley, and together, their sincere faith, unimpeachable character, moral clarity, political courage, and humble manner changed all of England and the world. And we look beyond Clapham to the Upper Room, drawing our life from the love and humility displayed by Jesus on the night of His betrayal. We look forward with great joy to his coming again in power and in great glory to establish His reign and a peace "to which there shall be no end."
When we meet, we meet in the assurance that where two or three are gathered in His name, Jesus is there. When we disperse, it is with the confidence that He "will never leave us or forsake us." At our meetings we share God's word, God's worship, and God's work in the world. We also share ourselves: our joys and our foibles, our dreams and our heartaches. Our laughter is hearty and unsullied; and our tears flow together so that there is no bitterness in them. In both personal plans and public projects, we take counsel together. When we break bread together, we allow ourselves to be broken; and in that brokenness we find our wholeness and our true strength.
The aim of our Society is not merely piety, but also utility. For us, reflection without action is an inadequate response to Jesus's love. Therefore, we constantly stir each other up to good works, to forsake the easy path and seek the strenuous life. We endeavor to be diligent in worldly business, yet dead to this world. This means that in our commercial ventures we recognize universal claims to human freedom and dignity as the basis for and not merely the result of market economics. Thus principle comes before profit.
In our political life, we actively assert the freedom and responsibility of every citizen. As members of various political parties, we affirm that the liberties of the nation cannot be maintained without morality grounded in true religion or in what Washington called "those eternal rules of right, which Heaven itself has ordained." For us there is a Law above the law, a Sovereign above the magistrate, and a Kingdom beyond the state. Thus principle comes before party.
Like Lancelot of old, we say: "Live pure, speak truth, right wrong, worship the King."
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