WHO ARE WE?
WHAT IS THE CALL OF THE EIGHTH DAY FAITH COMMUNITY?
The Eighth Day Faith Community is one of the nine faith communities in the tradition of the Church of the Saviour, an ecumenical Christian church in Washington, D.C. We consider ourselves a part of the Christian church universal, with members from many different expressions of the Christian church: Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Mennonites, Presbyterians and others. We value the gifts that the many Christian traditions have to offer and believe that an openness to these different streams of Christianity allows us a richer faith.
Eighth Day takes its name from the faith that God has continued to create beyond the biblical seven days. The eighth day of creation is the life we now lead, one in which we are to be co-creators with God of a reign of justice and compassion as witnesses of God's love expressed in Jesus Christ. We are a multi-ethnic worshiping body consisting of about thirty covenant, intern, and community members and an equal number of regular attenders.
In keeping with the confidence in the “priesthood of all believers,” we have no paid pastor. Instead, each year our community selects the leadership team by consensus. In addition we rotate such roles as teacher/preacher and worship leader among the members of the worshiping community, encouraging new and experienced people alike to exercise their various gifts.
We are a small church. The number of covenant and intern members varies from year to year, but has always been fewer than 15. The number of community members also varies but has always been fewer than 20. Attendance at weekly worship is usually about 50.
As explained on our history page we are part of the Church of the Saviour, which--after realizing in 1976 that at 100+ members it was getting too big--divided into nine smaller sister communities.
The missions page describes the concept of mission groups and the various missions and nonprofit charities that the church has helped start.
The membership page explains what we believe and how we try to live out these beliefs. One School of Christian Living class has compiled the "marks" of the community.
