Welcome to the Open Table of Christ Church. Organization based on a Jesus model of ‘servant leadership.’ The members of the Open Table worshiping community and the Open Table Connection of ministries are led by a pastor, and a Leader’s Council. The Council is composed of people who actually lead ministries of mercy, justice, training, or worship, as opposed to ‘elected representatives’. Specific ministries like Project Outreach, Community Stewardship, and others, may have their own Boards that raise money and guide those specific groups and include leaders and people from many different churches, and non-churches too. Each week, the ministries are carried out by both persons of faith and non-faith; by Open Table members and non-members, supported and sometimes led by members or leaders of other churches or organizations.

We are a ‘Connection’ - really multiple connections, centered around various aspects of the Way of Jesus as we understand it. These ‘circles’ include ones organized around learning, giving material assistance, demanding justice, meeting in small groups to compare experience, worshiping in multiple ways, and more. In our many ways, we are united by a kindred spirit. We seek the way of living exemplified in Jesus; the way that the ancient prophet Micah described as simply “doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.”

We are a body of God-seekers committed to be a multicultural, multiethnic, and multigenerational church, open to all who are seeking the Way of Christ. Here we all come to the common table of God’s love, acceptance, and power for change.

WE ARE a diverse community open to all persons who are spiritually or physically hungry, and who seek justice, mercy, and a relationship with the Creator.

WE ARE from every tribe, so we welcome you regardless of your economic or social standing, race, immigration status, abilities, past or present, age, sexual orientation or gender Identity. There is no test of dogma here, except the desire to follow together the Way of Love as demonstrated in Christ.

WE ARE all broken, and being made whole together in God's love as we come to a common table of acceptance and power for change.

WE SEEK to commit to Christ and to each other in mutual, disciplined love, and to work as agents of change in this world.

ACT together in community as the "Body of Christ" alive in the world today, working for mercy, peace and justice.

BRING ourselves and others, and everything we are and have, to the discipleship mission of God's radical love in the world.

CONNECT in open humility with our creator, with other humans, and with all creation as we deepen our relationships and understanding together.

We are a group of people who realize that we cannot do justice and love mercy on our own strength alone.

Rev. Duane Clinker is the Pastor of the Open Table. Duane is an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church with a varied life experience. Answering God’s call later in life, Duane formerly worked as a factory worker and then as a union, community, and faith-based organizer. He has a Doctor of Ministry from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington. Pastor Duane lives in Cranston with his wife, Mary Curtin and is blessed to have multiple children and grandchildren all living in RI.

Duane’s emphasizes that God is the author of creativity and liberation and grace, and not oppression; that all humans are broken and that we heal together in the presence of God; and that humans have a God-given mission to “tend the garden” which is the earth and all its life. He describes himself as a ‘radical evangelical’ whose preaching is Biblically centered but in not fundamentalist.