Our Covenant
Covenant membership for churches and individuals
Covenanting together is the way Baptist Christians have, since our beginnings, bound ourselves to God and to one another in the freedom and responsibility of the gospel. Our covenant is the shape of our common life: a set of living promises, to be tested, deepened and renewed in the company of the Spirit.
It begins with gratitude for our shared Baptist heritage, affirming the Declaration of Principle of the Baptist Union of Great Britain and cherishing the Five Core Values for a Gospel People. Around that foundation, we make three commitments.
Open to God’s world
We seek to share models of mission centred on welcome, hospitality and the inclusion of all; to form partnerships with “people of peace” who seek justice and the flourishing of all; to engage faithfully in the public square; to care for God’s creation; and to celebrate our place in the whole Church of Jesus Christ, working ecumenically wherever we can.
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We hold one another to these promises in mutual accountability, going first directly to one another in the spirit of Matthew 18. Membership is freely entered and freely sustained: should anyone, in conscience, no longer be able to hold to this covenant, they are free to step away in peace and with our blessing. You can read the covenant in full at
Open to God
We seek to uphold God’s Word, spoken through the life and teaching of Jesus and witnessed in the Scriptures; to discern the mind of Christ through patient communal listening; to recognise the image of God in every human being; to pursue God’s Kingdom of justice and peace; and to make worship central to who we are when we gather.
Open to one another
We seek to be churches and individuals genuinely inclusive in our welcome and our leadership, without regard to differences of gender, sexuality, ethnicity, ability, age, neurodiversity or social class. We honour the freedom of conscience of every believer and the liberty of each local church, celebrate our diversity as a gift of God, support one another in prayer and counsel, and stand alongside those who are marginalised or treated unjustly.