About

Welcome to Plum Hill: Come, Vist and Worship with Us!

St. John's Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ is in association with the Illinois South Conference of the United Church of Christ. We are a membership church requiring its members to make a minimal contribution to the church annually. Payment of annual dues ensures the member of burial and perpetual care at our Plum Hill Church Cemetery. We are a church which recognizes the historical creeds of the church and witness to these in the life of the church. Here are examples:

#1: A Testimonial of Faith - Apostles’ Creed

1. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: 2. And in Jesus Christ his only begotten Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell: The third day he rose again for the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. 3. I believe in the Holy Spirit: The one Holy Universal Christian Church**; the Communion of Saints: The Forgiveness of Sins: The Resurrection of the body: And the Life everlasting. **The one holy catholic church may be used. (E&R - 1947)

#2: A Testimony - A Statement (based upon the 1959 UCC Statement)

There is but one God, creating and redeeming; sustaining us through Jesus Christ. One God, who in the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, reunites us with God, so we may live more faithfully. In God’s Spirit, declared through prophets and apostles, we are called to be the church of God, living in covenant with one another, serving and proclaiming the gospel. We share in God’s baptism and eat at God’s table. We thereby receive God’s promises; forgiveness, courage and a spiritual presence in this life, and that which is yet to come. (Adapted - PD)

#3: Statement of Identity - Opening Excerpt Churches of the Illinois South Conference of the United Church of Christ

We, the people of the Illinois South Conference of Congregations of the United Church of Christ, believe God has called and uniquely gifted us to embody the Gospel of Jesus Christ for such a time as this. We believe in Jesus Christ, risen Savior, and sole head of the church. We seek to do the work of Christ on earth through our shared missions of healing, mercy and justice. We rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us, comfort us, challenge us, empower us and to bind us together in a loving covenantal relationship as the Illinois South Conference.

#4: A Testimonial of Faith - based on the Preamble to the Constitution of the UCC

My faith is in Jesus Christ, who directs and inspires this church — I welcome in sacrament, worship and fellowship those who accept Jesus Christ as the same — I am inspired by word and spirit to do God’s work in the world, ever renewing and creating God’s church — The roots of my faith extend to the God of Abraham, Sarah and Hagar and come to life in the church historic — I am an expression of God’s ever changing presence in the world, and make witness to it — I welcome infants into the church through Baptism, and invite professing Christians to share the Table Meal. Rev Donald D Jones