An Open and Affirming Congregation on the Duluth Hillside
Peace United Church of Christ sits on the hillside at 1111 North 11th Avenue East in Duluth, Minnesota, a stone-and-glass building with a bell tower where three bells ring out each Sunday. Members greet visitors with the words "no matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here," and the congregation has built a reputation over more than 150 years for welcoming people across lines of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, class, age, and ability.
The congregation's vision statement names what it is known for in the Twin Ports: "to be an accessible, open and affirming community growing in Christian faith, committed to peace and justice, and building the beloved community." Members describe themselves as young and old, gay and straight, rich and poor, liberal and conservative, and they embrace those differences as they seek what unites them: a heart for God's love and justice in the world. Peace is a member congregation of the United Church of Christ, the denomination formed in 1957 from a merger of the Evangelical Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Churches.
Visitors who ring the doorbell during office hours will find the doors unlocked. Those who simply show up on a Sunday will find two services to choose from, a busy Wednesday evening program, and a congregation that takes the Bible seriously but not always literally.
Two Sunday Services, One Sermon
From September through May, Peace offers two Sunday morning worship services built around the same sermon and hymns. The 8:30am service is the smaller and quieter of the two, with Holy Communion offered every Sunday. It draws early risers, people sensitive to noise, and those who value weekly communion. The 10:30am service is the larger, family-friendly option, with the choir singing, a Story for All Ages, nursery care, Children's Church, and communion on the first Sunday of the month. The 10:30am service is livestreamed on YouTube.
During the summer, the congregation gathers for one combined service at 9:30am, alternating between indoor and outdoor worship. Adult Forums and self-serve coffee fill the 9:30am hour during the program year, and a fuller coffee hour follows the second service at 11:30am in the Fellowship Hall.
There is no assigned seating. People who prefer less kid noise tend to sit on the left side of the Sanctuary; families with young children find their place on the right, where two pray-grounds (one inside, one just outside the doors) offer toys and materials for engaging with worship. The Sanctuary is not air-conditioned, so summer worshippers are advised to dress for the weather.
Taizé Mornings, Open Communion, and Inclusive Language
On the first Sunday of each month from October through May, the 8:30am service takes the form of Taizé worship, a musical centering prayer modeled after the ecumenical community in France. Chanted prayers, meditative singing repeated several times, scripture, and a silence of about seven minutes replace the usual sermon and hymns. On those Sundays, communion is not celebrated at 8:30am but continues at 10:30am.
Peace practices open communion, inviting all people to share the bread and cup regardless of denominational affiliation or age. Grape juice is always used, and gluten-free elements are kept separate. Baptism is celebrated both for infants and for adults who have not previously been baptized, often with water that the family has brought from a place meaningful to them.
Worship services use inclusive and expansive language, not only in the pronouns and images for God but in the language of the hymnals themselves. Peace uses the New Century Hymnal and a growing Praise Book that includes original songs by church members and friends.
A Ministry of Music from Gospel to Classical
Music at Peace is described by its leaders with two words: inclusion and serendipity. A single Sunday might feature the choir, a string quartet, a folk band, or local musicians. Styles range across traditional hymns, classical anthems, jazz, gospel, and folk. The philosophy comes from a line in one of the church's favorite songs, "These Footsteps," written by member Steve Horner: "offer up your best gift, pass it all around."
The choir, led by Music Director Jim Pospisil with pianist and composer Wendy Durrwachter, sings an anthem at every 10:30am service. Pospisil, who has served Peace since 1997, is also Principal Horn of the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. Choir rehearsal is held Wednesday evenings at 6:15pm in the Sanctuary, and anyone interested is encouraged to give it a try. Special music at either service is welcomed, and Pospisil helps cultivate solo singers, small groups, and instrumental works.
Children, Youth, and the Path to Confirmation
Children are a visible and central part of life at Peace. The church is committed to being a safe space for LGBTQ+ young people and to making its Children and Youth ministries accessible to people with disabilities and neurodivergent individuals.
On Sunday mornings at 10:30am, the Sun Room nursery is open for children through age five, staffed by two trained, background-checked attendants. Elementary-age children begin in worship, are invited forward for the Story for All Ages, and then head to Children's Church in the Wild Woods Room for the remainder of the service. The last Sunday of each month is LEGO Children's Church. On the first Sunday of the month, worship is intergenerational, and children are invited to receive communion at their parents' discretion. A Social Emotional Learning table in the Narthex offers resources, activity books, and bags for families.
Wednesday evenings add another layer. Soup Supper begins at 5pm, nursery care is offered from 5:30 to 7pm, and Kids' Club (for elementary-age children and older pre-K who feel ready) runs from 5:45 to 6:30pm. Kids' Club produces two plays a year: a Christmas pageant and a spring puppet play.
Middle School Youth Group (grades 6 to 8) meets Wednesdays from 6:30 to 7:30pm in the Youth Room, working through big questions of faith with short lessons and group conversation. High School Youth Group (grades 9 to 12) meets the same hours in the Wild Woods Room. A once-yearly lock-in and summer movie nights build community. OWL (Our Whole Lives), the sexuality curriculum created jointly by the UCC and the Unitarian Universalists, is offered to ninth graders on Sunday evenings from 5 to 6:30pm. Confirmation is a two-year program: Confirmation 1 for tenth graders on Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 8:30pm, and Confirmation 2 for eleventh graders from 7:15 to 8:30pm.
The PK (Prioritizing Kids) Fund was established to honor Rev. Kathryn Nelson's nearly thirty years of ministry at Peace. It supports the children and youth programs, including Peace Village (Vacation Bible School), youth service learning trips, the Rev. Arthur Foy Scholarship, and youth leadership development.
Wednesday Nights Around the Soup Pot
Wednesday evenings are a busy second hub of the congregation's life. The night opens with a soup supper at 5pm in the Fellowship Hall, a chance for families to skip cooking and gather around the table. From there, the building fills: Adult Bible Study at 5:45pm (held in summer at 5pm, in person and on Zoom), Kids' Club at 5:45pm, choir rehearsal at 6:15pm, Middle School Youth at 6:30pm, High School Youth at 6:30pm, Confirmation 2 at 7:15pm, and Confirmation 1 at 7:30pm. Nursery care is available from 5:30 to 7pm.
Smaller groups meet throughout the month. Soma Yoga, a gentle chair, standing, and mat class for all abilities taught by congregation member Robin Davidson, gathers Monday mornings from 9 to 10:15am in the Fireside Room, with a suggested $10 free-will offering. PALS (Peace Adults Learning and Socializing) meets monthly, usually on the fourth Thursday. The Men's Breakfast meets every other Thursday at 8am at a local restaurant. Making Meaning Out Of Malignancy, a support group for those touched by cancer, meets on the fourth Monday. Tea and Talk, with one of the pastors, gathers on the last Wednesday of the month from 3 to 4:30pm in the Fireside Room.
Acting for Justice: Sanctuary, Racial Equity, and Climate
Justice is not a side program at Peace; it is built into the congregation's identity. In September 2017, the congregation voted overwhelmingly to become a Sanctuary Congregation, designating the church building as a place where undocumented immigrants facing immediate danger of deportation can take refuge while their cases are resolved. The work of a sanctuary congregation goes further: encouraging members to foster compassionate treatment of immigrants in their workplaces and neighborhoods, providing educational opportunities, and partnering with other sanctuary-supporting congregations. The congregation has welcomed and supported refugee families, a story featured in The New Yorker.
The Dismantling Racism team gathers monthly for discussion and education, fosters relationships with organizations led by Duluth's BIPOC community, and partners with St. Mark AME Church and the Duluth Branch NAACP for MLK Day events. The team has supported a community yurt project with Indigenous leaders and hosted forums on the Doctrine of Discovery. Peace Church has been declared a gun-free zone.
The Climate Justice Initiative (formerly the Food, Energy and Environment Team) tends the Peace garden, which has raised hundreds of pounds of vegetables for the CHUM food shelf, and partners with Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light and Bag It Duluth. The building is recognized as an Energy Star structure.
The Open and Affirming initiative continues ongoing education around LGBTQ+ inclusion, including anti-bullying efforts and a support group for transgender elders. Ministerial staff provide pre-marital counseling and weddings for everyone.
The Beyond Violence team has worked for universal background checks, vigils after acts of gun violence, and the ASK Campaign, which encourages parents to ask about guns in homes their children visit.
The Jubilee Fund, established in 2009, makes small grants to Peace members and friends engaged in justice work. Past grants have supported the St. Mark AME Giving Garden in the Hillside neighborhood, a community justice Clinical Pastoral Education, a youth trip to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, and Indigenous-led Sobriety Feasts.
Mission Partners in East Timor
Through Global Ministries, the UCC's mission board, Peace is connected to 190 partner churches and organizations around the world. The congregation has a particular tie to the Protestant Church of East Timor (IPTL) through the ministry of Tom and Monica Liddle, members who served in East Timor for seven years. Monica worked as a doctor in an outpatient clinic and Tom served as a local pastor. The Liddles returned to Duluth and now help Peace stay connected through the Good Crocodile Foundation, a grassroots organization that runs a village clinic, maternity center, and mobile health outreach.
Groups and Classes for Adults
The Adult Forum meets every Sunday at 9:30am during the program year, with a different presenter each week on topics ranging from local social issues to theology. Adult Bible Study gathers Wednesday evenings to read and discuss the coming Sunday's scripture, welcoming newcomers without prior biblical knowledge. A Prayer Chain offers intercessory prayer for members and their loved ones, with requests left with church staff.
Beyond these weekly rhythms, the Men's Breakfast meets every other Thursday, PALS gathers monthly, a cancer support group meets on the fourth Monday, and Tea and Talk invites conversation with a pastor on the last Wednesday afternoon.
The Building: A Living Room for the Community
Peace makes its building available to the wider Duluth community. The Sanctuary, Fellowship Hall, Kitchen, Fireside Room, Chapel, Music Room, and East Timor Room can all be reserved, and a Summer Tent expands the usable space in warm months. Groups using the building are asked to honor the congregation's vision statement about accessibility, openness, and welcoming. The Sanctuary features a work by Indigenous artist Leah Yellowbird, titled "Tree of Life," as part of an effort to integrate visual art into worship life.
The Sanctuary features a bell tower with three bells: one gifted in 1874 from Kaiser Wilhelm I and cast from a captured French cannon; a second presented by the Navy on the occasion of the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959; and a third created in 1962 through the efforts of the David Wisted American Legion Post. All three ring out each Sunday.
From German Immigrants to a 150-Year Ministry
Peace traces its roots to 1872, when a group of German immigrants in the young city of Duluth gathered to worship with Rev. Louis Von Rague, a traveling missionary of the German Evangelical Synod. The first recorded congregational meeting of St. Paul's Evangelical Church was held on March 11, 1872, with Rev. John C. Lueder as the first pastor. Until a building was constructed, services were sometimes held at the local Congregational Church, a fitting origin for what would become a United Church of Christ congregation.
A small frame church went up at 10th Avenue East and Third Street in 1873. By 1931 a building fund had begun to grow, and on April 19, 1959, ground was broken at the current site. On September 16, 1959, the congregation's name was officially changed to Peace United Church of Christ, and the first worship in the new building was held on June 5, 1960. In 2022 the congregation celebrated 150 years of ministry. Peace partnered with St. Mark AME to establish the Rev. Arthur Foy III Scholarship in 2004, honoring the former St. Mark pastor known for his ministry with young people and his insistence on the importance of higher education. Each year the scholarship awards at least $1,500 to a student of color from the Duluth-Superior area pursuing post-secondary education.
Preparing the Way: A Capital Campaign for the Building
The congregation's three-year capital campaign, "Preparing the Way," carries a goal of $917,000 to $1,030,000. The top priority is a building-wide HVAC upgrade: replacing thirty-year-old boilers with high-efficiency models, adding air source heat pumps, and improving ventilation throughout the building. The upgrade is projected to reduce energy costs by roughly 40 percent and to make the building a comfortable, sustainable place for worship and community for generations to come. A stretch goal of about $81,000 would repay the loan from a recent office and narthex HVAC replacement, and a further stretch goal of about $32,000 would fund LED lighting upgrades.
The Property Team is working with Minify Energy as construction manager, with installation targeted for the near future. Gifts are typically made over three years, and contributions are tax-deductible. The capital campaign is separate from the annual stewardship campaign, which funds day-to-day ministry and operations, with member contributions covering more than 85 percent of the annual budget.
Pastors and Staff
The Rev. Corinne Freedman Ellis has served as Lead Pastor since 2024. A UCC minister and graduate of Yale Divinity School (2014), she previously served congregations in Des Moines and St. Paul, and was part of the UCC's Next Generation Leadership Program. She lives in Duluth with her spouse Greg and their two young children.
The Rev. Laurie Crelly serves as Pastoral Care Chaplain. A 2001 graduate of United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities and ordained in 2005, Laurie provides continuity of care and support for members and friends facing acute or chronic distress and trains volunteer visitation ministries.
Amanda McElray Hunter is Children, Youth, and Small Group Coordinator, with a master's degree in Theology and the Arts from United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. Jim Pospisil has been Music Director since 1997.
Peace Church is governed by a 13-member Coordinating Council working with the Lead Pastor. Office hours run Monday through Thursday from 9am to 3pm, and Sunday from 8am to noon. The church is closed Friday and Saturday.