OUR STORY

Accepted by God and connected to the world

Blue Ocean Church Ann Arbor is a Jesus, Spirit, Scripture, science, all-people friendly church. We seek to make faith accessible to the growing sea of people who have spiritual longings combined with religious aversion. We’re motivated by the understanding that:

• faith is all about connection—to self, others, the wide world and God.
• we need connection more than we need answers.
• there really is something going on out there—a living God who can find us and be found by us.
• our tendency to judge is a big problem and that there is no bad news in the good news of Jesus.

A church with deep roots in Ann Arbor

The church was founded by Emily Swan and Ken Wilson, who served as pastors at the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor (Ken was the founding pastor of that congregation) until the Vineyard denomination adopted policies that forbade full welcome and inclusion of same-sex couples. Rather than enforce these policies, Ken and Emily planted Blue Ocean Church Ann Arbor in January 2015, serving as co-pastors until Ken’s retirement in October, 2022.

The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM)

In 2023 we officially joined The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM). Pastor Emily’s second ordination was conducted by Bishop Yvette Flunder of TFAM and they hold our church in their umbrella of churches.

The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries is a multi-denominational group of primarily African American Christian leaders and laity representing churches and faith-based organizations from the USA, Africa, and Mexico. Founded in 2000 by Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder, pastor of City of Refuge UCC in Oakland, CA, the overriding purpose of The Fellowship is to support religious teachers and laity in moving towards a theology of radical inclusivity which, by its very nature, requires an equally radical social ministry, reaching to the furthest margins of society to serve all in need without prejudice and discrimination.

Justice is at the heart of the gospel

We believe justice is at the heart of the gospel narrative. As such, we support the intersectional work of God in various streams helping bring about the liberation of all God’s people. We think racism, patriarchy, homophobia, and anti-Semitism permeate both our culture and much of the Western Church, and part of our Jesus-centered work involves deconstructing our faith in order to reconstruct it in ways that (hopefully) bring us closer to the heart of God. As such, we embrace movements that reflect the work of the Holy Spirit outside of faith communities—movements like #BlackLivesMatter and the Serendipidydodah network of moms of LGBTQ+ kids.

Where we worship

Blue Ocean Church worships in space provided by Genesis of Ann Arbor, a religious nonprofit partnership between St. Clare of Assisi Episcopal Church and Temple Beth Emeth, a Reform Jewish congregation. Genesis was founded in 1974, when the two congregations signed The Genesis Agreement and became joint owners of the property at 2309 Packard Road. The Agreement expresses the aspirations of the two partners for their sharing of the building. It reads, in part:

Although the world has always been torn by distrust, suspicion, waste, prejudice and the threat of economic upheaval and war, its citizens are today becoming more aware of the absolute need to trust, conserve, believe, give and love if we and our heirs are to survive as the children of God. Both the Temple and St. Clare believe that by jointly owning and sharing the same facilities for their various worship and non-worship activities, they are demonstrating that out of their act of faith and trust can be found a significant mutuality of understanding.

Understanding that both congregations will maintain their unique, separate…identities, and will continue to worship and be fruitful in the ways which are unique to both understandings of the nature of God…each believes that their actions herein will stand as a symbol of the power of reason and love to overcome distrust and the prejudices of our separate histories.

Since its founding, Genesis of Ann Arbor has undertaken two major building projects resulting in the social hall—which serves as the worship space for Blue Ocean Church—and the sanctuary, where Temple Beth Emeth and St. Clare’s worship. In accordance with its aspiration to become a gathering place for the community, Genesis also welcomes many other groups to the building, including 12-step groups, Kindermusic, Ann Arbor Children’s House Montessori preschool, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and others.