President
Send an Email to Fred Plumer

After an extensive background in building management, real estate development and restaurant ownership and management, Fred Plumer made a career shift in 1981. He earned his M.Div. degree at the Pacific School of Religion while doing work in an inner city community center. In 1984 Rev. Plumer was called to the Irvine United Congregational Church in Irvine, California to lead a UCC new start church. The church became known throughout the denomination as one of the more exciting and progressive mid-size congregations in the nation.

Rev. Plumer served on the Board of Directors of the Southern California Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC) for five years, and chaired the Commission for Church Development and Evangelism for three of those years. In that time the Southern California Conference put in place one of the most aggressive church development plans in its history. Rev. Plumer regularly gives workshops on church growth. He became a member of the Executive Council for The Center for Progressive Christianity in 1995 and has written The Study Guide for TCPC’s “eight points.” He has had several articles published on church development, building faith communities and redefining the purpose of the enlightened Christian Church. Always interested in the latest and best scholarship, Rev. Plumer has been involved with the Jesus Seminar since his graduate work in the early eighties.

Rev. Plumer was the executive producer of a video and workbook on the Open and Affirming process in the UCC. This highly acclaimed video, "A Journey of Faith," has now been used in five countries and in thousands of churches of several denominations as a teaching tool for those interested in studying the subject of the church and sexual orientation issues. In 1990 he was the recipient of ECCO’s Humanitarian Award for his work in this area.

Rev. Plumer has been active in the inter-faith dialogue since his seminary years. In 1989 under his leadership the UCC church agreed to host a small group of Jews who wanted to start a Reconstructionist Synagogue. The congregations shared space, operating expenses, teaching forums, mission outreach projects, special services and meals for over 15 years. The synagogue became one of the fastest growing congregations in the nation with nearly five hundred families when they found it necessary to build their own facility. The unique relationship between the two congregations was the subject of numerous newspaper articles and radio talk shows providing Rev. Plumer many opportunities to speak of the importance of inter-religious dialogue. In 2000 with the support of the synagogue, a Mosque joined in this unique mix of religious traditions sharing space and ideas. The new relationship was covered by numerous newspapers, two talk shows and was a special feature that ran on CNN news, Christmas Eve and Christmas day.

In September of 2004 Rev. Plumer retired from the Irvine church so he could devote more time to writing and his passion - reclaiming the message of Jesus. In January of 2006 after Jim Adams, founder of TCPC retired as President, Fred was elected as the new President.

Progressive Faith vs. the Illusion of Control
I have never thought of the progressive church as a response to the religious right or to the conservative or the creedal or orthodox church. From my earliest seminary days, I have always assumed that the progressive church was a ...
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What is Progressive Christianity Anyway?
This article was first published in the January/Febbruary 2007 magazine The Progressive Christian. It is posted here with permission. It covers the topic of the growing momentum of something called progressive Christianity but also ...
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Nurturing a Progressive Christian Spirituality
You cannot love and serve with a compassionate heart without eventually seeing those whom you are serving as your brother, your sister, your mother, your father, or eventually as yourself, even when it is “the least of these” ...
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Practice, Practice, Practice!
Over the last five decades as I have searched for a meaningful spiritual path that might bring purpose, fulfillment and peace to my life, I have often reflected on that experience with mirth and awe. It must have been a funny scene ...
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Churches Have More than Just Good Music
Ten years ago George Carlin the comedian, wrote in his book, Brain Droppings, "The only thing good that came out of religion was the music."  When I ponder the violent history of the Christian church, the religious ...
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A Grand Event
It was a grand event and my only wish is that you could have all been there to share it with me. Since, Australia was a bit far...I will do my best to maintain that level of energy and enthusiasm about Progressive Christianity that ...
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Build and Sustain Faith Communities by Feeding the Hungry
This presentation was given by Fred Plumer at the Common Dreams Conference in Sydney, Australia last month. It clearly lays out 8 steps and goals for churches and spiritual communities that want to build and sustain their communities ...
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Speaking of My Religion
It is no secret that progressive, liberal, even moderate Christians are living in precarious times. Most of us are part of denominations that are losing members faster then we can count... Old-line, liberal churches are in a lot of ...
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Speaking of My Religion, Page 2
page 2 of article...
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Giving Thanks as a Life Changing Dynamic
Jesus was not born into a privileged life. He was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth and did not live under easy circumstances. But he still lived in gratitude. In fact he made giving thanks for life a foundational dynamic ...
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The Magic of Christmas
Recently as my wife and I were having a quiet dinner with some friends and found ourselves going through something that seems to have become an annual ritual. It always starts with someone announcing, "Can you believe it? Christmas ...
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Time To Break For Lunch
I attended a conference a few years ago that was devoted to exploring the virtues of interfaith dialogue. . .The four keynote speakers were made up of a conservative Jewish scholar, a well respected Muslim scholar, a Buddhist author ...
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Christian Laauve
It is not too difficult to imagine that this existential awareness is related to the Realm of God that Jesus described to his followers with so many positive metaphors. It not only discovering the interconnectedness of all life that ...
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Breakfast with the Dalai Lama
The Seeds of Compassion organization is a very interesting organization and I believe it has a lot to tell those of us that are still trying to grow Christian churches. The organization came through the collaboration of the Kirlin ...
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Into the Future
We do not need to be the leader or number one. We just need to do what we apparently have been called to do and to do it better-that means finding more effective ways of sharing the progressive Christian message. You are going to ...
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Don't Go There
If we dig deep enough, most of us seem to have a "don't go there" spot in our beliefs and traditions - that place where we lose a little of our otherwise rational thinking. And I suspect that it is often our inability ...
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Changing the World, One Child At A Time
This undertaking has been a journey of faith for me. So many positive things have already happened because of it, that it has occurred to me that the curriculum project may be one of the most important things TCPC has ever taken on. ...
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Who Will Lead Us? Maybe Our Lay People
One characteristic that seems to get overlooked most in the data on what is working and not working in churches is the need to create an environment for open dialogue about theological and Christological conversation. I am not certain ...
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I Learned About God There
After a couple of weeks of this thrashing, I finally calmed down enough to begin to ask myself what could I learn from this young man. What was missing in our approach to Christian teaching? What were we really teaching our children? ...
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Missed Opportunities
I must admit that it seems strange, in a time when religion, beliefs, faith and spirituality are such a common subject on a regular basis in our mainline media, so many people feel uncomfortable going to church to have open discussions ...
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An Epic Change
Have you noticed what an amazing time in history we are all living? I think we are a very lucky group of people to be witnessing and even participating in such incredible changes in our country and in the world. I am not referring ...
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Are We Progressing?
About ten years ago, I attended a two day conference that garnered a lot of anticipation and excitement about the topics, which were: a new way of communicating our religious beliefs and the discussion of postmodern theology. Near ...
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The Times They Are A-Changin’
Two weeks ago I experienced a change I could not have imagined any time in the past. I attended the Earl Lectures at Pacific School of Religion. I have been doing this for over twenty-five years. The lectures were established in 1901 ...
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Engaging the Recovering Christians
So how do we progressive Christians share our perspective so recovering Christians can hear us and actually get excited about the progressive path of Jesus and what our churches have to offer?...
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Perplexed- Discussion Between Fred Plumer and TCPC Reader Rev. R
This article is a summary of an email exchange between a TCPC reader and Fred Plumer.  We are not certain why last month's eBulletin, "Recovering Christians," generated so much email but we were surprised.  ...
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Always A Seeker
Certainly the most influential and helpful reading I had done over the years was in the various Buddhist traditions. It is true that on the surface there are significant differences from the teachings of Jesus and the Buddha. And ...
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Spirituality of Mother Earth
I have come to realize that it would be impossible for me to have a holistic spirituality that was not somehow connected and grounded in an awesome appreciation of our Mother Earth. We are of the earth and the earth is of us. The ...
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Hope - An Action of Creative Transformation
Today, it is very clear to me that "hope" is not wishful thinking for the weak. It is a positive action that will affect the course of our lives. It is for the strong who are willing to embrace change. For hope is a doorway ...
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A Quiet Lazy Summer
All religions started with mystical discovery and wonderment. Discovery and wonderment are the foundation of every spiritual experience. It is humans to search for that spiritual experience somewhere. ...
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Trying to String Things Together
According to the best scientists in the world, our universe is composed entirely of vibrating strings of energy. Everything from the smallest measurable particle to the largest star in our universe is made from the same kind of ingredient. ...
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Myth and the Genesis Stories
It is impossible for us today to fathom the world view that the ancients who created these stories must have had.  We really cannot grasp what it was like to look out in the stars, to travel, to watch the days get shorter with ...
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God Talk
Over the last few weeks I have had the opportunity and the privilege to meet with two different groups made up of people who are all in their own way searching for new ways to tell the Christian story.  More than once, while ...
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Not the Easy Way
The ultimate problem for most of the early theologians was their need to identify Jesus as a divine messiah sent by an intervening God to save humanity from humanity’s God-given nature.  Rather than accepting  Jesus ...
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What Have We Done?
I do not think that very many people believe that we have a very healthy attitude towards human sexuality in the Western World today, especially in the USA. Twenty minutes of television will generally demonstrate that sad truth.  ...
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Excerpts from Fred's Presentation at the Common Dreams 2 Conference- Are We Living the Progressive Faith or Are We Just Dreaming?
I have hope that something very special is happening in our world and I would like the Christian tradition to be part of that positive, evolutionary change. But I believe there are things that progressive leaders, progressive teachers ...
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Fred's Full Presentation from the Common Dreams 2 Conference- Are We Living the Progressive Faith, or Are We Just Dreaming? Part 1
I have hope that something very special is happening in our world and I would like the Christian tradition to be part of that positive, evolutionary change. But I believe there are things that progressive leaders, progressive teachers ...
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Are We Living the Progressive Faith, or Are We Just Dreaming? Part 2
Part 2 of the Full Presentation by Fred Plumer, given at the Common Dreams 2 Conference in Melbourne, Australia....
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It Must Be True (Easter)
Easter has always held a special place in my life and spiritual journey as it holds promise for rebirth, change, growth, and yes, resurection. It is a challenge for many to let go of the belief of a physically resurcted Jesus, but ...
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Finding Awe
Re-discover AWE in your life.  Listen Here...
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What Else Could I Have Done? A Maundy Thursday or Good Friday Reading
This is the Passion story. The story of Jesus' betrayal and his death. Come and walk with the people that were with him during that time....
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Remedial Christianity: What Every Believer Should Know about the Faith but Probably Doesn’t
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Leaving the Church-A Memoir of Faith
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An Introduction to A Radical Theology
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Children Praying a New Story- A Resource for Parents, Grandparents, and Teachers
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Sexual Liberation-The Scandal of Christendom
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