What We Believe

 

Our basic beliefs are those of the ancient Church as summarized in the Nicene Creed, also called the Symbol of Faith. 

We believe strongly in God’s call to repentance and salvation, to love and service, to worship and prayer. We believe that all men and women suffer from bondage to self-destructive and society-destroying sin, that this sin separates us from God, Himself, and all the fullness of joy that He intends for each one of us. 

We believe that Jesus Christ, out of His great love for us, came into our world and took to Himself all our hurts, sins, guilt and shame. He died to pay the price for all this and to set us free. He then rose again from death enabling us to share in His victory over the grave and restoring our relationship to God. “In Him, we live and move and have our being.” [Acts 17:28] 

As we repent of all our sin, all that for which He died, and acknowledge that He is the supreme authority in our lives, we receive the salvation that He has bought for us. He then, as we ask with obedient hearts, He fills us with His Holy Spirit and gives to us a new life powered by that same Holy Spirit, a life filled with joy, characterized by love and service. (This normally happens through the laying-on-of-hands to receive the Holy Spirit.) In response, we worship with hearts filled with gratitude and, using the power and the gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit, we do the mighty works of God in obedience to His Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), working for the expansion of His Kingdom. 

We live out our Spirit-powered lives within the community of faith on location in our parishes. We are joined to Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church through baptism and in sharing His Body and Blood in our Communion, the Eucharist. “Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf.” [1 Corinthians 10:17] As we are one in Him, we love one another; caring for, supporting, encouraging, nurturing, teaching and helping each other in whatever way we can.

 

We minister to one another and reach out to those around us using the gifts and power of the Holy Spirit that the hold of Satan be broken, souls be saved, those that grieve be comforted, the sick healed, the broken restored and in all things that Jesus Christ by glorified.