What We Believe
God is the manifestation of love, for God is the author of all creation. Whether one is an evolutionist or a creationist everything began with a Higher Being whose love is so awesome that it has no choice but to overflow and be shared.
God is love as realized in the fact that God fully and completely loves all persons regardless of gender, race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or social class.
God is love manifested in God’s desire and will to become one with us so that we may share in the life, love, and glory of God.
God is love as demonstrated in God’s desire that all believe in God, in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. God is Trinity, parent, redeemer and sanctifier, and God desires for all of us to enter into and live out our personal redemption through the work of the Trinity.
God is pure spirit and because of that God is not gender specific. Jesus Christ is both God and human creature; however, in his nature as God the God-man speaks to all creatures both female and male.
God is love as realized in the fact that God fully and completely loves all persons regardless of gender, race, ethnic background, sexual orientation, or social class.
God is love manifested in God’s desire and will to become one with us so that we may share in the life, love, and glory of God.
God is love as demonstrated in God’s desire that all believe in God, in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit. God is Trinity, parent, redeemer and sanctifier, and God desires for all of us to enter into and live out our personal redemption through the work of the Trinity.
God is pure spirit and because of that God is not gender specific. Jesus Christ is both God and human creature; however, in his nature as God the God-man speaks to all creatures both female and male.
All of creation has been redeemed through the Incarnation, that is God becoming human creature, and through Jesus’ complete obedience to God, in his life, death, and resurrection.
There is no one church that truly discloses or manifests what God is in God’s entirety or what God has revealed. All churches share in the life of Jesus Christ, who is the Church, and through him the life of God; but no church can realistically declare itself to be the only and true revelation of God to human kind. As the true Church, Jesus Christ is like a tree and all churches are the branches of this tree.
Sacred Scripture is not the words of God, that is each word or sentence is not to be understood in the literal sense, for one must look at the whole of Sacred Scripture to understand the meaning of God’s word; therefore the Bible is not the words of God, but rather, the Word of God.
Holy Scripture, our own God given reason, and the Tradition handed down to us are gifts that we are to employ honestly and with much reflection to answer our understanding of God and the direction in which God desires each of us to travel into the kingdom. This is why Episcopalians often disagree about moral issues, but we are comfortable with that. What brings us together is our common worship through the Holy Eucharist, also known as the Mass, Holy Communion, and the Lord’s Supper.
There is no one church that truly discloses or manifests what God is in God’s entirety or what God has revealed. All churches share in the life of Jesus Christ, who is the Church, and through him the life of God; but no church can realistically declare itself to be the only and true revelation of God to human kind. As the true Church, Jesus Christ is like a tree and all churches are the branches of this tree.
Sacred Scripture is not the words of God, that is each word or sentence is not to be understood in the literal sense, for one must look at the whole of Sacred Scripture to understand the meaning of God’s word; therefore the Bible is not the words of God, but rather, the Word of God.
Holy Scripture, our own God given reason, and the Tradition handed down to us are gifts that we are to employ honestly and with much reflection to answer our understanding of God and the direction in which God desires each of us to travel into the kingdom. This is why Episcopalians often disagree about moral issues, but we are comfortable with that. What brings us together is our common worship through the Holy Eucharist, also known as the Mass, Holy Communion, and the Lord’s Supper.
Christ is most manifest in Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. Our participation in Holy Eucharist is a continuance of our Baptism through which we spiritually died and rose with Christ. Baptism is the initiation into the Church which is Christ. Baptism must follow a Trinitarian formula and can be received only once for our reception is into Christ, even through our baptism takes place through a particular tradition or church. Baptism is also the initiation into the other Sacraments: Holy Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Penance or Confession, Ordination to bishop, priest, or deacon, and Anointing. Inasmuch as, Baptism is the entrance to the other sacraments it is not gender specific.
The worship service of Holy Eucharist is gathering together to listen to the Scriptures, learn through the sermon, offer prayers for ourselves and others, ask forgiveness for our sins, and declare our beliefs as found in the Nicene Creed. The second part of the Holy Eucharist is gathering to share in bread and wine in which Jesus Christ is present and through this action spiritually relive our baptismal death and resurrection. The Holy Eucharist is both the culmination of the previous week and the spiritual energy and renewal for the week to come.
This statement is one of basic beliefs. Gather with us to worship and learn through worship and our education programs to learn more about our Episcopal tradition.
The worship service of Holy Eucharist is gathering together to listen to the Scriptures, learn through the sermon, offer prayers for ourselves and others, ask forgiveness for our sins, and declare our beliefs as found in the Nicene Creed. The second part of the Holy Eucharist is gathering to share in bread and wine in which Jesus Christ is present and through this action spiritually relive our baptismal death and resurrection. The Holy Eucharist is both the culmination of the previous week and the spiritual energy and renewal for the week to come.
This statement is one of basic beliefs. Gather with us to worship and learn through worship and our education programs to learn more about our Episcopal tradition.
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry has engaged us to participate in the Jesus Movement.
What is the Jesus Movement?
We’re following Jesus into loving, liberating and life-giving relationship with God, with each other and with the earth.
How do we join?
First, we follow Jesus. We are simply the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, seeking every day to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). Just like Jesus.
What’s our work?
We’re working on simple practices for each priority area – if it’s a Movement, then we should all be able to grasp the ideas and get on board. Then we’re mapping a strategy that inspires and equips all of us to join God and make a difference.
The Jesus Movement takes you places. For the Episcopal Church, it calls us to focus on three specific Jesus Movement Priorities:
Evangelism:
Listen for Jesus' movement in our lives and in the world. Give thanks. Proclaim and celebrate it! Invite the Spirit to do the rest.
Reconciliation:
Embody the loving, liberating, life-giving way of Jesus with each other
Creation Care:
Encounter and honor the face of God in creation
What is the Jesus Movement?
We’re following Jesus into loving, liberating and life-giving relationship with God, with each other and with the earth.
How do we join?
First, we follow Jesus. We are simply the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, seeking every day to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul, and to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40). Just like Jesus.
What’s our work?
We’re working on simple practices for each priority area – if it’s a Movement, then we should all be able to grasp the ideas and get on board. Then we’re mapping a strategy that inspires and equips all of us to join God and make a difference.
The Jesus Movement takes you places. For the Episcopal Church, it calls us to focus on three specific Jesus Movement Priorities:
Evangelism:
Listen for Jesus' movement in our lives and in the world. Give thanks. Proclaim and celebrate it! Invite the Spirit to do the rest.
- Inspire Episcopalians to embrace evangelism
- Gather Episcopal evangelists
- Equip all to be evangelists
- Send all as evangelists
Reconciliation:
Embody the loving, liberating, life-giving way of Jesus with each other
- Tell the truth about church and race
- Rewrite the narrative
- Form Episcopalians as reconcilers
- Repair & Restore institutions & society
Creation Care:
Encounter and honor the face of God in creation
- Develop creation care resources
- Grow local eco-ministries
- Pursue eco-justice at church-wide and local levels
- Convene conversations around climate and faith