WHAT WE BELIEVE
Mission Statement
Connecting people to Jesus and one another.
SCRIPTURE - The Bible
We call the "Holy Scripture the Word of God because we understand God inspired its human authors and because God still speaks to us through the Bible" with the "help of the Holy Spirit."
(Book of Common Prayer page 853-854)
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The Bible is our foundation, understood through tradition and reason, and contains all things necessary to salvation. A consistent theme throughout Holy Scripture is God's pattern of seeing goodness, even in the midst of mistakes. As Christians we see the ultimate expression of hope and goodness with Jesus' empty tomb, allowing us to live in the ultimate promise that we are already bound for heaven.
TRADITION - The Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is a reservoir filled with individual devotions, communal worship, and sacramental rites. For nearly 500 years it has been the symbol of our diverse global unity through prayer, "that in His (Christ's) worship different forms and usages may without offense be allowed, provided the substance of the Faith be kept entire."(Book of Common Prayer page 9).
Approximately 70% of The Book of Common Prayer comes from the Bible, filling our worship with Sacred Scripture.
REASON
A familiar and comforting phrase to many Episcopalians is "we don't check our mind at the door" when we enter to worship. Questions - be they about a particular passage of Scripture or faith and science could come together to deepen one's faith are not only welcomed, they are encouraged.
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Bringing reason to Scriptural interpretation and our tradition, we can often reach logical answers to our questions about faith and yet, there eventually seems to be an element of mystery beyond reasoned explanation and felt experience.
We understand this as faith.