We Believe

Evangelical: We believe the Good News of Jesus Christ to be the Gospel of Life and Salvation for the whole world and believe that all persons are called to accept a personal relationship with the Living God in Jesus Christ.  As a mission minded church family, we believe that we are commissioned and empowered by the Holy Spirit to make Jesus Christ, (through our witness of the Faith, our daily ministry, and through Word & Sacrament), a living and present reality in the lives of those whom we daily encounter.  Our faith, moral beliefs, worship, preaching and teaching are grounded in God’s holy Word.  As evangelical Christians we proclaim Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth and the Life and the only means of salvation for humankind.

 

Charismatic: We believe that Christian life is, by definition, new life in the Holy Spirit.  We fully understand our Faith and ministry as gifts from God and evidence of the Spirit’s power and presence among us.  It is the Holy Spirit who draws us into the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ; in whom we daily encounter the Living God.  Apart from the Holy Spirit, we can do nothing!

 

Catholic:  We have retained, proclaim and celebrate the same Holy Scriptures, Creeds, moral teachings, Sacraments (e.g., Holy Baptism & Holy Communion), and Orders of Ministry (those of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon) as that of the undivided Catholic Church of the first Christian Millennium.  The word ‘Catholic’ [Greek, katholikos] means Universal or Whole.  Therefore, we proclaim the whole doctrine, moral teaching, discipline and worship of the Universal Church as traditionally received within the Anglican Communion and articulated in the classical Anglican Formularies (the Thirty-Nine Articles, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal, and the Lambeth Quadrilateral).  Believing the Christian life to be sacramental, we proclaim and celebrate all seven of the traditional Sacraments/Sacramental Rites of the Catholic Church.

 

Protestant: We believe in the primacy and authority of the Holy Bible over and within the Church, emphasizing God’s Word in our worship, preaching and teaching.  We humbly submit ourselves to the transforming power of the Holy Scriptures as Divinely inspired, containing all things necessary to Salvation and believe it is not lawful for the Church to proclaim any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, nor is it lawful for any one part of the Church to alter the Evangelical Faith or Catholic Order of the whole Church unilaterally.  Furthermore, we proclaim that Salvation is a free gift of God given by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

 

Orthodox: We profess the Faith once delivered to the Saints.  We believe our Faith to be at one with the holy Faith of the undivided Catholic Church of the first Christian Millennium before the sad divisions within the Christian Church and believe our contemporary worship, in Word and Sacrament, to be in direct continuity with the Church of all ages and places.  The word ‘orthodox’ means right belief in God and right worship of God.  Therefore, we offer the authentic historic Faith and worship of the ancient Church for today’s world.

Apostolic:  By our faithfulness to the above, we seek to present the teaching, mission, worship and fellowship of the Apostolic Church to today’s world.

 

Our Goals:

 

To “Reach, Teach and Preach Jesus,” with authority and conviction, thereby spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Life and Salvation, and leading persons into eternal life with God the Father through His only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

 

To live as Christ’s body and serve Him as a worshiping, nurturing and empowering church dedicated to serving our neighbors locally, nationally and internationally.

As Christ’s church we live to obediently serve God and unite persons in faith to the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the saving waters of Holy Baptism and to continually nourish this new life through Spirit-filled ministry, outreach, Christian fellowship, preaching, teaching, worship, and above all, by partaking regularly of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

 

Our Worship:

 

Is Biblically based (evangelical), Spirit-filled (charismatic) and fully Sacramental (catholic).

 

Believing that Jesus comes and speaks to us in Scripture, the Sermon and the Consecrated Bread and Wine, we are a church with a vital worship experience; we are people who believe the words spoken and sung, and we let it show by our enthusiasm. 

(Adapted with permission from Fr. Michael McKinnon, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Marlborough, MA)

 

 

 

Our Core Values