Christian Beliefs
First and foremost, we believe in in God as revealed in the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We Episcopalians join with our brothers and sisters in the Roman Catholic church, the Eastern Orthodox Churches, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others that the core of Christian faith is found contained in two Creeds: The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed. In fact, we pray the Nicene Creed as part of our liturgy of Holy Eucharist every Sunday.
The Catechism
A more complete summary of our beliefs is found in something called The Catechism. Catechism comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "to teach by word of mouth" so a catechism is a collection of teachings. Our catechism is printed in our Book of Common Prayer, and you can read the whole thing here. See what you think!
Scripture, Tradition, and Reason
Episcopalians believe that God has blessed humanity with many wonderful gifts, including our ability to think, and our awareness of history. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we discover our theology by exploring three things:
The Catechism
A more complete summary of our beliefs is found in something called The Catechism. Catechism comes from an ancient Greek word meaning "to teach by word of mouth" so a catechism is a collection of teachings. Our catechism is printed in our Book of Common Prayer, and you can read the whole thing here. See what you think!
Scripture, Tradition, and Reason
Episcopalians believe that God has blessed humanity with many wonderful gifts, including our ability to think, and our awareness of history. Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we discover our theology by exploring three things:
- Holy Scripture. The books of the Hebrew Bible and of the New Testament contain a faithful record of God's relationship with humanity throughout the centuries. We find the Scriptures to be the story of God's blessing of creation, of humanity's failings and sinfulness, of God's loving response to our great need, and ultimately of the Good News of Jesus Christ. We say that the Scriptures "contain all things necessary for salvation."
- Holy Tradition. The Scriptures were of course written by human beings under the guidance of the Holy Spirit; so they are a record of the apostolic tradition of the church. Tradition doesn't simply mean "the way we've always done things"; it means that we receive the faith from our ancestors. It means that the Church is a living society of Christians, with a rich history of practices, teachings, holidays, prayers, doctrines, songs, and cultures. We honor them, learn from them, and hand them on.
- Reason. God has given us brains. We experience the world around us, its joys as well as its sufferings. Our thoughts and our experiences shape the way we view the world around us, and the way we understand ourselves. Episcopalians are honest about the fact that new challenges encourage us to apply Christ's law of love in different ways. We are eager to find out how the sciences, psychology, sociology, and economics can inform and challenge our faith.