WHAT WE BELIEVE
We confess in the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The confession embraces the biblical witness to God’s activity in creation, encompasses God’s gracious self-involvement in the drama of history, and anticipates the consummation of God reign.
We hold common with all Christians a faith in the mystery of salvation in and through Jesus Christ. At the heart of the gospel of salvation is God’s incarnation in Jesus of Nazareth. Scripture witnesses to the redeeming love of God in Jesus’ life and teachings, his atoning death, his resurrection, his sovereign presence in history, his triumph, over the powers of evil and death, and his promised return.
We share the Christina belief that God’s redemptive love is realized in human life by the activity of the Holy Spirit, both in professional experience and in the community of believers. This community is the church, which the Spirit has brought into existence for the healing of the nations. Through faith in Jesus Christ we are forgiven, reconciled to God, and transformed as people of the new covenant.
We understand ourselves to be part of Christ’s universal church when by adoration, proclamation, and service we become conformed to Christ. We are initiated and incorporated into this community of faith by Baptism, receiving the promise of the Spirit that re-creates and transforms us. Through the regular celebration of Holy Communion, we participate in the risen presence of Jesus Christ and are thereby nourished for faithful discipleship.
With other Christians we recognize that the reign of God is both a present and future reality. The church is called to be that place where the first signs of the reign of God are identified and acknowledged in the world. We also look to the end in which God’s work will be fulfilled. This prospect gives us hope in our present actions as individuals and as the Church.
We share with many Christians communions a recognition of the authority of Scripture in matters of faith, the confession that our justification as sinner is by grace through faith, and the sober realization that the church is in need of continual reformation and renewal. With other Christians, we declare the essential oneness of the church in Christ Jesus. Our unity is affirmed in the historic creeds as we confess one holy, catholic, and apostolic church. It is as Christians involved in the ecumenical partnership that we embrace and examine our distinctive heritage.