Home  |  Sitemap  |  A A A
Church of the Holy Spirit
Episcopal Church

HOME  ›  About Us  ›  What We Believe

What We Believe

"The birth cry of baptism is the threefold 'I believe' of the creed, a cry of total trust in the Triune God." - Ben Myers, The Apostles Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism

To "believe" in God is not to merely give mental or intellectual ascent to certain ideas about God. To believe in God is to endeavor to trust God as God has been revealed in Jesus Christ. None of us is perfect in this. Even the man who came to Jesus asking for his son to be healed cried out "Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!" (Matthew 9:24) The Christian journey is a process by which we learn to put more of our trust in God. It might begin small, but with time we learn to trust God with every part of our lives. When we say "we believe," we are saying that we trust God and that we desire to trust God more.

The Church holds particular beliefs about God that are meant to support our individual walks with God. We call these core beliefs "doctrines." James Griffiss reminds us that "...doctrines were part of the early church's attempt to explain and preserve from distortion the story of what God had done and was continuing to do in Jesus." He goes on to say that "doctrine" allows us to faithfully share the story of Jesus with others.

What is the story of Jesus? It is difficult to succinctly describe Jesus's story. Jesus himself uses parables to talk about his work. At the heart of Jesus's story is God's generosity. John 3:16 talks about God giving the Son to the world so that we might live abundantly. God does this because God loves us so much and wants us to live a rich, full, eternal life. As we walk with Jesus, we learn to accept God's love for us more and more as well as God's love for our neighbor. This love prompts us to show the love of God to everyone, neighbor and enemy. As our Presiding Bishop has said: "love is the way" that enables everyone to live the abundant life that is the dream of God.

The Episcopal Church is a community whose beliefs can be primarily found in:

We are also a community who enacts our beliefs ritually through liturgies found in the Book of Common Prayer.

You can discover more of what The Episcopal Church believes by visiting the What We Believe page on The Episcopal Church's website.

We know that belief is a journey, not a destination. Wherever you are on your journey of belief, know that you are welcome among us.