Christian faith as received and expressed in the Episcopal Church is best
understood as the faith of the catholic (universal) Church that continues
to be informed by the working of the Holy Spirit. Episcopalains look to the
Creeds (Apostles' and Nicene) of the Early Church as sufficient statements
of faith.
The God in whom we believe has been revealed uniquely in the person and
life of Jesus Christ. God became a human being in the person of Jesus
(known as the Incarnation) and through that shares our history and
humanity. Jesus is the perfect image of God the Father and shows us the
true nature of God. Jesus uniquely did this as he was both fully human
and fully divine. Our hope for salvation is found directly in Jesus'
unity as completely God and completely human.
Episcopalians celebrate that our common life as Christians are rooted
in the two Sacraments (outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace)
that Christ gave the Church for all its members: Baptism and Eucharist. In
Baptism God adopts us as his children and makes us members of Christ's Body,
the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God. Jesus commanded his disciples
to go forth and baptize people in the "Name of the Father, and the Son, and
the Holy Spirit." The Holy Eucharist is the sacrament commanded by Christ
for the continual remembrance of his life, death, and resurrection, until
his coming again. In the Holy Eucharist we receive Christ's Body and Blood
in the elements of bread and wine.
The Episcopal Church's Catechism (An Outline of the Faith) is a commentary
on the creeds that provides a brief summary of the Church's teaching in a
question and answer format. For those exploring or new to the Episcopal
Church, the Catechism is a good starting point.
While we are formed in our basic beliefs from the early centuries of the
Christian Church; our faith is far from being ancient or static. Through
our prayer, worship, and seeking justice, peace, and love; Episcopalians
are active participants in the Church's Mission of restoring all people
to unity with God and each other in Jesus Christ.
The "three-legged stool" of Scripture, Tradition, & Reason. The Anglican
approach to theology (faith seeking understanding) was best articulated
by 16th century Anglican theologian and priest Richard Hooker in what
we call the "three-legged stool" of Scripture, Tradition, and Reason.
Episcopalians look to the Holy Scriptures (commonly called the Bible)
as they tell us about God's covenant with the people of Israel; God's
New Covenant that tells of the life, teachings, death, resurrection
and ascension of Jesus Christ and the founding of the Church. We
claim that the Bible is the Word of God because God inspired their
human authors and because God still speaks to us through the Bible.
Episcopalians pay careful attention to what the Bible meant to those
who first heard it and how the Bible speaks to us in our own time and place.
The Church, as a worshiping body of faithful people, has for two
thousand years amassed experience of God and of loving Jesus, and
what they have said to us through the centuries about the Bible
and Christian experience is critical to our understanding in our
own context. The traditions of the Church in interpreting Scripture
and participating in God's mission to the world (through prayer,
worship, and seeking justice, peace, and love) connect all
generations of believers together and give us a starting point
for our own understanding.
Episcopalians believe that every Christian must build an
understanding and relationship with God’s Word in the Bible,
and to do that, God has given us intelligence and our own
experience, which we refer to as “Reason.” Based on what
we can understand about biblical texts and what Christians
have taught us through the ages; we then must then seek how
our understanding as it relates to Christian life today.
The "three-legged stool" is the approach Anglicans take in understanding
and living a faith that is rooted in the early Church and shaped by the
via media (Middle Way). Queen Elizabeth I, and Anglican lay woman, gave
us the gift of the via media as part of the Elizabethan Settlement in
16th century England. The via media is the embracing of being wholly
Catholic and yet reformed as part of the Protestant Reformation. While
maintaing catholic traditions, structures, and the faith found in the
Creeds, Anglicanism shares with other Reformation churches as it
repudiated Medieval doctrines and reclaimed the prominant role of
Scripture in informing faith and Church practice. The via media is a
distinct aspect of Anglican Christianity.
From this we can more fully live into our principal Christian mission
to carry on the work and life of Jesus Christ, to spread the good news
about God’s victory over death, to lift up the poor and heal the sick,
and to work to heal the divisions among people, so that we can live
together in the fullness of the example of Jesus Christ. Together, we
continue to be Jesus’ presence in the world.
- The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as "containing all things necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith
- The Apostles' Creed, as the Baptismal Symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.
- The two Sacraments ordained by Christ Himself -- Baptism and the Supper of the Lord -- ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of Institution, and of the elements ordained by Him.
- The Historic Episcopate (bishops in apostolic succession), locally adapted in the methods of its administration to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the Unity of His Church.