Our Faith [ DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT ]

We believe in the living and true God, who is good and loving and gracious. For us, God is known through Jesus Christ, who is Lord, the redeemer of the world and the revealer of what it is to be truly alive and truly human. Jesus showed us what God was like and what God wants us to be like. The ever present Holy Spirit imparts to us today the strength and guidance necessary to fulfill God's purpose for each of us.

The Episcopal Church represent some 7,400 congregations that trace their beginnings in North America to a small but hopeful group of English Christians who arrived May 14, 1607 at a place called Jamestown – the first permanent English settlement in the New World (1). The Episcopal Church is the American province of the Anglican Communion, a broad family of churches around the world that trace their origins to the Church of England. The Episcopal Church became self-governing and self-sufficient after the American Revolution. Many of the framers of the Constitution and early Fathers of this country were Episcopalians.

The Episcopal Church is called a “bridge church” between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. We claim the “ Via Media” as one of great qualities. We strive for a diversity of conservative and liberal, trendy and traditionalist, antiquated and futuristic – all pointing to a dynamic, liberating orthodox Christianity.

We are willing to live with diverse and changing interpretations, rather than infallible certainty and prescriptions for all times - a generous orthodoxy. Our faith affirms the variety and the depth of human experience, the promotion of serious conversation, learning and teaching, and a commitment to work to ease the suffering of society.

(1) Borrowed from an Episcopal Church advertisement dated May 12, 2007 in the New York Times

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Scriptural Authority [ DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT ]

God as revealed in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit is our ultimate, supreme and sole authority. So, how do we discern the mind of the Triune God? The image most used is a three legged stool. I encourage you to use the image of a tricycle works well best - three interrelated, dependent, authoritative sources.

Holy Scripture is the big, front wheel on the tricycle. We believe the Bible is the living, transforming message of the loving God – “ Holy Scripture contains all things necessary for salvation.” God worded his revelation that is contained in the Scriptures in a manner sensitive to the specific needs of a specific group in a specific time in history. Therefore, they need to be interpreted to a different people in a different time. God's revelation is both inside and outside of the Scriptures, guarded and guided by the Holy Spirit. God intended the Scriptures to be a living word and not a collection of dead letters. Scripture is our primary source but cannot be isolated from Tradition and Reason .

One of the rear wheels of the tricycle is Tradition. Tradition consists of the wisdom and teaching of those generations of Christians who have gone before us. We draw from this Tradition that is much older and wiser than us. Tradition guides our living and interpretation of Scripture. In the Episcopal Church, special emphasis is given to the Tradition embodied in the Early Church Fathers and the council of the church, especially the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. We confess the Nicean Creed each week during our worship.

The other wheel of tricycle is Reason . We believe God is still alive and always revealing ( see John 16:12 ). Our human reason is a gift from God. We use reason to interpret the Scriptures and to evaluate the past Tradition of the Church. Using our minds is highly valued in the Episcopal Church. We are a community of debate, with a spirituality geared towards struggle, of interrogation, a zone of truth seeking. God's revelation is both inside and outside of the Scripture, guarded and guided by the Holy Spirit. We seek to challenge and transform the world, beginning with ourselves, and to celebrate the image of God in every person.

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How Episcopalians Have Traditionally Understood and Now Prayerfully Work with Holy Scripture - 9 points [ DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT ]

(resourced from What is Anglicanism by Urban Holmes) 

Christianity is a religion of a person, Jesus Christ, and not a book .

• Jesus is the Word of God absolutely. Yet, our means for knowing the Incarnate Word is contained in Scriptures, especially the Gospels.
• A continuing and never ending conversation with Scripture is a necessary aspect of our life in the Church – the “Spirit of Truth” will continuously inform us.

The Bible is the Story of God's love affair with Creation

• the Bible is a collection of inspired stories about God and God's people
• i t is not divine dictation or simply the words of God faxed from heaven
• it is the Word of God…and not the exact words of God
• Scripture is the fluid records of our ancestor's experience of God.
• It is a human product of the community of faithful who were inspired by God in Christ.
• Bible comes from the greek word “ biblia” meaning “books.” It is more than the brilliant literature like the Greek tragedies, Beowulf , or the plays of Shakespeare. But, we do not believe that every word was dictated by God – this sets us off from others -- that God did not dictate every word.
• In the totality of the Scriptures the story of God's love confronts us, convicts of our sins and calls us to new life.
• Within all the variety and human bias evident in the various passages, this story stands clear – God saves us “Yeshua”
• It recounts a Lover's longing for the beloved; and if we are to move beyond the words to experience that love, it is the power of the story and the rhythm of the poem that will draw us there

We read Holy Scripture looking for the Good News and not bad news .

• We read Holy Scripture with hope and faith that as we wait upon God that God will speak to us through these words. There is some technical theology of the Bible. There are specific ethical admonitions.
• The prevailing literary form is story and poetry and language of the left hand.

The Books in the Bible were condition by their culture .

• Many of the books are products of an oral tradition centuries long and a result of an editorial process.
• Some of them are like a montage – different version of the same thing can appear side by side –the two Creation Stories, three versions of Jesus in the NT – Palestinian Jewish, Greek Jewish, and Gentiles.
• God worded the Revelation in scripture in a manner sensitive to the specific needs of a specific group in a specific time in history and therefore intended they be interpreted to make sense to a different people in a different time

We have no original manuscripts of Biblical text .

• Until the 16 th Century, every copy of Scriptures was done by hand. We have fragments of manuscripts of the NT from the 2 nd century and whole manuscripts from the 4 th but we have no autographed copies – only copies of copies of copies.
• William Tyndale (early 16 th century) translates the Bible to English..tried for heresy and burned at the stake

Each biblical author or editor took the material available to him or her and shaped it for their own purposes…all writers had their own theological “ax” to grind

• Matthew wrote his gospel as the new law
• Mark constructed his account around the Messianic secret. Always in Mark, Jesus tells his disciples “don't tell anybody about it.” Why did Mark do that – he did not want people to follow Jesus because all the miracles. Rather, Mark wanted people to follow Jesus because he loved people enough to go to the cross. So, over and over in Mark, Jesus says, “You can't be my disciple unless you pick up your cross and follow me.” This is not repeated as much in any of the other Gospels as it is in Mark.
• Luke reflects on the Christ event from his philosophy of history. Luke is a historian. He is the only one who writes two books – a two volume history of salvation. Luke has a historical perspective.
• John uses seven signs to tell his story. John wants of the Christ event from the perspective of signs and miracles – the Ist being changing water to wine.

No to proof texting but seeing the Bible as a whole .

• Remember, the Devil took a verse or two taken out of context to prove a particular point. Proof-texting is not of God. The Bible must be read intelligibly as a whole.
• We shouldn't cherish one favorite book, dismissing those that do not appeal to us. In a three year span, we read publicly the major percentage of the entire Bible. It is important to hear the Bible read in course so we can listen to the story in its entirety.

Knowledge about is better than knowledge of the Bible

• Simeon the New Theologian (949-1022) likened scripture to a “solid and well-secured chest.” You can carry the chest about with you constantly. You can memorize every word of the Holy Scriptures, but unless you know how to open that chest, you will never know the treasure within.
• It is the Holy Spirit within the Church that enables you and me to unlock the chest.

Holy Scripture is sacramental.

• The Spirit does not open the meaning of Scriptures easy for us in a lightening flash but it is revealed through years of pondering text and thoughtful drawing out their meaning. It is only by probing deep into its mystery and be touched by it that the Word is heard. How tragic it is when the Scriptures are used as a straightjacket to the Holy Spirit and the human soul.

Some steps for working with Holy Scripture :

1st - We need to understand the Words – can't read into them what is not there.

• We can't prove prohibition, for or against the ordination of women, or superiority of the capitalist system from the Bible.
• All are out of ken with the times from which the words were written.
• There was no priesthood in the 1 st century, there was no capitalism, and without alcohol to drink, ancient folk would have died of thirst.

2nd - We need to understand the author.

• It is best to understand how he builds his reality, his languages, his symbols, his self-concept, his purpose in rules of truth and so forth.

3rd - We need to understand ourselves.

• The power of Scripture is its ability to illumine our lives. This means we have to be reflective about our world and secure in our own place in it. There is no value in pretending we live in the 1 st century.
• We need to let the text call us and our pet theories into question.

4th - We should risk our interpretation within the larger dialogue.

• The scriptures are not in our view a matter of for private interruption. When this is the case we are too ready for half-baked answers.
• The exploration of the Bible should evoke question whose answers evoke more questions. We share our insights with others and allow our interpretation to be challenged. This process calls us into new understandings and never lets us think that we have exhauseted the meaning of Scripture in our times.

5th - Read scripture prayerfully and let it speak to you. Be ready to be converted and change at each reading.

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Uniqueness of the Episcopal Church [ DOWNLOAD DOCUMENT ]

Episcopalians have a unique way of looking, making sense and acting in the experience of God disclosed to us in the person of Jesus Christ

+ flavored by a history of people whose culture, language, and institution came into being in the British Isles

+ a montage of geographical, economical, social, political, and racial forces that have created a peculiar historical moment

+ memories that have been handed down for centuries though modified remain distinctive at heart

+ monarchal rule of some strong and not so strong men and women

“Each faith tradition plays a different instrument in God's great symphony … it sounds best when each instrument is in tune”

• God is loving us into heaven & not scaring out of hell
• imagine a “Tug of War” match between God pulling up and humanity pulling down…we know who is winning and who will win
• not a giant snatch at the end but gradually pulled toward perfection
• We trust God is going to work it out
• God's Grace is unstoppable
• We have a gracious understanding of God with a non punitive quality
• The Doctrine of the Incarnation is central (not the crucifixion)
• “ the Word made flesh” begins the saving action of God in Christ!!!!!
• In Jesus, we see human nature more than our own.
• He is the Human Being, the pinnacle of what it is to be human.
• When God takes on our humanity, human nature is transformed .
• We are now urged “onward and upward.”
• When God assumes humanity in the Incarnation, there can never be any separation (Emmanuel – God is with us). Now, humanity can participate in the full life of God.

“the urgent Spirit within pressing out to life.”

• Jesus' Incarnation is “universal efficacy” and the “deification” of the whole human race. ‘By his Incarnation,' the Lord did indeed raise our humanity to an entirely higher level with his Own.

We see God whenever we se people. So, people really matter.

God is everywhere and in and moves through all things.

We believe in the Resurrection

Yes, Good Friday happened and still happens, but the story does not end there…God took the worst thing humanity could do and changed it into the best gift we could ever have.

• The worst word is never the last word with God .

The doctrine of Imago Dei is key

All is made in the image of God and it is good

Heaven is not good because earth is so bad.

Jesus' says repeatedly, “The Kingdom is in your midst.”

“All things bright and beautiful…”

• So with the human world. God does not create human ciphers, a pool of cheap labour to whom jobs can be assigned at will. Each human being is called into existence by him exists as a distinct part of a great interlocking web of identities. Each is a unique point in this great net. To be is to be where you are, who you are, and what you are – a person with certain genetic composition, a certain set of capabilities. From the moment of birth (even from before that) onwards, you will be at each moment that particular bundle of conditioning and possibilities. And to talk about God as your creator means to recognize at each moment that it is his desire for you to be, and so his desire for you to be there as the person you are.

Rowan Williams, Open to Judgment Sermons , p. 173-174

If we are made in God's image, we are to have the character of God.

For us, this is shown most fully in Jesus of Nazareth. 

So, what about the Fall and sin…  

The action of Adam and Eve broke humanity and caused us to lose our “knowing” of God's presence, but the Incarnation and Resurrection redeemed all in such away that the Fall becomes a trip .

The Fall is not central -- only a piece of God's ongoing Creation, Incarnation, Resurrection, and reconciling all things into God.

Sin is an infection of our nature and not an outgrowth…

St. Paul writes, “Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus,” and therefore Sin is any action in our lives that causes us to lose awareness of never being separated from the love and presence and power and grace of God.

Think of the sun giving sunshine and
our ability to stand in the shade

Christ's sacrifice is…

His sacrifice occurs through emptying himself to assume human form –except without sin. The crucifixion is the climax of the empty, but it is not the central piece – it is an essential part of the big action of God in and through the Incarnation .

Jesus is the ultimate example of sacrificial love – the cross shows the heart of God.

We are comprehensive and tend to ask deeper questions

Isaiah 55:8-13

We are at our best when we acknowledge

the inexpressible nature of God can never be reduced to our categories or our simplistic notions of God's Will

Life is not a matter of common sense but a perpetual paradox

Acknowledged where there is joy there is a pain, and where there is a knowledge there is a ignorance, but ultimately, there is also and a lways true hope

right handed thinking VS left handed thinking

“yes but…” “both/and” thinking over “either/or” thinking

embracing search, not certainity…Diversity with unity…United by questions and dreams rather than our answers…The church gives principles but not absolutes…

If we think we are finished, we start to die…the journey is the destination…dept and critical thinking…poetry has a place 

“The Inklings”

We are at our best in liturgy, art, poetry, and music and when our inspired creativity can create a world of wonder in which it is easy to fall in love with God  

The Anglican Sense of Authority

God as revealed in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit is

our ultimate, supreme and sole authority

So, how do we discern the mind of the Triune God

Three legged stool or a tricycle

three interrelated, dependent, authoritative sources

Holy Scripture is the biggest wheel on the tricycle -- We believe the Bible is the living, transforming message of the loving God” -- Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to be know for salvation

God worded his revelation contained in the Scriptures in a manner sensitive to the specific needs of a specific group in a specific time in history.

Therefore, they need to be interpreted to a different people in a different time. God's revelation is both inside and outside of the Scriptures, guarded and guided by the Holy Spirit. God intended the Scriptures to be a living word and not a collection of dead letters. Tradition and reason are the two back wheels.

Via Media

A diversity of conservative and liberal, trendy and traditionalist, antiquated and futuristic…to a dynamic, liberating orthodox Christianity. Doctrines that are tested and tried, purified and realized, in concrete witness, life and conflict.

Communities of rational inquiry …a spiritual of struggle, of interrogation, a community of debate, a zone of truth seeking

We are willing to live with diverse and changing interpretations, rather than infallible certainty and prescriptions for all times a generous orthodoxy

 

A faith which affirms the variety and the depth of human experience, the promotion of serious conversation, learning and teaching, and a commitment to work to ease the suffering of society 

Common Prayer and liturgy hold us together

 our primary identity is as a community of practice

bound together by our liturgy rather than doctrinal emphasis or social organization

 

The BCP contains all beliefs about issues of faith and life

What we pray is what we believe 

Theological and ethical issues are resolved through decisions concerning liturgy rather than doctrine. 

An ancient document with prayers steeped in Scripture that range from the 2 nd to the 20 th century. 

Sacraments

an outward and visible sign of an inward grace

the continous Incarnation of God's breaking in

 

The Kingdom of God is in our midst

  God's Spirit is present with you always and

  the sacraments help us to know this ultimate Reality

  there is something about our liturgy that draws us to our knees

We see the Eucharist as the celebration of the a new world

  points to glory, to new possibilities .

 

raises the imagination to a vision of a world transfigured and to provide the resources to help make the vision real

The church is a celestial filling station

Christ is present throughout the world, but he is present in a particular available and operative form in the church.

God reveals himself to us in ways in which we can know him on our terms, that is historically through time and space .

To do this, God embodies Godself because humans are essentially embodied creatures.

Mysticism

a long slow journey of conversions into the awareness of God

not one moment of being “saved”

the darkside of our uniqueness

•  uncertain of what we stand for

•  accommodating all shades of opinion with no regard for truth

•  Some say we don't require much investment

•  can lead us to “holy huddles,” elitism, 1 st vs. 2 nd class Christians

•  Obscure and heady diatribes from the pulpit

•  A fascination with the past

•  Empty, polite chatter

•  Lack of vulnerability

•  The fondness of the ordinary can make us dull

+ become a Theological Scrooge were we have lost our wonder and

dismiss the ordinary as “bah” humbug”

the church becomes a sanctuary that is to be protected against contamination rather than a resource center from which each of us are sent forth into the mess and danger of the mission field

+ gets concerned with self more the important concerns of the community

Does the parish exists for its members only or does it witness to truth and values which most be proclaimed within, and over and against the surrounding culture?

Does the church serve the kingdom or does it perpetuate the cultural norms of the day?

+ Where self cultivation replaces a vision for God

Fundamentalism characterized by a defensive posture and by a desire for certainity and an exclusion of doubt….where truth ceased to be a way of life, a journey and it becomes a weapon. Doubt is excluded in the closed system of absolute certainity. It is an attempt to close off the boundaries, to capture and control, to exclude doubt and darkness

+ Am I making religion a life substitute rather than a life revealer, not a way into the splendours of the visible world but a way out?

Is the main purpose of my ministry to provide comfort, reassurance, new sources of inspiration to improve lives? Or is it challenge, confront, and transform lives? 

Is religion to satisfy and comfort and not transform

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