What We Believe

We Episcopalians believe in a loving, liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As constituent members of the Anglican Communion in the United States, we are descendants of and partners with the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church, and are part of the third largest group of Christians in the world.

We believe in following the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the world.

We have a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to tell and exemplify God’s love for every human being; women and men serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church. Laypeople and clergy cooperate as leaders at all levels of our church. Leadership is a gift from God, and can be expressed by all people in our church, regardless of sexual identity or orientation.

We believe that God loves you – no exceptions.

Episcopalians are not overly concerned about sin: if God created us this way, then it's not the God Jesus teaches that condemns us for the way we turned out. Sin IS an important issue in that it damages our perception of God and destroys the relationships we have with each other and ourselves. With that in mind, most Anglicans find it inconceivable that such a God would condemn any to eternal damnation.

Episcopalians affirm the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist  but, like the Eastern Orthodox, make no attempt to explain how that happens or what that means.  We do deny the Roman concept that each time the Mass is celebrated, Christ is "resacrificed" for the sins of the world.

In keeping with the mind of the Early Church Episcopalians are not Fundamentalists and do not take the Bible literally but rather allegorically and as metaphor relating the ancient story of a People and how it perceived its interactions with the Sacred.  We strongly affirm that the Bible was inspired by God and written by humans and that the Scripture must be read in the context of the time in which it was written which may or may not inform us of its meaning at the present time.

Anglicans affirm the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds as attempts to explain the Mystery of the Trinity and of the Christian Faith.

Anglicans affirm that human Reason is a gift of God and authoritative along with Scripture and Tradition. Through science, technology, modern medicine, academic pursuit and other disciplines, God continues to reveal the Divine Self to the human race.

Christ Focused

As Episcopalians, we are followers of Jesus Christ, and both our worship and our mission are in Christ’s name. In Jesus, we find that the nature of God is love, and through baptism, we share in his victory over sin and death. 

The Bible 

Holy Scripture

​​It is our foundation, understood through tradition and reason, containing all things necessary for salvation. Our worship is filled with Scripture from beginning to end. Approximately 70% of the Book of Common Prayer comes directly from the Bible, and Episcopalians read more Holy Scripture in Sunday worship than almost any other denomination in Christianity

The Book of Common Prayer

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The Book of Common Prayer is a treasure chest full of devotional and teaching resources for individuals and congregations, but it is also the primary symbol of our unity. We, who are many and diverse, come together in Christ through our worship, our common prayer.

Our Creeds

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We will always have questions, but in the two foundational statements of faith – the Apostles’ Creed used at baptism, and the Nicene Creed used at communion – we join Christians throughout the ages in affirming our faith in the one God who created us, redeemed us, and sanctifies us.