Our Statement of Faith
All Saints' Anglican Church, Rutland, VT
is a Christian faith community seeking to worship God in Spirit and in Truth,
and to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
As a fellowship of The Anglican
Mission in America, a jurisdiction within the Province
of The Anglican
Church in North America, we are committed to upholding orthodox
Christianity. Our life, witness,
preaching and teaching is grounded in the Evangelical (Biblical) Faith and
Catholic Order of the undivided Church during the first ages of its
existence. We believe in the primacy of
Scripture, affirming its authority and entire trustworthiness. We believe that the Bible is the Word of God
containing all things necessary for our salvation and therefore the primary
source for doctrine, discipline and worship.
Our Christian faith is about a personal relationship
with the Living God: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who pours divine life
and love into our hearts, enabling us to share in the life of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Word made flesh. Just as the
power of the Holy Spirit brought the Good News alive for the original
disciples, so the Holy Spirit transforms us personally and corporately through
a life-changing revelation of the Truth in Jesus Christ.
Because God has placed the truth of his Word within
our hearts, we are called to be bearers of his Good News. As we continue to respond to God?s
transforming love, we desire to be a powerful witness of God?s truth, saving
love, forgiveness and mercy, both inside the church as well as outside the
church, through discipleship, outreach and evangelism.
These beliefs, commitments and desires are central
to the faith and witness of our church family.
As Anglican Christians we
are
Evangelical: We believe the Good News of Jesus Christ to be the
Gospel of Life and Salvation for the whole world and believe that all persons
are called into a personal relationship with the Living God in Jesus Christ. As a mission minded church family, we believe
that we are commissioned and empowered by the Holy Spirit to make Jesus Christ,
(through our witness of the Faith, public testimony, our daily ministry, and
through Word & Sacrament), a living and present reality in the lives of
those whom we daily encounter. Our
faith, moral beliefs, worship, preaching and teaching are grounded in God?s
holy Word. As evangelical Christians we
proclaim Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth and the Life and the only means of
salvation for humankind.
Reformed/Protestant: We believe in the primacy and authority of the Holy
Bible over and within the Church, emphasizing God?s Word in our worship,
preaching and teaching. We humbly submit
ourselves to the transforming power of the Holy Scriptures as Divinely
inspired, containing all things necessary to Salvation and believe it is not
lawful for the Church to proclaim any thing that is contrary to God?s Word
written, nor is it lawful for any one part of the Church to alter the Evangelical
Faith or Catholic Order of the whole Church unilaterally. Furthermore, we proclaim that Salvation is a
free gift of God given by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
Spirit-filled/Charismatic: We believe that Christian life is, by definition, new
life in the Holy Spirit. We fully
understand our Faith and ministry as gifts from God and evidence of the
Spirit?s power and presence among us. It
is the Holy Spirit who draws us into the life, ministry, death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ; in whom we daily encounter the Living God. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we can not be born
anew in Christ and our labors are in vain.
Orthodox: We profess the Faith once delivered to the Saints. We believe our Faith to be at one with the
holy Faith of the undivided Catholic Church of the first Christian Millennium
before the sad divisions within the Christian Church and believe our
contemporary worship, in Word and Sacrament, to be in direct continuity with
the Church of all ages and places. The
word ?orthodox? means right belief in God and right worship of God. Therefore, we offer the authentic historic
Faith and worship of the ancient Church for today?s world.
Catholic: We have
retained, proclaim and celebrate the same Holy Scriptures, Creeds, Councils,
moral teachings, Sacraments (i.e., Holy Baptism & Holy Communion), and
Orders of Ministry (those of Bishop, Priest, and Deacon) as that of the
undivided Catholic Church of the first Christian Millennium. The word ?Catholic? [Greek, katholikos] means
Universal or Whole. Therefore, we
proclaim the whole doctrine, moral teaching, discipline and worship of the Universal Church as traditionally received within
the Anglican Communion and articulated in the classical Anglican Formularies
(the Thirty-Nine Articles, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal,
and the Lambeth Quadrilateral).
Believing the Christian life to be sacramental, we celebrate the two Dominical
Sacraments and the five Sacramental Rites of the Catholic Church.
Apostolic: By our
faithfulness to the above, we seek to present the teaching, mission, worship
and fellowship of the Apostolic
Church to today?s world.
Our Goals:
To call all persons to repentance and salvation by
grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
To proclaim, preach and teach, with authority and
conviction, the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Life and Salvation,
leading persons into a living faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior.
To
unite persons of Faith to the life, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ through the saving waters of Holy Baptism and to continually nourish
this new life through Spirit-filled ministry, Christian fellowship, preaching,
teaching and worship, and above all by partaking regularly of the Body and
Blood of Jesus Christ in the Lord?s Supper.
To enable persons, through Word and Sacrament, to
become partakers in the very life of God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit.
Our Worship:
Is
Biblically based (evangelical), Spirit-filled (charismatic) and fully
Sacramental (catholic).
Believing
that Jesus Christ is truly present in the gathering and prayers of His people,
in the reading of His holy Word (the Holy Scripture), in the proclamation of
the Gospel and, in a very special way, in the Sacrament of His Body &
Blood, we are a church with a vital worship experience; we are people who
believe the words spoken and sung, and we let it show by our enthusiasm.
And
this is the testimony:
that
God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. I
John 5:11
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