What We Believe

​There is a Latin saying at the heart of Anglican theology: lex orandi, lex credenda (“the law of prayer is the law of belief,” or simply, “praying shapes believing”). What we believe in the Episcopal Church is encapsulated in our Liturgy. We believe in the authority of scripture as a divinely inspired product of sacred tradition to be held together and interpreted with God’s gift of reason. We believe in the authority of the ecumenical councils and the historic creeds of the Church.

At every celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Sunday and other special holy days, we recite an ancient statement of faith called the Nicene Creed. Since the 4th century, this has been the Church’s authoritative standard of doctrine. At other times—in our daily prayers, during Baptism and Confirmation, and as part of weddings and funerals—we recite the Apostles Creed, developed from an even older catechism. These confessional statements stand at the core of our beliefs:

• That there is one God in three Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—who created heaven and earth.

• That Jesus Christ is the Son of God—both fully human and fully divine, made incarnate by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary

• That Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; and that he descended to hades to harrow the righteous to paradise before he was raised from the dead on the third day

• That the resurrected Jesus appeared to and instructed his apostles, giving them the Great Commission before he ascended bodily into heaven where the incarnate, crucified and risen Jesus now sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty

• That Jesus will come again in power and the glory to judge both the living and the dead, and that his established kingdom—heaven on earth—will be never-ending

• That according to Jesus’ promise to his apostles, the Holy Spirit descended on them ten days after his ascension, filling them with grace and power to proclaim the Gospel, to perform healing miracles and cast out demons in the name of Jesus, and to administer the Sacraments that Jesus left to his church that we might follow his Great Commission (to go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit)

• That the Church Jesus established with his apostles and by the power of the Holy Spirit is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic

• That the communion of saints is mystically knit together in Holy Baptism and that all the saints of God are alive in Christ

• That in Jesus, there is the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting

We believe that all people were created in the image and likeness of God (Imago Dei), and that the mission of God (Missio Dei) was to restore fallen humanity to the fullness of our created dignity and reconciliation with God the Father through the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ (justification) so that baptized into the Body of Christ, we may work out our salvation and unification with God by our imitation of Christ (Imitatio Dei) by the grace of the Holy Spirit (sanctification/theosis/deification).
 

This process unfolds in our lives by participating in the Body of Christ through the Sacraments (Baptism, Communion Confession, Confirmation, Marriage, Ordination, and Unction/Healing); the Liturgy of the Church (the Holy Eucharist and the Daily Office); personal prayer, fasting, and devotions, including almsgiving and corporal acts of mercy in service to the poor, the hungry, the sick, and the imprisoned (Matthew 25:31-46).
 

Over the last few decades, the Episcopal Church has engaged in careful study of the scriptures and theology concerning the important question of human sexuality and marriage. In 2012, our denomination authorized the blessing of same-sex civil unions on a trial basis. In 2015, after same-sex marriage became legally possible in the United States, full access to the sacrament of marriage was made possible for all couples in the Episcopal Church. At St. Timothy’s, we are committed to inclusive orthodoxy: we adhere strictly to the core ancient doctrines that are essential to the Christian faith and affirm the Episcopal Church’s careful discernment to radically include all Christians in the fullness of the Church’s sacramental life. The sacramental rite of Holy Matrimony is fully available to all members.