THE BASIS OF OUR FAITH
The Revelation of God in Christ
First and foremost our faith is in God, who has made himself known to us in Christ. That is to say, our faith springs from God’s revelation of himself in history in a particular person, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our faith is not based on merely sentimental religious feelings or moral convictions, but on God’s specific historical intervention into human affairs through the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Christ.
Holy Scripture
Holy Scripture witnesses to this revelation, and based on Scripture’s testimony we affirm certain tenets of faith about Christ.
Tradition
We do not read Scripture in isolation from the life of the Church. We must look to Scripture, but also to the Church’s traditional understanding of Scripture as faithfully received by the universal Church. The authority of the Church’s “doctrinal formulations ought always to be interpreted as resting, at least in part, upon the acceptance of these by the whole body of the faith” (Doctrine in the Church of England: The Report of the Commission on Christian Doctrine Appointed by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in 1922, p. 35).
The creeds of the Church (of which the Apostle’s, Nicene, and Athanasian are the most important and most widely received) are a part of great tradition to which we adhere.
BACKGROUND TO THE APOSTLE’S CREED
Unlike other churches that emerged from the Reformation of the sixteenth century, Anglicanism looks to no single theologian, such as Calvin for the Reformed churches or Luther for Lutheran churches. Nor does Anglicanism unite around a particular doctrinal emphasis such as Baptism for Anabapstist churches, or spiritual gifts for Pentecostal churches.
Instead, Saint Matthew’s sits in the creedal tradition of the universal church, looking to the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasiun Creed as signposts pointing to the central tenets of faith that unite all Christians everywhere.
THE CREED
I believe in God,
the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit
and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again
to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
