As Christians

The Most Important Message In The World

First: God loves you. The power of the Universe is summed up in three Words:

"God is Love.” 1 John 4:8

Second: We all mess up our lives in one way or another. We hurt others and ourselves through our selfishness:

“I can wish to do what is right but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” Romans 7:19

Third: God sent Jesus to show us how much God loves us. Through Jesus, God forgives our selfishness:

“God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life..” John 3:16-17

Fourth: God invites us to extend God’s love to other people:

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another. No person has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.” I John 11-12

Finally: When we extend God’s love to others, we can change the world for the better:

“You are the light of the world. .. Let your light so shine before people that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14, 16

This is our Episcopal message to the world:

LOVE GOD. LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. CHANGE THE WORLD.

As Episcopalians

We are a Jesus-focused Church.

First and most important, we love Jesus and want to share Jesus’ love with everyone. We believe that Jesus is the eternal “Word of God who became flesh” to redeem humanity.

We are a Liturgical Church.

We worship God in the ancient traditions of Judaism and the earliest centuries of Christianity. Our worship and a basic summary of our faith are contained in our Book of Common Prayer, which we use in every service.

We are a Bible Church.

Each service incorporates at least four Bible readings from the Hebrew Scriptures, the Psalms, the Epistles and the Gospels. The Bible readings are reinforced by the ancient prayers of the Church.

We are a Creedal Church.

We regularly recite the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed as the normative interpretation of the Bible and the substance of our faith.

We are a Sacramental Church.

We celebrate Holy Communion almost every Sunday. We believe that the Sacraments were given to us by Jesus as “sure and certain” signs of Jesus’ continuing presence among his people.

We encourage active engagement with scientific knowledge and theology.

We believe in the three-legged stool of Scripture, Tradition and Reason as sources of truth about God and our human condition.

We are part of a global family of Christian believers.

The Episcopal Church is a constituent member of the Anglican Communion (with roots in the Church of England) which comprises about 90 million members in 165 countries.