As an Anglican body in the Reformed Episcopal Church, Grace Church holds to the historic Christian faith. The Bible is our final authority in doctrine, and the core of what we believe is contained in the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds. Additionally, our distinctives in faith and practice can be found in the Book of Common Prayer and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.
In Summary
We believe in one Triune God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
We believe that Jesus Christ is God made flesh. He is one person who is fully human and fully divine, united without confusion.
The summary of the Law is to love God with all that we are, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Love of God is displayed through obedience.
We believe that the Sacred Scriptures are the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are inspired by God, contain all truths necessary for salvation, and is the final rule in faith and practice. The additional books, commonly called “Apocrypha” or “Deuterocanonical” are accepted as profitable, and we retain their use in worship, but they are not considered to have inspiration or authority on par with the canonical books mentioned above.
We believe in two sacraments of the Gospel, which are Baptism and Holy Communion. We believe that sacraments are physical signs that communicate the grace of God, thereby effecting the recipient, by faith, in a spiritual mystery, We also maintain other rites, commonly called sacraments, which are also physical signs which communicate grace, but we do not esteem them as being equal to the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Communion, since the former are not required of all believers and are not associated with salvation as are the other two.
The Church, as a historical community of faith, has authority to teach and discipline. Therefore, we hold the fathers and ecumenical councils as authoritative teachers under Scripture. We endorse beliefs and practices not explicitly contained in Scripture, as long as they do not contradict biblical principles, but we do not require anything that cannot be proven from the Bible’s clear teaching.
Additionally, we hold to the biblical view on the family and sexuality, maintained by the Church through the ages.