I believe in God, the Father almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth.
As creator, God created all things for good, including humanity, who is made in God's divine image.
I believe that despite the goodness of God’s creation, humanity has been endowed with the autonomous ability to make free decisions. Because of this freedom, humanity often errs from the ways of God, and that separation represents and wields sin. I believe sin is the deviation of acting in a manner consistent with God's command to Love.
I believe that the most basic divine nature of God is Love. Out of the Love that both is and characterizes God, humanity is offered redemption through the personification of God in the person of Jesus Christ. It is out of Love that God calls us to be followers of a new way; it is out of Love that God offers us grace and mercy and the solace of hope through confession.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son. Jesus as Christ represents the personification of the fully divine natures of God and humanity and, as Christ, is coequal with God and the Holy Spirit. In Christ, God offers a new way to repair the separation humanity takes from its own autonomy. Jesus is the Master Teacher, who has laid the path of the gospel and provided the charge to walk in pursuit of the gospel values of hope, peace, joy, and love. Christ demonstrated the ultimate form of Love in being subjugated to death on the cross due to the separation of human actions from God’s ways. Being co-eternal with God, the death of Jesus provided humanity with a new hope and forever altered the power of death on the created world. Through the power of God’s Spirit, Christ was resurrected and instituted new eternal hope for humanity.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the ever-present Spirit of God, given to the Church for posterity. God has given the Holy Spirit to the church to inspire and guide its work as the body of Christ. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father Almighty and is coeternal with the Son. The Holy Spirit enables the faithful people of God to have bold confidence in the hope of resurrection.
I believe in the validity of the Holy Scriptures as the authoritative texts of the church for all things relating to salvation. The Holy Scriptures consist of the Old Testament and New Testament. The Scriptures describe the story of God’s people and God’s covenant with the world. The Scriptures are infallible in all things related to God’s goodness and saving grace.
I believe in the holy, catholic, and apostolic church. The church is called to be a covenant people, celebrating the diversity of God’s creation, healing divisions among communities, and striving to exist in peaceful coexistence (i.e., the new heaven and earth). The church is charged with the right administration of the sacraments, including the Eucharist and Baptism, as well as ensuring the acceptance of all people into fellowship within a community of grace, hope, mercy, and love. The Eucharist, being the real presence of Christ, invites us to partake in a deep way becoming more like Christ. The church, despite being in the world, is not of the world. The church is holy because of its striving for Loving wholeness. The church is catholic because of its ubiquity in the world, even amid persecution. The church is apostolic because of its succession and spiritual union with the original apostles, directly commissioned by Christ. The church, being guided by Scripture, tradition, its creeds, and reason, is called to institute the new heaven and new earth among all people.