What We Believe

“The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ’s Church from the beginning.” – Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher (1945-1961)

The Anglican Church

The Anglican Church is a branch of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church instituted by Jesus Christ and, as the last repository of ancient Western Christianity, is the purest form of historical Catholicism in the West. The word “Anglican” refers to our spiritual heritage and roots in the Church of England. Traders, merchants, and soldiers seem to have brought the Christian Faith to Britain shortly after it became part of the Roman Empire in the middle of the first century after Christ. Sixteen hundred years later, during what we call the Reformation, the Church of England emerged as a unique institution. It retained its “Catholic” heritage enshrined in the Creeds, the theology of the General Councils, its liturgy and sacraments, and in the threefold ministry of bishops, priests, and deacons in succession from the original Apostles. It “reformed” itself by eliminating some nonessential accretions of the later medieval Church, by restoring much of the practice of the earliest Christians, and by returning to the belief that Holy Scripture is the rule and guide of faith. It is in this sense that Anglicanism is both “Catholic and Reformed” while being neither Roman Catholic nor a Protestant denomination. Instead, Anglicanism maintains the faith of the ancient, undivided Church founded by Christ himself, proclaimed throughout the ages, recovered in the English Reformation, and defined further in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. 

Brief History

Members of the Church of England came to America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In many of the original colonies, the Church of England was the established or official Church. After the Revolution, American Anglicans established an autonomous branch of the Church, which became known as the Episcopal Church. Starting in the 1970’s this body began to revise its worship and theology. The end result was a near abandonment of the ancient Christian faith. Faithful Episcopalians couldn’t sit by and watch their Church spiral into false teaching, and so the Continuing Anglican movement was birthed. These dioceses formed as an alternative to the Episcopal Church with the intent of “continuing” the historic Christian faith as received in the Anglican tradition. 

Saint Matthew’s is a parish under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Province of America, which faithfully commits to maintaining the historic Catholic faith in the Anglican tradition across its parishes. 

Beliefs

The beliefs of the Anglican Church are best expressed in the words of Holy Scripture as interpreted by the Church Fathers, the three historic creeds – the Apostles’, the Nicene and Athanasian – and the Book of Common Prayer. The brief points addressed below will help distill those teachings:

  • We believe and teach that God has revealed Himself in the Holy Scriptures as Blessed Trinity; One God in Three Persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

  • The Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth; without beginning or end, possessor of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; of perfect love, mercy, and justice. The Creator and Ruler of all things, always and everywhere present. In a perfect manifestation of these things and love for all mankind, God specifically revealed Himself to man in Jesus Christ.

  • We believe and teach that Jesus Christ, fully God and fully man, was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Jesus lived a sinless life, died in our place, rose victoriously from death, and ascended to heaven, all of which was to save us from hell, empower us for sanctification, and bring us into eternal communion with God. We label this “Good News” of Jesus as the “Gospel.”

  • We believe and teach that the Holy Spirit is the personal power and presence of God Himself at work in the world, convincing sinners of their need for God’s grace, revealing the beauty of Jesus Christ, and indwelling the Church in order to bring people into eternal communion with the Triune God.

  • We believe and teach that the Bible is the inspired Word of God and the authoritative source and norm of our proclamation, faith, and life. The primary message and meaning of Scripture is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

  • We believe and teach that the Church is the Body of Christ, the people of God both dead and alive, created and sustained by God Himself. The biblical expression of being a part of the Church is faithful participation in the sacraments, daily prayer and study of the Bible, regular fellowship, and support of the mission of the congregation.

  • We believe and teach that God communicates His love and grace to us through physical means, which we call “sacraments” or “holy mysteries.” The historic Church has identified seven sacraments as the normative means for communing with God, two of which are referred to as the Sacraments of the Gospel as they were ordained of Christ our Lord in the Gospel – Holy Baptism and Holy Communion – and are noted as those “generally necessary to Salvation”. Of the others, there are Confirmation, Penance (also called Confession), Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, and Holy Unction (also called Holy Anointing). Each sacrament serves as an effectual sign of God’s grace and goodwill towards us, strengthens and confirms our Faith in him, and leads to deeper communion with God and the entire Church as a whole.

  • We believe and teach that the Scriptures and the 2,000-year-old tradition of the Church are clear on such matters as sexuality and marriage. We affirm that the sacrament of Holy Matrimony, the lifelong union of fidelity between one man and one woman, is the only relationship God has ordained for the full expression of human sexuality. We embrace those of other orientations and believe that faithful singleness is God’s call for their life. We also believe and teach that God has made all human life sacred from the moment of conception. We thus advocate and work toward preserving and sustaining the lives of all people across the full span of life—from the preborn to the elderly.