What We Believe
Emmaus Church is a member of the Diocese of the Holy Spirit of the Anglican Church of North America. Pastoral oversight for our church is provided by the Rt. Rev. John Guernsey. The Anglican Communion is a world-wide fellowship whose faith, rooted in Scripture, can be summarized in the ancient Apostles‘ and Nicene Creeds. Anglicans have never claimed to be the only true Church. To be an Anglican is not to embrace a distinct version of Christianity, but a distinct way of being a “Mere Christian.”
God’s Story in Brief
God reveals Himself to us uniquely, irreplaceably, in and through the Bible. The Word of God contains all things necessary for our salvation. We hold nothing as essential to salvation that is not clearly taught in the Bible. It tells the story of God, the Father Almighty, creating life itself for the goodness of creating. It tells us how God made us in His image, and breathed His Holy Spirit into us. It tells the story of humanity breaking faith with Him, again and again. But more importantly, the Bible tells us how God kept reaching out to us, with all of our faults and problems to make us, and the whole creation new.
In the Old Testament, God spoke through prophets and sages, intervened in the lives of slaves, and called a people, Israel, to Himself. He chose Israel not because Abraham was better than his neighbors, but because Abraham and Sarah needed divine assistance. Again and again, it‘s a story of God reaching out to humanity. In the New Testament, God does something unfathomable. Rather than sending a message through a prophet, or giving some insight through a sage, God comes in person, in Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. When we turn our lives over to God, accepting his love, mercy, and forgiveness given through Jesus Christ, we are saved—from sin, evil, death, and even from ourselves! When we turn our lives over to God, acknowledging Him as Lord—one who deserves our complete worship, allegiance, and obedience—we are living in His Kingdom. The Creator breathed and breathes life, the Holy Spirit, into all creation. The Father also gives the Holy Spirit to Christians in a very personal, life-changing way. Through the Holy Spirit, we are connected to the Risen Lord Jesus and His Father, and have communion with God, the holy and blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit can actually change us, growing Christ-like characteristics of love, joy, peace, self-control and more into us. The Holy Spirit also gives us gifts to serve the common good, to unite and empower us to build up Christ‘s body, the Church, and to set people free from all manner of bondage, and sin.
God‘s Story in Outline Our beliefs can also be summed up in either of two creeds which are recited by the congregation in worship: The Nicene Creed and The Apostles‘ Creed. (Note that the word “catholic” in these creeds refers not to the Roman Catholic Church, but to the universal church of the Lord Jesus Christ.)
The Nicene Creed
The Nicene Creed is the most universally accepted profession of the Christian Faith. It is affirmed by most of the Protestant denominations, as well as by the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. It was adopted (in a slightly different version) by the Church Council at Nicaea in AD 325 and further revised to its present form by the Council at Chalcedon in AD 451. It has remained in use since that time and is currently an essential part of the doctrine and liturgy here at Emmaus.
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
We believe the catholic church is Christ living and visible in the world. We know our congregation, diocese, and communion are not the sum and total of Christ. In fact, belonging to any church is an exercise in patience, forbearance, and love. But in baptism, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and in the Holy Spirit, we are part of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church. So at every baptism, all the people are asked again to renew their own baptismal covenant. Our aim, then, as individuals and as a congregation is to become, by God‘s grace, more deeply and truly one with Christ!
The Anglican Way of Being a Christian
“The Anglican Communion,” Archbishop Geoffrey Fisher wrote, “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.” It may licitly teach as necessary for salvation nothing but what is read in the Holy Scriptures as God’s Word written or may be proved thereby. It therefore embraces and affirms such teachings of the ancient Fathers and Councils of the Church as are agreeable to the Scriptures, and thus to be counted apostolic. The Church has no authority to innovate: it is obliged continually, and particularly in times of renewal or reformation, to return to “the faith once delivered to the saints.” For more information on the Beliefs, history, and Constitutions and Canons of the Anglican Church of North America, goto Anglican Church
