What We Believe

SIMPLY CHRISTIAN

At Christ Our Hope, we are first and most importantly Christians. We believe that the most important event in all of history took place 2,000 years ago just outside the walls of Jerusalem. There Jesus Christ—the Son of God—died on a Roman cross, and three days later rose from the dead in triumph to bring life to the world.

Now there is new life, joy, and hope for those who say yes to Jesus. In him, God heals what is broken in our relationships: with him, with one another, and even within ourselves.

Gospel truth

We joyfully receive “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3), as it has been given to us in the Bible and expressed in the historic creeds of the church.

• The Bible is our guide and authority. The Holy Scriptures, contained in the Old and New Testaments, are God’s inspired revelation of himself and are entirely trustworthy and true. We believe the Bible contains everything we need for life and salvation.

• With Christians everywhere, we affirm our belief in historic Christianity as stated in the creeds of the ancient church. We confess the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian creeds to be true and faithful expressions of the Biblical teaching about God.

Anglican Tradition

All Christians practice their faith in a particular way—in a tradition. Ours is Anglican.

Here are a few distinctives that mark the Anglican way of being Christian:

• Global (and historical) connection — When we gather to worship, we join with brothers and sisters from all around the world and throughout history to worship our great God. Eighty-percent of the world’s Anglicans worship in the southern hemisphere and in Asia, and we deeply value the gift of our global family in the faith and our tangible relationship with the worldwide church.

• Liturgical worship — Our worship is intentionally structured in a form designed to shape us and to honor what God has said about himself and about his people. Our heritage has given us the Book of Common Prayer, a guide to structure our corporate and individual worship, primarily by setting the Scriptures into a format that facilitates prayer. Every Sunday, we join with the historic church in the public reading of the Scriptures, preaching God’s Word, corporate prayer and confession, and the breaking of bread at the Lord’s Table.

• Deep belief, generous welcome — In essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity. Rooted in the Scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ, we celebrate our unity, walking together in God’s one family as brothers and sisters — brothers and sisters who don’t all agree about everything. Yet we stand together under Christ our Teacher and submit ourselves to his authority with love for each other and respect for our differences.

We don’t believe the Anglican tradition is the only way to be faithful but we are thankful for the good gifts the Lord has given us through our heritage and the ways it shapes and challenges us to grow in faith.