General Core Beliefs

  • We believe that our Lord Jesus is the one and only judge of humanity at the end of days. It is not our place to be judgmental.

  • We believe in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son [Jesus Christ] & God the Holy Spirit).

  • We believe that Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and was resurrected the third day. This was done for the salvation of mankind from sin.

  • We believe the Eucharist must be open to all Christians.

  • We believe in the SEVEN sacraments, with an emphasis on Eucharistic Sacrifice and Baptismal Regeneration.

  • We believe in the Apostolic Succession set down by the earliest church fathers.

  • We are a faith community that is inclusive of all peoples, and we believe that we are all equal in the eyes of God.

  • We believe it is our Christian duty to love and help our fellow brothers and sisters, especially those most vulnerable, children, the poor, the sick, the elderly and the refugee.

  • We believe in the creeds set down by our forefathers - Nicene, Athanasian and Apostles.

  • We believe the Bible contains all information necessary for our salvation.

At the Church of the Risen Christ, we hold:

1. A High View of God. Worship at its best cultivates a sense of reverence, awe, and mystery in the presence of the Holy One before whom even the angels in heaven veil their faces.

2. A High View of Creation. At the same time, we delight in the beauty of God’s creation. Our view of the world is highly sacramental, seeing signs of God’s presence and goodness everywhere in the things that he has made. In worship, we gather up the best of creation—as reflected in art, craftsmanship, music, song, flowers, incense, etc.—and offer it all back up to God.

3. A High View of the Incarnation. Our salvation began when Christ took flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. God became man in order to transform human existence through participation in his divine life. The Collect for the Second Sunday after Christmas expresses the Anglo-Catholic vision perfectly: “O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ…”

4. A High View of the Atonement. We look not only to Christ’s Incarnation but also to his Sacrifice. The image of Jesus on the cross reminds us of the depth and horror of human sin, and of the price that God has paid for our redemption. Our spirituality entails a lifelong process of turning from sin and towards God. Many find the Sacrament of Penance an indispensable aid in this process.

5. A High View of the Church. We come to share in the divine life of the risen and ascended Christ by being incorporated through Baptism into his Body, the Church. Thus, we regard the universal Church neither as an institution of merely human origin, nor as a voluntary association of individual believers, but as a wonderful mystery, a divine society, a supernatural organism, whose life flows to its members from its head, Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

6. A High View of the Communion of Saints. The Church, moreover, consists not only of all Christians now alive on earth (the Church Militant), but also of the Faithful Departed, who continue to grow in the knowledge and love of God (the Church Expectant), and of the Saints in Heaven, who have reached their journey’s end (the Church Triumphant). We have fellowship with all who live in Christ. Anglo-Catholicism thus affirms the legitimacy of praying for the dead, and of asking the Saints in Heaven for their prayers.

7. A High View of the Sacraments. We believe that Jesus Christ really and truly communicates his life, presence, and grace to us in the Seven Sacraments, thus enabling us to give our lives to God and our Neighbour in faith, hope, and love. Holy Baptism establishes our identity once for all as children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven (although we can by our own free choice repudiate this inheritance). And in the Holy Eucharist, Christ becomes objectively present in the Blessed Sacrament of His Body and Blood.

8. A High View of Holy Orders. Since the days of the Oxford Movement, Anglo-Catholicism has borne witness that the threefold ministry of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in Apostolic Succession is God-given. The validity of our sacraments, and the fullness of our participation in the life of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, depend upon our faithful stewardship of this divine gift. For this reason, innovations threatening the authenticity of our apostolic orders must be resisted at all costs.

9. A High View of Anglicanism. We affirm that the Anglican Churches are truly part of Christ’s Holy Catholic Church. The prophetic vocation of Anglo-Catholicism has been to bear witness to the catholicity of Anglicanism. Yet it can be an uncomfortable vocation that requires us to take unpopular stands against developments that threaten this catholicity. Since the days of the Oxford Movement, our standard has been the faith and practice of the ancient, undivided Church. Our vocation as Anglo-Catholics remains one of holding ourselves, and our Anglican institutions, accountable to the higher authority of the universal Church.