Who are Episcopalians? What do we believe?

We are Christians.
  • We follow Jesus Christ.
  • He is the Savior and Lord of our Life.
We are both Catholic and Protestant.
  • We trace our roots to the struggle in the English church during the time of the Reformation.
  • While the English church broke away from the papacy, it retained many of the Catholic traditions, but included many of the reforms of the protesters.
We search for truth via scripture, tradition and reason.
  • We seek answers to questions of faith by trusting in the Holy Scripture.
  • We also look for guidance from the teachings of the Church fathers and mothers who struggled with many of the same questions.
  • A third resource for truth is our God-given ability to reason as it engages questions and responds to what is discovered through the Holy Scripture and the Church Tradition.
We are a bible church, but we are not biblical literalists.
  • A minimum of 2-3 readings from the Holy Scripture are proclaimed at every Episcopal worship service.
  • Episcopalians are encouraged to read the scripture every day and are given assigned readings. This tradition of the Daily Office dates to the early church. We are also encouraged to join a bible study group.
  • We are not biblical literalists. In our study, we engage the scripture at three levels:
    1. The Story in its historical context;
    2. In the New Testament, how the story was heard by the faith community to whom it was written; and
    3. The Story speaking to us today. Without understanding the context in which it was written, we believe we can misinterpret or even miss a very important teaching.
We are a sacramental church.
  • From the Catholic tradition, we retained the belief that our life as a faith community is centered around the sacraments of Baptism and Holy Eucharist (Communion). We believe these are necessary for the journey of a Christ follower.
  • We also have continued the tradition of the other sacraments of Confirmation, Unction (Healing), Marriage, Reconciliation, and Holy Orders.
We are lay ministers, deacons, priests, and bishops.
  • We believe all Christ followers are to serve our Lord in the world.
    1. Lay ministers take the teachings of our Lord into their workplaces, their homes and their communities.
    2. Deacons are the voice reminding us to a life of serving others.
    3. Priests are to teach and preach the Word of God and celebrate the sacraments.
    4. Bishops are the overseers of a cluster of churches. Our Bishop leads all the churches in Arizona.
Our mission is to bring about the Kingdom of God on this earth.
Our Lord proclaimed the words of the prophet Isaiah,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”(LK4:18-19)
As His body in the world, we dedicate our lives to this mission.
We are members of the worldwide Anglican communion.
  • We are in communion with Anglican churches throughout the world. We share the belief in:
    1. The authority of the Holy Scriptures;
    2. The Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed as statements of Christian faith;
    3. The sacraments of Baptism and Holy Eucharist (communion) ordained by our Lord;
    4. and The Historic Episcopate, the continuation of the line of bishops as the overseers of the Church.