1925
Basis of Union

1940
Statement of Faith

2006
Song of Faith

God 

We believe in the one only living and true God, a Spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable, in His being and perfections; the Lord Almighty, who is love, most just in all His ways, most glorious in holiness, un-searchable in wisdom, plenteous in mercy, full of compassion, and abundant in goodness and truth. We worship Him in the unity of the Godhead and the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, three persons of the same substance, equal in power and glory.

God

We believe in God, the eternal personal Spirit, Creator and Upholder of all things.

We believe that God, as sovereign Lord exalted above the world, orders and overrules all things in it to the accomplishment of His holy, wise, and good purposes.

We believe that God made man to love and serve Him; that He cares for him as a righteous and compassionate Father; and that nothing can either quench His love or finally defeat His gracious purpose for man.

So we acknowledge God as Creator, Upholder, and Sovereign Lord of all things, and the righteous and loving Father of men.

God

• Holy Mystery which attracts relationship

• creates the universe

• tends the universe

• enlivens the universe

• harmonizes all components

• is spoken off as one (monad)

• is spoken off as trinity (examples)

• is creative and self-giving (self- expressing?)

• is said to be the maker as well as the source

Humanity & Sin 

We believe that our first parents, being tempted, chose evil, and so fell away from God and came under the power of sin, the penalty of which is eternal death; and that, by reason of this disobedience, all men are born with a sinful nature, that we have broken God's law and that no man can be saved but by His grace.

Humanity & Sin

We believe that God gave to man, as He did not to the lower creatures, capacity to share His thought and purpose, and freedom to choose whether he would or would not love and serve Him.

We believe that man has used his freedom of choice for low and selfish ends, thus estranging himself from God and his brother man, and bringing upon himself the judgment and wrath of God, so that he lives in a world of confusion and distress, and is unable of himself to fulfill God's high purpose for him.

So we acknowledge man's sin, God's righteous judgment, and man's helplessness and need.

Humanity & Sin

• Humanity exists to "live, move and have their being in God"

• Humanity is endowed with the capability to attract right relationship with God and each other

• Humanity can grow in wisdom and compassion

• Humanity can discover its place in creation

• Humanity can recognize all people as kin

• Humanity can accept its mortality and finitude as a challenge for growth

• Humanity is made in the image of God

• Humanity yearns for God, yet turns away from God for selfish reasons

• This causes Humanity to do harm to self and others.

• Many empires and systems of domination can and do distract the human being away from God. Given the fact that these competitive forces seem to be able to acquire a life of their own, humanity is hard pressed to re-turn to God at will. This causes grief as the relationship God-Humanity is said to have been broken. The question is: how can H. restore the "broken" relationship? The answer is that H. is not able to do so on its own. Is the situation hopeless then?

• The Good News is that Evil, for all its efforts, does not and can not permanently undermine the primary attribute of God -- LOVE!

• God, in its love, forgives, reconciles and transforms.

• is invited to become part of God's redeeming activities by connecting to God's Spirit which animates all energy and matter and moves into the human heart.

Jesus Christ 

We believe in and confess the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Mediator between God and man, who, being the Eternal Son of God, for us men and for our salvation became truly man, being conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, yet without sin. Unto us He has revealed the Father, by His word and Spirit, making known the perfect will of God. For our redemption, He fulfilled all righteousness, offered Himself a perfect sacrifice on the Cross, satisfied Divine justice and made propitiation for the sins of the whole world. He rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven, where He ever intercedes for us. In the hearts of believers He abides for ever as the indwelling Christ; above us and over us all He rules; wherefore, unto Him we render love, obedience and adoration as our Prophet, Priest and King.

Jesus Christ

We believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, Who, for us men and our salvation became man and dwelt among us.

We believe that He lived a perfect human life, wholly devoted to the will of God and the service of man.

We believe that in Him God comes face to face with men; so that they learn that God loves them seeks their good, bears their sorrows and their sin, and claims their exclusive faith and perfect obedience.

We believe that in Jesus Christ God acted to save man, taking, at measureless cost, man's sin upon Himself; that the Cross reveals at once God's abhorrence of sin and His saving love in its height and depth and power; and that the Cross is for all time the effectual means of reconciling the world unto God.

We believe that Jesus was raised victorious over death and declared to be the Son of God with power; and that He is alive for evermore, our Savior and our Lord.

So we acknowledge Jesus Christ as the Son of God Incarnate, the Savior of the world.

Jesus Christ

• a Jew - born of a woman

• was fully human but was so filled with the H.S, that bystanders recognized the presence of God when he was around.

• preached God's commonwealth of peace, justice and reconciliation

• healed the sick, fed the hungry, forgave sins and freed those held captive by demonic powers.

• crossed barriers of race, class, culture and gender.

• preached and practiced unconditional love, love of God and neighbour, friend an foe alike.

• Because of his unusual message the powers that be became nervous about him and had him killed.

• As mentioned above, death can not have the last word.

• God raised J and turned sorrow into joy, despair into hope.

• In J's life and teaching and self-offering God empowers us to live in love.

• In J's crucifixion God bears the sin and grief of a suffering world.

• In J's resurrection God overcomes death.

Salvation 

We believe that God, on the sole ground of the perfect obedience and sacrifice of Christ, pardons those who by faith receive Him as their Saviour and Lord, accepts them as righteous and bestows upon them the adoption of sons, with a right to all privileges therein implied, including a conscious assurance of their sonship.

Salvation

We believe that in the greatness of His love for man God has in Christ opened up a way of deliverance from the guilt and power of sin.

We believe that Christ, by living our life without sin, by dying at the hands of sinful men with faith unshaken and unfaltering love, has done for man what man could not do for himself. On the Cross He bore the burden of sin, and He broke its power; and what He did there moves men to repentance, conveys forgiveness, undoes the estrangement, and binds them to Himself in a new loyalty.

We believe that by His resurrection and exaltation Christ stands victorious over death and all evil, and that He fills those who commit themselves to Him with such grace and strength that in Him they, too, are conquerors. His redemption of man is at once an awful mystery and a glorious fact; it is the Lord's doing and marvelous in our eyes.

So we acknowledge the unmerited love and the mercy of our God in giving His only-begotten Son that we might not perish but have everlasting life.

Salvation

under contemplation...

stay tuned.

The Holy Spirit 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who moves upon the hearts of men to restrain them from evil and to incite them unto good, and whom the Father is ever willing to give unto all who ask Him. We believe that He has spoken by holy men of God in making known His truth to men for their salvation; that, through our exalted Saviour, He was sent forth in power to convict the world of sin, to enlighten men's minds in the knowledge of Christ, and to persuade and enable them to obey the call of the Gospel; and that He abides with the Church, dwelling in every believer as the spirit of truth, of power, of holiness, of comfort and of love.

The Holy Spirit

We believe in the Holy Spirit by whom God is ever at work in the minds and hearts of men, inspiring every right desire and every effort after truth and beauty.

We believe that the Spirit of God moves men to acknowledge their sins and accept the divine forgiveness and grace.

We believe that the Spirit was present with power at the beginning of the Church, enabling the disciples to bear witness to what they had seen and heard, filling them with love of the brethren, and hope of the coming Kingdom, and sustaining them in the sense of Christ's continuing presence in their midst.

We believe that by the same Spirit the Church is continually guided and empowered, and her members fortified against temptation, fear and doubt, and built up in faith and holiness unto salvation.

So we acknowledge the Holy Spirit as the Lord and Giver of life, through whom the creative, redeeming love of God is ever at work among men.

The Holy Spirit

under contemplation...

stay tuned.