What we believe…

The Old Old story.

Our beliefs are rooted in the inerrant, authoritative, and sufficient words of Scripture.

Our allegiance is fundamentally to the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all things. We trust in God’s sovereign plan for the redemption of the world by the atoning death, burial, and glorious resurrection of Jesus. We exist as a church to proclaim the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection and to make disciples of Him. The primary way we carry out this mission is by gathering families around the Word of God and the Sacraments of Communion and Baptism.

We find our beliefs best expressed in the historic creeds (Apostles, Athanasian, and Nicene) and in the words of the 39 Articles of Religion as written by the English Reformers in the 16th and 17th century. Our practice is rooted in and shaped by the Book of Common Prayer (1662 & 2019)

We affirm the 2008 Jerusalem Declaration ratified by Anglican churches of GAFCON.

  • I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

    I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

    I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

  • 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.

  • In the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit:

    We agree to chart a way forward together that promotes and protects the biblical gospel and mission to the world, solemnly declaring the following tenets of orthodoxy which underpin our Anglican identity.

    1. We rejoice in the gospel of God through which we have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Because God first loved us, we love him and as believers bring forth fruits of love, ongoing repentance, lively hope and thanksgiving to God in all things.

    2. We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.

    3. We uphold the four Ecumenical Councils and the three historic Creeds as expressing the rule of faith of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

    4. We uphold the Thirty-nine Articles as containing the true doctrine of the Church agreeing with God’s Word and as authoritative for Anglicans today.

    5. We gladly proclaim and submit to the unique and universal Lordship of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, humanity’s only Saviour from sin, judgement and hell, who lived the life we could not live and died the death that we deserve. By his atoning death and glorious resurrection, he secured the redemption of all who come to him in repentance and faith.

    6. We rejoice in our Anglican sacramental and liturgical heritage as an expression of the gospel, and we uphold the 1662 Book of Common Prayer as a true and authoritative standard of worship and prayer, to be translated and locally adapted for each culture.

    7. We recognise that God has called and gifted bishops, priests and deacons in historic succession to equip all the people of God for their ministry in the world. We uphold the classic Anglican Ordinal as an authoritative standard of clerical orders.

    8. We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We repent of our failures to maintain this standard and call for a renewed commitment to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.

    9. We gladly accept the Great Commission of the risen Lord to make disciples of all nations, to seek those who do not know Christ and to baptise, teach and bring new believers to maturity.

    10. We are mindful of our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation, to uphold and advocate justice in society, and to seek relief and empowerment of the poor and needy.

    11. We are committed to the unity of all those who know and love Christ and to building authentic ecumenical relationships. We recognise the orders and jurisdiction of those Anglicans who uphold orthodox faith and practice, and we encourage them to join us in this declaration.

    12. We celebrate the God-given diversity among us which enriches our global fellowship, and we acknowledge freedom in secondary matters. We pledge to work together to seek the mind of Christ on issues that divide us.

    13. We reject the authority of those churches and leaders who have denied the orthodox faith in word or deed. We pray for them and call on them to repent and return to the Lord.

    14. We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus’ coming again in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise him for the way he builds up his church through his Spirit by miraculously changing lives.

    GAFCON - Jerusalem Declaration

A few particulars

What We Believe About Scripture 

  • We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God written and to contain all things necessary for salvation. The Bible is to be translated, read, preached, taught and obeyed in its plain and canonical sense, respectful of the church’s historic and consensual reading.

What We Believe About Salvation

  • All human beings are born under the curse of sin and deserving of everlasting punishment in hell. In their fallen state, humans have no means in their own “natural strength” to turn away from sin and towards God and no way of atoning for their sins on their own before a Holy God. There is salvation from the curse of sin and the fire of hell only in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came to earth as a man, lived a sinless life, was crucified for our sins and in our place on the cross. Through his death and resurrection he defeated death and sin and made a way for us to live forever with Him. The only hope for the world is Jesus Christ. Salvation belongs to him and He sovereignly ordains all things, including those who, in the everlasting purpose of God, He will deliver from curse and damnation and bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation.

    Original Sin

    Man is of his own nature inclined to evil and every person born into this world is deserving of God’s wrath and damnation.

    Free Will

    Humankind is unable to turn from sin and towards God in their own strength.

    Justification

    We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings. We are justified by Faith in Jesus Christ alone.

What We Believe About Jesus’ Return

  • We rejoice at the prospect of Jesus’ coming again in glory, and while we await this final event of history, we praise him for the way he builds up the church through his Spirit by miraculously changing lives.

What We Believe About Men, Women, and Marriage

  • We acknowledge God’s creation of humankind as male and female and the unchangeable standard of Christian marriage between one man and one woman as the proper place for sexual intimacy and the basis of the family. We call Christians to lifelong fidelity in marriage and abstinence for those who are not married.

What It Means to Be Reformed 

  • As Anglicans we stand in the tradition of the great English reformers of the 16th century (Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, et al.) who loved Jesus and the Word of God so much that they gave up their lives as martyrs for the Gospel of Jesus. We aspire to be a church that holds fast with a martyr zeal to the truth of the Gospel.

    We are committed to the Reformed understanding of the Biblical Faith, as outlined in the 39 Articles, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal, and the Jerusalem Declaration.

What It Means to Be Sacramental

  • Being Sacramental centers our church life around the Sacraments: Baptism (God’s all-sufficient Death for our death) and the Lord’s Supper (God’s undying Life for our life). In these two sacraments, as instituted by our Lord in His ministry, we come to know God and commune with Him as He is offered in His Word. But being sacramental does not end there. Being sacramental means being shaped by the two Sacraments in such a way that the whole of our lives becomes the site of encounter with our Lord Jesus Christ.

Why Anglican?

There are three main reasons why Big Island Mission is a part of the Anglican Church.

1) Anglicanism is grounded in God's Word:

We believe that the practices of the church ought to be grounded in the teachings of God’s Holy Word. We do not believe that we have the definitive worship form, or that other churches do not worship God fully. However, we do believe that there are specific practices found throughout Scripture that should be included within worship for the holistic formation of a disciple.

Some of these elements include:

  • A call to worship where we bless God’s name (Ps. 100:4)

  • Prayer for God to open our lips to praise him (Ps. 51:15)

  • Worshiping God in Song (Col. 3:16)

  • The reading and proclaiming of God’s Word (Acts 2:42)

  • Public Prayer and Confession ( Acts 2:42)

  • The celebration of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:26)

  • The sending forth of the people (Mtt. 28:19)

2) Anglicanism is grounded in the wisdom of the church:

We do not believe that the church is without error; however, we also believe that the saints who have come before us have many things to teach us. Therefore, we look to our past to more fully engage our present. There are four primary historical sources that ground our worship:

  • The Apostle’s Creed

  • The Nicene Creed

  • The Book of Common Prayer

  • The 39 Articles.

3) Anglicanism is grounded in the global church:

Anglicanism is truly a Global Church. With 80 million Anglicans worshipping around the world, when you proclaim the liturgy on the Big Island, you are joining 80 Million of your brothers and sisters around the world. Not only this, but Anglicanism is truly a cross-cultural movement. The majority of Anglicans around the world are centered in communities in the Southern Hemisphere. Your prayers are being joined with Anglicans from every tribe and tongue and nation.

Resources

Diocesan Beliefs Page

— Diocese of the Rocky Mountians