St. Luke's Church,
Anglican — Our Beliefs
St. Luke’s Church is part of the Anglican Church of North America
(ACNA). Below is the Statement of Faith of the
ACNA.
• We believe and confess Jesus Christ to be the Way, the Truth,
and the Life: no one comes to the Father but by Him. Therefore, the
Anglican Church of North America identifies the following seven elements
as characteristic of the Anglican Way, and essential.
1. We confess the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments
to be the inspired Word of God, containing all things necessary for
salvation, and to be the final authority and unchangeable standard
for Christian faith and life.
2. We confess Baptism and the Supper of the Lord to be Sacraments
ordained by Christ Himself in the Gospel, and thus to be ministered
with unfailing use of His words of institution and of the elements
ordained by Him.
3. We confess the godly historic Episcopate as an inherent part
of the apostolic faith and practice, and therefore as integral to
the fullness and unity of the Body of Christ.
4. We confess as proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture
the historic faith of the undivided church as declared in the three
Catholic Creeds: the Apostles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostles'_Creed#cite_note-15),
the Nicene (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicene_Creed),
and the Athanasian
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasian_Creed).
5. Concerning the seven Councils of the undivided Church, we affirm
the teaching of the first four Councils and the Christological clarifications
of the fifth, sixth and seventh Councils, in so far as they are agreeable
to the Holy Scriptures.
6. We receive The Book of Common Prayer as set forth by the Church
of England in 1662 (http://www.eskimo.com/~lhowell/bcp1662/),
together with the Ordinal attached to the same, as a standard for
Anglican doctrine and discipline, and, with the Books which preceded
it, as the standard for the Anglican tradition of worship.
7. We receive the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion of 1562
(http://anglicansonline.org/basics/thirty-nine_articles.html),
taken in their literal and grammatical sense, as expressing the Anglican
response to certain doctrinal issues controverted at that time, and
as expressing the fundamental principles of authentic Anglican belief.
