The pattern is old because it works.
We believe the means of grace that have formed Christians for two millennia — Scripture, prayer, the Lord's Supper, fasting, Christian conference — are still how God forms a people today.
The Apostles' Creed
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, 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, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and 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. Amen.
What we hold, and why it holds us.
We believe the Bible is the inspired, authoritative word of God — the primary way God has spoken, and still speaks, to his people. We preach it expositionally because we trust it more than our own opinions about it.
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is not abstract math. It is the shape of the love we are being drawn into.
We believe salvation comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ — his life, death, and resurrection — and not by our own effort or merit. We are saved to be formed, not to be finished.
We believe baptism and the Lord's Supper are means of grace — not mere symbols, but places where God actually meets his people. We baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and keep the Table regularly.
We believe God is not only interested in forgiving us but in changing us — the Wesleyan conviction that grace goes on working, making us actually holy and actually loving, not just legally forgiven.
We believe the Church is not optional to the Christian life. We are formed in community — in Sunday worship and in the smaller rooms of Chapters — because faith was never meant to be solitary.
We are Wesleyan-Anglican in our bones — sacramental, liturgically charismatic, committed to regular communion and the Christian calendar.
More About Our Tradition