Our Faith

This is our affirmation of God as the creator of all things, the root of all reality and existence. The 'Father and creator' is God in the first person of the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity is our term for what has been revealed to us as the three persons of God. But God is, nevertheless, most emphatically one. Any attempt to give a deep-dive explanation of the Trinity would be disrespectful towards God; we cannot presume to quantify God within the limitations of human science. The word 'person' needs to be properly understood. It is not intended in a way that implies frailty, limitation or whimsicality. It refers to a manifestation.

Jesus is called the Son of God, because He is the second person of the Holy Trinity and therefore truly divine, as expressed by the word Lord. Christ is from the Greek word χριστός (Christos), meaning the anointed one, chosen by God. It is through the person of Jesus that God fulfilled His promise to redeem humanity—to bridge the gap between God and humanity, as prophesied in many books of scripture, such as that of the Isiah. Through this redemption, we, although still subject to earthly rules, precepts and boundaries, have been given a new insight, the absolute Truth, a new intelligence through the Holy Spirit, the means to understand beyond the confines of laws and human science (however universal we may think that is); the ultimate gift to humanity, but one that so much of humanity struggles to accept.

Bridging the gap between God and Humanity was always going to be disturbing and controversial, bringing both ultimate joy and bitter suffering, as the following section explains. Controversial or not, Jesus' earthly presence was conceived directly by the will of God, that is, through the Holy Spirit. That is why Joseph is known as Jesus' guardian, rather than his father. Jesus was carried and born by Mary of Nazareth, an exemplary Jewess. The event was indeed joyful, though not everyone accepted it in a spirit of joy.

Bridging the gap between God and humanity was controversial for many reasons. For example, Jesus' mission was to reconcile the human with the divine, which meant challenging many traditions and superficial outward expressions that were reinforcing the rift between humans and God.  In some influential circles, these challenges were misinterpreted as an undermining of religious and temporal authority. This inevitably led to the crucifixion of Jesus's body, sanctioned (passively) by the Roman governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate. Shocking, but no surprise, as it happened in the manner the prophets foretold. It is the price of our redemption, the Sacrifice that is sustained through our Eucharist (refer to the  Sacraments page ).

Jesus' descent into hell is not as shocking as is sounds. Most of us understand 'hell' as the place for those eternally lost, but to Jews and early Christians, hell is simply the gathering of the dead—that is what is meant here. More importantly to us is Jesus' rising from the dead. This rising (resurrection) demonstrated how biological life terminates, and where life in the fuller sense, unfolds.

This is probably the most difficult and unnerving article of our faith. What it alludes to is the second coming of Jesus Christ, at a point where/when all earthly life is on the point of extinction, and where each person, dead or alive, is assigned their final place in the eternal order of things. The place they take will be judged based on their earthly faithfulness to God's design for humanity, and repentance of sins (refer to the Sacraments page under Reconciliation).

The Holy Spirit is a third person of the aforementioned Holy Trinity. It (actually, we say he) is described as God's gift to humanity ('proceeding from the Father and the Son'), because he is for us, a divine intelligence, through which we come to know God directly, in a way that was not possible by way of law and human science. It is through the Holy Spirit that humanity is given true and eternal life, with which 'biological' life, as we understand it, cannot be compared. 

The teachings of Jesus, along with other scripture, are essentially the word of God. In one sense, they are the knowledge that humanity needs in order to keep its reasoning on the right track. But scripture is only one of several gifts essential for our redemption. During his earthly life, and after his resurrection, Jesus alluded to the Holy Spirit, the 'helper', After Jesus had ascended into Heaven, several weeks after his resurrection, the Holy Spirit manifested itself quite dramatically and right on cue, to Jesus' apostles. That was the birth of the Church as we know it, and since that day, the Holy Spirit, the Sacraments, scripture and teaching have sustained the Church in its role of realizing the Redemption. The Church itself is the assembly of all the Christian faithful—including those who have died bodily—with Jesus Christ as the head. The Communion of Saints is the set of visible practices (above all, the Eucharist—see the Sacraments page), instituted by Jesus, which unite the members of the Church.

'Sin' is an act or an intention that is contrary to God's design for humanity. One of the most notable characteristics of creation is the initially 'fallen' condition of humanity, adrift from God's design, a condition referred to as 'original sin'. That condition is regarded as an essential part of creation, not a mistake. The opportunity to escape from that condition—to become part of the 'new creation'— is made possible by the aforementioned Redemption; not least through the the sacrament of Baptism instituted by Jesus. But, whilst humanity has the gift of redemption, we as individuals can still make choices, by way of which we can still go astray from God's design: we can still fall into sin. Jesus conferred on his apostles the power to forgive sins, in saying: "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (Gospel of John 20:22-23). This forgiveness of sins is realized in the sacrament of reconciliation (confession)—see the Sacraments page.

This resurrection refers to the point where earthly life comes to an end, when those who have been repentant and have done good will rise, soul and glorified body, to the presence of God, to the fullness of eternal life with the risen Jesus Christ. Because this exceeds our imagination and understanding, it can sound fanciful to those who do not yet embrace the faith; who are constrained by the boundaries of human science or even by their own imaginations or emotions.

The Life to which we refer here is something incomparably beyond our ephemeral biological life. This Life is the one to which Jesus referred in his proclamation: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me" (Gospel of John 14:6). This Life of which Jesus spoke is the reason for our being; it is a life that blossoms and persists beyond our biological life and death, provided we embrace it while we have the opportunity.

If you want to take that opportunity but are not sure how, you may contact us.