What We Believe

The Episcopal Church is not the dominant Christian tradition in the Southeast. We warmly invite you to pray with us and get to know us!

We live out the ministry of Jesus Christ as part of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, a part of the Episcopal Church, which is connected with the Anglican Communion worldwide. We identify ourselves as part of a larger body of Christ, and in that body, there are many parts.

We understand that we are human and all God’s children, and respect that all are welcome in God’s family.

We believe first and foremost that we can best come to know God, our creator, through a relationship with his son, Jesus Christ.

We hold the traditional faith of Christians through the ages. The clearest statements of what we believe are The Apostle’s Creed and The Nicene Creed.

As a church, we emphasize the mystery of encountering God in worship. We believe all people are called to be ministers and to serve God, his Church, and the community in which they live.

If you’d like to dig deeper, the Book of Common Prayer includes an Outline of the Faith, also known as a Catechism, which details our beliefs.

Commonly Asked Questions

  • Yes. The word protestant began as a derogatory term used for those who were protesting abuses in the church of that day. The word also means “to witness for” and reminds us that our church witnesses for Jesus in the world around us. As a Protestant Church we are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church, though we wish to work for greater unity among all Christians and churches. We believe that through a relationship with Jesus as our forgiver and leader we come to salvation. We also believe in the divine revelation of the Bible.

  • Yes. The word catholic was described hundreds of years ago as “that which has been believed in all places, at all times, by all people.”

    The word catholic means what has always been believed as the essentials of Christian faith and practice. We are not a part of the Roman Catholic Church, but we welcome their members into full communion with us.

    As a catholic church, we believe there is a great value to the long-standing traditions and practices of Christians throughout time. Among the central practices of a catholic church are the Sacraments.

  • Yes. A sacrament is an outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual gifts God offers us. We accept as most important the sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist (also called Communion or The Lord’s Supper).

    In Baptism we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and are adopted into God’s family called the Church.

    In Eucharist, we receive the bread and wine of communion which we believe is the body and blood of Jesus — a way of knowing by faith that Jesus is truly with us and in union (communion) with us at that point in time.

  • Yes. The Bible is a book that allows us to hear God’s words to his people and their response to him.

    We believe that all the things you need for faith and salvation are in the Bible. There’s no secret knowledge you need outside of the Bible, and no additional truth that came later that is of the same value as the words of the Bible.

    We also believe God has given us a mind and wants us to use it, as we struggle to interpret, understand, and apply the stories and teachings in the Bible.