What We Believe
At New Song Church we consider it our privilege to join the church through the ages and around the world in professing the biblical and historic faith expressed in the Apostles’ Creed, Nicene Creed, and Athanasian Creed. As a parish of the Anglican Network in Canada (ANiC), we uphold the doctrine contained in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion as well as the Jerusalem Declaration (see below).
If you’d like to go even deeper into what we believe you can download the contemporized 2019 Book of Common Prayer and our Anglican catechism, To Be A Christian.
The Holy Trinity
We believe that God is one everlasting and divine being who exists eternally in three persons. God the Father is the first person of the Trinity, from whom the second person, the Son (Jesus Christ), is eternally begotten, and from whom the third person, the Holy Spirit, proceeds. What does this mean? God is love. God the Father has eternally loved and glorified his Son, who has eternally reciprocated the Father’s love and glory in the personal, loving and glorious union of the Holy Spirit. And we’re invited to share in this personal, divine and unending love for ourselves! Genesis 1:1-3; Matthew 28:19-20; John 17:4-5; 2 Corinthians 13:14; 1 John 4:8-16; 2 Peter 1:3-4.
Creation and Fall
We believe that Almighty God was delighted to speak a good creation into existence. He created human beings in his image to share a right, perfect, and loving relationship with himself and one another, and to enjoy and cultivate creation. Genesis 1:26-31.
We believe that after the disobedience of our first parents, human beings now live in a state of inherited guilt before God, are subject to the power and consequences of sin, are inclined towards wrongdoing, and (left to themselves) are powerless to restore a right and life-giving relationship with God. Genesis 3:1-19; Romans 5:12-18.
Jesus Christ
We believe that Jesus is God the Son, the eternal Word of God made flesh, the incarnate second person of the Holy Trinity. God the Son has existed for all eternity, but at the right time he took upon himself our human nature and was born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus was human in every way we are, and yet lived the sinless and obedient life that our first parents (or we ourselves!) did not. Out of love for sinners, Jesus willingly died on the Cross to make atonement for the sins of the world. But the story doesn’t end there: by the power of God Jesus was resurrected from the grave, and having conquered sin and death he showed himself to be the Saviour of the world. Jesus now reigns at the right hand of God the Father in heaven and through the presence of his Holy Spirit he makes himself known to Christians as our Redeemer, Lord, Mediator, and Friend. Isaiah 52:13-53:12; John 1:1-18; John 14:5-14; Acts 4:12; Philippians 2:5-11; 1 Peter 2:24.
Adoption, Justification & Sanctification
When we sinners respond to God’s gracious invitation to put our faith (that is, our personal trust) in Jesus as our Saviour, three things happen: Adoption, Justification, and Sanctification. These three things are what it means for Christians to be saved.
We believe that Adoption is our loving heavenly Father’s generous act whereby he reconciles alienated and estranged sinners to himself through Christ such that they become beloved children of God. Formerly orphaned by sin, we now enjoy a joyful, loving relationship with God as our heavenly father. God forever brings his adopted children into the family of faith, the Church (the sign of which is Holy Baptism). Through adoption into God’s family Christians are made co-heirs with Christ and guaranteed a heavenly and eternal inheritance. Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:3-7; 1 John 3:1-10.
Justification means being declared righteous; that is, in right-relationship with God. Justification is God’s gracious once-for-all-time declaration that repentant sinners are in right-relationship with himself – not on the basis of our good works, but on the basis of Jesus’s sinless life and obedience, his substitutionary death and his triumphant resurrection on our behalf. We are therefore justified by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 5:1-2; Galatians 2:15-16.
Sanctification is the ongoing action of God by which a follower of Jesus is changed over time to be more like him in holiness and godly character. This is done through the power of God’s in-dwelling Holy Spirit who convicts Christians of sin, brings us to confess sin and receive forgiveness, woos the affections of our hearts, shapes us in holy living, and empowers us to perform the good works that God has prepared for us to do. Leviticus 19:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14.
The Church
We believe that the church catholic (which means universal) is made up of all who have trusted in Jesus for their salvation and are spiritually united to him by the Holy Spirit. The Church is made visible where the Word of God is faithfully preached and where the Sacraments are rightly administered. New Song is a local body of the Church that is gathered by God’s grace and built up by his Word and Holy Spirit as we encounter again and again the Good News of Jesus. Matthew 28:16-20; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27; Ephesians 2:20-22.
The Bible
We believe that the Bible, made up of the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, is God’s Word written by human authors and contains all things necessary for salvation. Because the Bible is God-breathed (which is to say, inspired), it is the final source of authority for Christian belief and living and is wholly true and trustworthy. Psalm 119:33-40; 2 Timothy 3:16.
The Sacraments
Sacraments are outward and visible signs and seals of God’s inward spiritual grace, instituted by Jesus to strengthen and confirm our faith through the power of the Word and Holy Spirit. There are two Sacraments: Baptism and The Lord’s Supper.
Baptism is administered with water in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is a sign and seal of being cleansed from sin, united to Jesus’ death, and being raised to new life in Christ. It is a one-time event, whether it happens during infancy or adulthood. The saving grace of Baptism is received through faith in Jesus Christ. John 3:5; Romans 6:1-5; Titus 3:4-7; 1 Peter 3:21-22.
The Lord’s Supper (also called Holy Communion or the Eucharist) is a remembrance of Christ’s once-for-all sacrifice upon the Cross ministered through Jesus’ chosen means: bread and wine. We believe that Jesus Christ is truly present to us in the Supper, and that through the consecrated elements of bread and wine we, through faith, are made partakers of his life-giving Body and Blood in a heavenly and spiritual way. All baptized Christians, with penitent hearts and lively faith of any denomination, are welcome to partake in the Lord’s Supper with us at New Song. Matthew 26:26-29; John 6:53-58; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32.
Kingdom Come
We believe that Christ will come again to fully realize his glorious Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, where God will renew his creation and dwell with his people forever. Though the time of Christ’s return is known only to God the Father, Christians are called to faithfully await their Saviour’s imminent return. Isaiah 65:17-25; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 21:1-8.
Upon Christ’s return all human beings will be bodily resurrected and stand for judgement before Christ’s throne. Those who have rejected God’s gift of salvation in Christ will be eternally separated from him, but those who have received Christ in faith will dwell with their God in his Kingdom for eternity. Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:31-46; Revelation 20:5-15.
The Jerusalem Declaration
The Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON), which was held in Jerusalem in June 2008, gathered over 1100 delegates from Anglican churches all around the world (representing nearly 35 million Anglicans worldwide) to reaffirm the authority of Scripture and historic Anglican belief and practice. GAFCON has become a spiritual renewal movement within global Anglicanism and serves to promote and preserve the truth and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit:
We, the participants in the Global Anglican Future Conference, have met in the land of Jesus’ birth. We express our loyalty as disciples to the King of kings, the Lord Jesus. We joyfully embrace his command to proclaim the reality of his kingdom which he first announced in this land. The gospel of the kingdom is the good news of salvation, liberation and transformation for all. In light of the above, 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Questions? Pastor Creighton would love nothing more than to talk theology over a cup of coffee. Send him an email.