What Do We Believe?

In this portion of our website, we’d like to invite you to learn more about the two predominant Christian traditions that our chaplaincy represents, the Episcopal Church and the Lutheran Church.  These two expressions of protestant Christianity are quite similar in many ways, and a little different in others.  Both proclaim their faith in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as described in the historical Christian Creeds.  Both have their historical roots in the Catholic church, but became separate denominations during the Reformation.  Both have a distinct identity as American Christian denominations, although both also are members within international fellowships of Christianity: the Episcopal Church being part of the Anglican Communion and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America being part of the Lutheran World Federation.

Dating back to our 16th century Anglican heritage, the Episcopal Church recognizes three sources of authority as we seek to know Christ and serve God’s mission in the world: the authority of Scripture, as revealed in the Bible and interpreted in each generation; the authority of Reason, a gift given to humanity for the purposes of reflecting on our experience of the world in light of our knowledge of God; and the authority of Tradition, the historical Christian Church’s teachings and the wisdom of our ancestors going back to the days of Jesus.  These pillars of Scripture, Reason and Tradition serve as a “three legged stool” of authority upon which we can embrace a faith that is both historical and evolving.

Today, Episcopalians seek after the Holy Spirit and attempt to become disciples of Jesus in our own historical moment, we try to balance these three sources of information and authority in making decisions about how we respond to what we see as God at work in our world.

Lutherans trace our core belief structure back to Martin Luther, a 16th century Augustinian monk who found that his experience of God no longer matched the teachings of his church.  Today we still proclaim his famous tenant “sola Gratia, sola Fide, sola Scriptura”  (only Grace, only Faith, only Scripture) at the heart of our discipleship and worship.  As we listen for God’s call to us today, we do so with a belief in the abundance of God’s Grace far beyond our own abilities to earn God’s favor, the importance of a deep faith in the forgiveness for sin offered by Christ, and the priority of the Bible as the standard by which teachings can be measured.  We believe that the good works that we do are in response to God’s wondrous love and generous grace, through Jesus Christ.  Having been born out of a movement of Reformation, we continually seek to obey the gentle nudging of the Holy Spirit to help us grow and change as we strive to re-form our church in every generation.

Want to know more about what Episcopal and Anglican Christians believe?  Check out these links:

http://www.stjohnsroslyn.org.nz/guide_to_the_anglican_church.html

Want to know more about Lutheran beliefs and practices?  Check out these links:

http://www.elca.org/communication/brief.html
http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/denominations/lutheranism.htm