COVENANT 3 – OUR CONFESSION OF FAITH
We trust in the One Living God, present in all reality, the Source of all creation and creativity.
We experience this Creator God in a way that transcends hate, injustice, conflict, sickness and death.
We recognize the True Presence and work of the Living God throughout the entirety of creation.
We accept that Jesus is the Christ, the Child of the Living God and the manifestation of God’s healing, reconciliation, transformation, peace, love and justice.
We experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, as the dynamic action of the Living God, present in all of life and freely offering love, justice, peace, healing and life more abundantly to everyone.
We acknowledge that the Living God can be revealed through canonical and non-canonical writings, sometimes referred to as Holy Scripture, in church tradition, human reason, life experience, nature, music and in many forms of creative expression.
We affirm that the Spiritual Experience of a life of prayer, worship and spiritual nurture, of communion with God, and the eternal family of God, is central to becoming and sustaining the Commonwealth of God.
We share in the Unbroken Apostolic Tradition of preserving the best aspects of Christian wisdom and practice and of calling out particular people for service and leadership, for teaching and proclamation, for healing and justice, and for the ministry of the Sacraments.
We believe that everyone is called by God to gather together as a faith community, the One True Church, undivided by human boundaries, doctrines, organizational schemes, prejudices, languages and cultures, to share in the creation of God’s Commonwealth. This community, in Christian Tradition, is also referred to as the Body of Christ, the collective presence of the living, resurrected Christ in the world.
We celebrate the Grace of the Sacraments, the visible signs of God’s blessing of birth, rebirth, of joining in love, of reconciliation, of health and healing, of loving service, of transformation from death to life eternal, and all expressions of the presence and action of God in life and lives, and commit that they should freely and without qualification be made available to everyone.
We expect that the Living God will work through the Body of Christ and human creativity to transform life and culture into the Commonwealth of God, the manifestation of love, peace and justice.
We thank God for giving all people a share in the priesthood of Christ, and empowering each person with the ability to become God’s child, to directly experience God’s reconciliation, love and justice without any human intermediary or impediment. All Christians are called into the ministry of healing, reconciliation, justice, worship and witnessing to the Good News of Christ.
We affirm the equality of every person in life, faith, sacrament and service, regardless of age, ability, race, sexuality or gender, appearance, culture, vocation, soci-economic status, or theological opinion. We recognize the four orders of the priesthood: laity, deacons, presbyters, and bishops all working together to manifest the Commonwealth of God.
We celebrate the eternal Cloud of Witnesses to the grace of God and the power of faith. These eternally living witnesses include Mary the Mother of Jesus and all the Holy Ones of the Church and God’s people throughout the ages.
We know that True Faith is simply trust in the reality of the living, loving God active in the world and experienced throughout human history, but particularly and uniquely in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and it is not merely the ritual or intellectual acceptance of any particular creed, formula, dogma, or theology.
Above all we understand that the essence of God’s Law is: “‘Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”