Our Belief Statement
The Church is the Body of Christ; conceptions of the nature and essence of the Church have varied throughout Christian history as man has sought to respond to the presence of the risen Lord in the congregation.
Guidance to the conceptual expression of the Church Universal within this Fellowship is found in "Our Distinctive".
We do hereby affirm that the Christian unity...can be restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Universal Church during the first ages of its existence; which principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men.
As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore as essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of Christendom, we account the following, to wit:
Guidance to the conceptual expression of the Church Universal within this Fellowship is found in "Our Distinctive".
We do hereby affirm that the Christian unity...can be restored only by the return of all Christian communions to the principles of unity exemplified by the undivided Universal Church during the first ages of its existence; which principles we believe to be the substantial deposit of Christian Faith and Order committed by Christ and his Apostles to the Church unto the end of the world, and therefore incapable of compromise or surrender by those who have been ordained to be its stewards and trustees for the common and equal benefit of all men.
As inherent parts of this sacred deposit, and therefore as essential to the restoration of unity among the divided branches of Christendom, we account the following, to wit:
- The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the revealed Word of God... "containing all things necessary to salvation," and as being the rule and ultimate standard of our faith.
- The two Sacraments, -Baptism and the Supper of the Lord, - ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution and of the elements ordained by Him.
