WHAT WE BELIEVE

Essential Beliefs

The Christian Episcopal Church of North America is determined to be a “principled” jurisdiction first, and be only secondly a “issue-driven” organization. We believe:

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, And of all things visible and invisible: And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God; Begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God; Begotten, not made; Being of one substance with the Father; By whom all things were made:

Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, And was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, And was made man: And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried: And the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures: And ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of the Father: And he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead; Whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost, The Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; Who spake by the Prophets: And I believe one Catholic and Apostolic Church: I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins: And I look for the Resurrection of the dead: And the Life of the world to come. Amen.

The 39 Articles

The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are found on page 603 of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer.

Affirmation of Belief

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

We, the Most Reverend Archibald Donald Davies, B.A., S.T.B., S.T.M., D.D., duly consecrated the Fourth Bishop of the Diocese of Dallas, First Bishop of the Diocese of Fort Worth, Bishop of the Convocation of the American Churches in Europe, First Lord Bishop of Richmond and First Metropolitan and Primate of the Christian Episcopal Church of Canada:

Greeting:

Having assembled for the purpose of affirming that we believe:

1) The Holy Word of God to be Divinely inspired and profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness ( I Timothy 3; 16);

2) One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church; Christ being the Head Whose ministry descended equally upon His Apostles and their successors, His Bishops;

3) There are three Creeds of the Ancient and Apostolic Church we hold to be faithful to the teaching of Christ and His Undivided Church; Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian;

4) The anciently taught and Catholic tradition of Apostolic Succession to be restricted to males as a sacrament of the Undivided Church;

5) That Holy Matrimony is a Sacrament and sacred union of one man to one woman entered into faithfully according to God’s Holy Ordinance for life.

These things we hold to be inviolate, and welcome dialogue with those who affirm the same. The following men who have signed this document and the attached solemn declaration were duly consecrated under Our hands in accordance with the Ordinal of the historic Book of Common Prayer.

Signed the 5th December 2003, at Fort Worth, Texas.

The Most Reverend A. Donald Davies
The Right Reverend Theodore Chris Casimes
The Right Reverend Robert Forbes Waggener
The Right Reverend Scott Douglas de Hart
The Right Reverend Timothy Brady Farmer
The Right Reverend Robert David Redmile

A copy of this affirmation has been signed by The Right Reverend Terry Lee Landsgaard. The Right Reverend Jon Mark Lindenauer, The Christian Episcopal Church USA, has stated his intent to also sign this affirmation.

The Fort Worth Declaration

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

We, the Most Reverend Archibald Donald Davies, and those Bishops who have hereunto subscribed their names, hereby make the following Solemn Declaration:

We declare ourselves to be in communion one with another, as members of the One Body of Christ, united under the One Divine Head and in the fellowship of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, holding the One Faith revealed in Holy Writ, and defined in the Creeds as maintained by the undivided primitive Church in the undisputed Oecumenical Councils: receiving the same Canonical Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as containing all things necessary to salvation; teaching the same Word of God; partaking of the same Divinely ordained Sacraments, through the ministry of the same Apostolic Orders, and worshipping One God and Father through the same Lord Jesus Christ, by the same Holy and Divine Spirit Who is given to them that believe to guide them into all truth.

And we are determined by the help of God to hold and maintain the Doctrine, Sacraments, and Discipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded in His holy Word, and as the Church of England hath received and set forth the same in the Book of Common Prayer of 1662; and the Articles of Religion of 1562; and to transmit the same unimpaired to our posterity.

Signed the 5th December 2003, at Fort Worth, Texas.

A copy of this declaration has been signed by The Right Reverend Terry Lee Landsgaard. The Right Reverend Jon Mark Lindenauer, The Christian Episcopal Church USA, has stated his intent to also sign this declaration.