About us
Our faith
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'The most important decision any person can ever make is to become a disciple of Jesus Christ. It’s the best thing anyone can do.' Archbishop Justin Welby |
What is our faith?
We’re a Christian church who believe in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit: three in one and one in three. No-one fully understands this but we do understand that the God we worship loves each of us unconditionally. Jesus tells us that the way to the love of the Father is through him:
‘Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’
John 14:6
We also know that Jesus died for our sins so that, when we die, we don’t perish but are with him:
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
John 3:16
‘God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.’
1 John 4:8b-12
That’s ultimate love: Jesus took on all our sins, conquered death and so opened the way to God.
Love is the basis of our relationship with God: we know that God loves each one of us so deeply that we can’t fully comprehend it; that’s every single person, whether we know him or not. However, once we acknowledge God’s love for us, we can start to grow in love:
‘15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.’
1 John 4:15-16
Faith is about believing in something you can’t scientifically prove. As we grow in faith, we want to become more like our Father, which means showing that love to others.
If you would like to know more about our faith and what we believe, have a look here:
https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/what-we-believe
Why do we go to church?
Praising God or coming to him to ask questions is what we do, whether we’re in church or not: it’s part of our everyday life, whether it happens to be praising him for the beauty of his creation, thanking him for a little miracle we’ve just experienced, asking him for someone to be healed or a myriad of other things; this is worship. Part of our faith is coming together as the family of Christ to worship God together. Services include songs of worship (from ancient to the most modern), prayers, teaching and learning from the Bible and moments of stillness to just be with God. Some services also include communion, which is a way of celebrating and remembering that Christ gave his body and blood (his life) for us. On the night before he died, he broke bread and drank wine with his disciples and asked them to remember him through this act. Through all this we meet with Jesus and strengthen our relationship with him and the Father.
Being part of a service means that we can also learn from one another: we can discuss what we’ve heard and interpreted and what God has been saying to each of us or doing in our lives. Getting to know one another means that we can support one another through tough times, such as serious illness, hardship or difficulties in any area of life: God never promised following him would be easy but it’s much easier to go through tough times with God by our side and our church family behind us!
If you’d like to know more, have a look here:
https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/going-church
How does our faith show?
As we develop our faith and learn from those around us, we want to become more like God; more like love. This means showing love for those around us. This is not always easy! We often get it wrong: having a faith doesn’t mean we’re perfect: it means that we can go to God and ask for forgiveness. If we’re truly sorry, we’re forgiven. Part of being forgiven means that we try not to get it wrong again so it definitely doesn’t mean we can keep on doing wrong and being forgiven!
If we’re learning to be like the perfect love that is God, it means that the things which are important to him are important to us: look at what Jesus says about it:
‘28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
29 ‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” 31 The second is this: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these.’’
Mark 12:28-31
Everything we do and say is based around loving God and loving each other. Loving God is what we do all day every day in different ways. Loving each other is about showing our love for those we know and those we don’t. For more about how we show our love for each other in mission, please visit our Mission page.
To know more about our faith, have a look here:
https://www.churchofengland.org/our-faith/faith-action/living-out-our-faith
Created by HJF 05 November 2023
