The GOSPEL is the story of who God is and what he’s done to heal the world. He is the hero of the story, not us. Yet he generously invites us to participate in what he's doing.
We need to continually RECEIVE and RELEASE this good news, not just once but again and again. It’s a lot like breathing: we need a continual rhythm to keep us healthy and whole.
As we do this, we trust that holistic HEALING will spring up. It begins with the healing of our relationship with God, then overflows into the healing of our relationships with one another, creation, and even ourselves.
In all of this, we walk TOGETHER, because we know that we see God's face through the faces of others. The church can surely hurt us, but she is also a way that God brings his healing.
Clarity in positions that are central to historic Christian faith
Charity in postures towards people, especially those who disagree in debatable matters
We desire to receive the faith taught by Christ, revealed in the Scriptures, handed down from the first apostles, and embraced by the church for 2,000 years. With Christians everywhere, we affirm our belief in historic Christianity as summarized in the two historic creeds: the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. These creeds summarize the Biblical witness to who God is and what he is doing, and serve as our framework for interpreting the Scriptures.
Scripture speaks clearly to more than just what’s contained in the Creeds. As a church rooted in the Anglican tradition, we affirm the Thirty-Nine Articles as the historical confession of our belief. A few key beliefs from the Articles are highlighted in our IAC Affirmations. To go deeper, we recommend the Jerusalem Declaration as an expression of the belief of our global Anglican family and the ACNA Catechism as a more robust summary of what Anglican Christians believe.
Sometimes, Scripture does not speak clearly to something we care deeply about. Examples might include political affiliation, scientific understandings of origins, the particularities of baptismal practice, and more. At IAC, we seek to be “simply Christian,” welcoming a diversity of opinion on unclear topics, and encouraging charity and mutual understanding where secondary beliefs differ. We actively practice staying in the room with difference, seeking fruitful dialogue rooted in what God has clearly revealed in Scripture.